Ligeti the Postmodernist?

Author(s): Mike Searby

Source: Tempo, New Series, No. 199 (Jan., 1997), pp. 9-14
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/945525
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Mike Searby
Ligeti the Postmodernist?
The stylistic changes in Gy6rgy Ligeti's music
since 1960 have in some ways mirrored those in
the wider contemporary music world. In his
music of the 1960s he displays an experimental
and systematic approach to the exploration of
sound matter which can also be seen in the
contemporaneous music of composers such as
Xenakis, Penderecki and Stockhausen. In the
1970s his music shows a more eclectic approach,
particularlythe opera Le GrandMacabre(1974-7)
in which there is much plunderingof past styles -
such as allusions to Monteverdi, Rossini, and
Verdi. From this work onward there would
appearto be a complete breakfrom the approach
in his works on the 1960s.
This softening of the avantgarde, modernist
stance can also be identified in the music of
Ligeti's contemporaries,such as Berio, Xenakis,
Maxwell Davies, and Penderecki.1Ligeti's music
of the 1980s and 1990s has continued evolving
towards greater approachabilityand an almost
tonal or modal (or at least, in his words, 'non-
atonal')2 language. The general trend of con-
temporary music in the last 15 years seems to
consist of a gradualshift away from a 'modernist'
and atonal approach, towards an unashamedly
'postmodernist'and tonal one.
Stephen Taylor, in his study of Ligeti's later
music, asks some pertinent questions:
... has the new music in fact simply returnedto
Ligeti'sold style,beforehe left Hungary?HasLigeti,
in spite of all his protestations
to the contrary,gone
'retro'?3
There are some superficialresemblancesbetween
Ligeti's 'Hungarian' works, such as the String
Quartet No.1 (1953-4), and his recent music: not
least the rediscovery of Bartokian stylistic
features, particularlyin the rhythms of Ligeti's
recent compositions. Bartok's music had a pre-
1 Penderecki
hasgonemuchfurthertowardsa tonallanguage
composingin a kindof sub-Brucknerian
stylefromthe 1970s
onwards.
2 Szitha,T. 'A Conversationwith GyorgyLigeti',Hungarian
Music Quarterly,Vol 3, ptl, 1992, p.15.
3
Taylor, S., The LamentoMotif: Metamorphosis
in Ligeti'sLate
Style,DMA, CornellUniversity,1994, p.18.
eminentinfluence on Ligetiin his formativeyears:
Bartokremainedmyidoluntil1950,andhe continued
to be very important[to] me even after I left the
country in 1956.4
Ligeti himself considers that Bartok's influence
has returned in his music:
Ever since the 1980s I have experienceda kind of
return to Bartok, especially as far as the Piano
Concertois concerned.5
The resultingmusic, however, is very different to
his Bartok-tinged music of the 1950s because it
shows a synthesis of materials from the 1960s
with tonal/modal elements and new ideas. These
new ideas include Sub-Saharanand Caribbean
polyrhythms, fractal geometry (although admit-
tedly it is difficult to identify this featureclearly),
and the player-piano music of the American
composer Conlon Nancarrow. Ligeti's recent
music does show elements of past styles and his
attitudeto the avantgardeseems to have changed:
My rejection of avantgardemusic also lays me open
to attacksand accusationsof being a postmodern
composer.I don't give a damn.6
Ligeti'slatestmusicrefersto musicand approaches
of the past in some ways, but to label it as
postmodernist is misleading. To develop a full
understanding of why Ligeti (like some of his
contemporaries) has shifted towards a more
conservativeapproach,it is necessaryto consider
briefly the compositional techniques he used in
the 1960s.
Ligeti's music from the early 1960s shows a
complete destruction of traditional composi-
tional means. For example in a work like
Atmospheres for orchestra(1961), melody, harmony
and rhythm are all practicallyexcluded in favour
of texture and timbre. The harmony largely
consistsof saturatedsemitone clusters;there is no
clearly recognizable melody. This music does
show a type of polyphony described by Ligeti as
Mikropolyphonie, but this'results in a complex
4 'A Conversationwith Gy6rgyLigeti',p.14.
s Ibid., p.14.
6 Ibid., p.15.
10 Ligeti:the Postmodernist?
interweaving texture,ratherthanaudiblecounter-
point.7What can be observedin Atmospheres is
a 'razingto the ground'of past traditionsand
buildinga compositional edificewithcompletely
new foundations.
Throughoutthe 1960sit is possibleto identify
in Ligeti'smusic a refiningof the techniques
foundinAtmospheres andApparitions
fororchestra
(1958-9).Mikropolyphonie becomesa muchmore
variedand subtledevice,controllingthe whole
processandevolutionof a workin a similarway
to the compositionalprocesses found, for
example,in themusicof SteveReich.Lontano for
orchestra(1967)andLuxAeterna forvoices(1966)
are particularlysignificantexamples of this
refinedprocess.8Thereis less use of the broad
'brush-stroke' of textureand timbre,and more
relianceon arhythmiccanons.The auralresult
consistsof a slowlyshiftingcluster,startingfrom
a unisonnoteandgraduallyexpanding,ratherin
the way a fertilizedegg develops,by splitting
eachcell into two, andtheneachnew cell splits
again,ad infinitum.See Ex.1, fromLuxAeterna,
showingthe backgrounddusters:
Ex.1 bars 1- 12
bar 1 4 5
9 11
" 0 . 0 0
~~~~~~~~
Thebackground shiftingdustersdo notconsistof
simplesuperimposedsemitones,but also have
whole-tone and minor-thirdgaps. There is
thereforea greatersenseof 'harmony',although
not of traditional harmonicprogressions, as each
harmonydissolvesinto the next.Thistechnique
can be clearlyseen in the Etude'Harmonies' for
organ(1967)whichhasthevisualappearance of a
reductionto the backgroundclustersof one of
the micropolyphonic works.
It is possibleto perceivea shifttowardsmore
melodicformations,even in polyphonicworks
likeLuxAeterna. Thisfeaturecanbe heardwhere
7 Mikropolyphonieconsists of many canonic lines superimposed
but with different rhythms, producing a tight web-like
texture with a background cluster which slowly evolves.
8
Ligeti continues to use canonic structurein later works such
as MagyarEtii'dk (1983) although this uses a more traditional
rhythmic canon. The structureand process in these pieces are
explored in detail in the following article: Luminita Aluas,
'Visible and Audible Structures: Spatio-Temporal Com-
promise in Ligeti's MagyarEtud'k', Tempo179, December
1992, pp.7-17.
individual partsmove at a quicker pace than the
surroundingtexture, bringing them forward in
the perspective of the musicallandscape.Even in
the enormous web-like structures of Lontano
there are always instruments and motifs which
are more apparent to the ear; this is almost a
chance-like function of Ligeti's orchestration.If
all the instruments(or voices) are markedpp,it is
inevitable that the balancewill not be completely
equal (indeed this unevennessof balanceis almost
essential to the music, otherwise the texture
could become extremely bland and featureless).
Eachperformance/recordingof Lontano(or other
similarworks) is therefore quite distinct, because
the 'foreground'partswill never be the same;it is
not simply a matter of interpretation but is a
result of the musical language.9
The shift towards melodic writing becomes
even more clear in Ligeti's ChamberConcerto
(1969-70) and in Melodienfor orchestra(1971). In
the former work, the second movement shows
the solo instruments(horn, trombone, and oboe
d'amore) taking parts of the surroundingback-
groundtextureandplacingthem in the foreground
7 8
12
,,60 a
by slowing them down and increasingthe
dynamic;see Ex.2. Here the Mikropolyphoniehas
been magnifiedso that the lyricism of the
individuallines is audible.It showsthatLigeti's
style has evolved into a more expressiveand
arguablysubjectivelanguage.Ligetihimselfsays
concerningMelodien:
shapedpartsretaintheirindivi-
. . . the melodically
duality,theymovesimultaneously at varyingspeeds
andpossess a melodicandrhythmiclineof theirown,
varyingfromandindependent of theotherparts.In
thiswaymelodicshape,thatforbidden fruitofmodern
music,canto someextentbe restored.10
Thisworkwaswrittenin 1971;it is revealingto
observehow often Ligetihas 'bitten'into the
9 A similar
phenomenon can be seen in works like
Penderecki's Threnodyforthe victimsof Hiroshima,which uses
chance-like textures, although it is much more clearly
aleatoric in Penderecki's case.
10
Gy6rgy Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation,London, Eulenberg,
1983, p.137.
 11
LigetithePostmodernist?

Ex.2 2nd Movement bar 24

clt.
(background) x

PP

tbn. |8
b.25-6

pppp p dolce
3

- r' ,;-7'F7LqJ.I h~.I

7
hn. 6
b.26-7 _l
v
I I~ lI
vt7
--'.

I
. do no
Df
V- e
dolc
bw- I , ,

PPTP = p dolce

apparently'forbiddenfruit'of melodyover the dissonance.This can create an unnecessarily

next 25 years. restricted harmonic palette in which many
In his works of the early 1960s, however, there possible harmonies are taboo. What can be seen
is a sense in which Ligeti destroyedthe traditional in Ligeti's later works, such as the Horn Trio
elements of music such as harmony, melody, and (1983), Piano Concerto (1988) and Violin
rhythm, to allow himself to focus on the Concerto(1992),is an incrediblyrichandwide
parametersof texture and timbre.11It is hardly rangeof harmony.As Taylorobserves:
surprisingthat once his experimentsin the use of Theharmonies
[inLigeti'slatermusic]havebeenof
those parameters had been fully explored, he fourtypes:
needed to move on to new concerns. As Ligeti 1. Triads,majoror minorin firstinversion;
states: 2. 'open-fifthfields',thoughnot alwaysarranged
... creating something that already exists is not
verticallyin fifths;
3. {0, 1, 6}, which combines tritones, major
interestingforme. If somethingnewhasbeentriedout
anda resulthasemergedfromit, it is notworthmaking andfifths- alsoelaborations
sevenths, of thisset
the sameexperimentagain.12 suchas{0,1,2, 7}or{0,1, 3, 6, 7Joramajortriad
withanadded#fourth;
This meant rediscovering elements he had 4. Seventhchords- usuallymajor,minor,
previously avoided: harmony; melody; rhythm; diminishedor halfdiminished in rootpositionor
and finally thirds, sixths, triads and tonal/modal inversion.15
implications. This 'rediscovery' is not a simple Sucha breadthof harmonycreatesfor Ligetia
returnto a traditionalview of these elements, but muchmoreexpressiveharmoniclanguagewhich
an examinationof them in the light of his earlier is extendedfurtherby his use of microtonality
discoveries. or unusualtunings.These can be found in the
It is thus misleading to suggest that Ligeti's HornTrio,theViolinConcerto
(especiallywhen
latestworks are postmodernistor 'retro':he is not the ocarinasare for Strings
used), Ramifications
trying to 'rediscoverthe past', ratherhe is trying (1968-9), and Passacaglia ungherese for Harpsi-
to discover new ways of treating universal chord
(1978).
elements of music. He puts it like this: Thelatterworkusesmean-tonetemperament,
Now I have the courage to be 'old-fashioned'. I don't whichallowsthebasiceightintervals of thework
want to return to the 19th century, but I'm no longer (majorthirdsandminorsixths)to be heardinjust
interestedin such categories as avantgarde, modernism intonation.It is one of the firstworksto explore
or atonality13. . . I hate neo-Expressionismand I can't Ligeti'snew ambiguous tonalstyle;the operaLe
stand the neo-Mahlerite and neo-Bergian affectations, Grand Macabre (1974-7)alsoexplorestonality,but
just as I can't stand post-modern architecture.14 thereit is drivenby quotationandpastiche,rather
The main generalized characteristics of thanthe forgingof a new musicallanguage.The
modernistharmonyare, usually, an avoidance of Passacaglia is based on a successionof eight
tonal implication and a fairly consistently high intervals,inverted at bar 5, which form the
frameworkfor the passacaglia.These intervals
11This kind of musical areall majorthirdsandminorsixths(inversions
experimentation would not have been
allowed in Hungary in the 1950s. of each other)and containall 12 notes of the
12
Ligeti in Conversation,p.94. chromaticscale. Four pitches related by the
13'A Conversation with Gyorgy Ligeti', p.14. intervalof the perfectfourth(E, A, D, and G)
14 Ibid., 15 The Lamento
p.17. Motif, p.75.
12 Ligetithe Postmodernist?

appeartwice andseemto createa shiftingtonal ambiguousapproachto quasi-tonalharmony

centre. The progressionsof the intervallic allows Ligeti to 'play' with the listener's
frameworkseem to imply C, D, G, and F, as expectations.Thelistenerneverfeelscompletely
fleetingtonal centres.16Anotherfeatureis the on firm tonal land because the harmonic
lower voice, which outlines two chromatic background of the musicis continuallytwisting
clustersin a ratherWebernesquemanner. andturning.
Passacaglia
Unghereseis Baroquein its textural In Ligeti'snext work, the Horn Trio, it is
soundworldbutbecomesincreasingly demented possibleto see continuations
of someof the ideas
and distorted as the relatively simple and containedin the Passacaglia.Ligeti consistently
straightforward openingmusic disintegrates.It uses thirds, sixths and triads throughoutthe
beginswith a simplemelodicline, addedto the HornTrio(seeEx.3)combinedwith othermore
passacagliaat bar 5, which sometimesfits, and dissonantandatonalharmonies.The worknever
sometimescontradicts, the underlyingharmonic showsa clearsenseof tonalityotherthanin the
implication.Generallythe piecebecomesdenser mostfleetingsense,andcleartriadicformations
and more contrapuntalbefore appearingto are subvertedby the otherparts;see Ex.4.
'breakdown'on the finalpage;ratherlikeone of Inthesecondmovementtheostinatoin theleft
Ligeti'smovementsbasedon machinesandclocks handof the pianoseemsto implya combination
whicheventuallyself-destruct(forexample,the of the keysof C andG flat - a ratherBartokian
thirdmovementof his ChamberConcerto).The device - but the melodic right hand is freely
final chord in Passacagliaconsistsof a clear E chromatic,albeitwithinlocalmodalregions;see
majortriad,butthisdoesnotsoundasa tonic,and Ex.5.
the tonalityremainsenigmaticthroughout.This The otherlinkbetweenthe Passacaglia andthe

Ex.3 bars 1- 5 1st Movement Andantino

vln.

p
4if a j _,, j ^:bI: -Ff1-
v Ir I
I# -j
i--J_ I
7 i?
Ex.4 2nd Movement bars 155 - 7

m1- _I rII- - M
1

vln. Li
-Y ib
*F- - r l;?,.
I
fI
>-4 r
i - rr-
>
-- cresc. poco a poco
mp

(zr. ,A Liw iA' IL;

r . r? i-
b
.-~~7-
.--
w=
cresc. poco a poco
f ff
pft.
l A I I I I
- I

(AJ: $$# ,
.h b b- 4b ,P'_t .
0) 1= h: : ?q'r-
Ex.5 2nd Movement bars 15 - 18

A >-.
~ T. I i.t >-.

(* 7 4"r r '4
:t,
7
r
pft.~ mf
L ' v
I I L L,> ih.- , L> -

I
r 7~~~~~I
I I I LI I I 1I l
iPP-

16 The Horn Trio is that the last movement of the latter

shiftingcadencesare reminiscentof the openingof
Beethoven'sFirst Symphony,which has a similarlydis- work is also a passacaglia:one whose subject
orientingeffect. is five bars in length and which provides the
 Ligetithe Postmodernist?13

emotional and expressive climax of the work. It clear-cut, showing an apparent combination of
is also the most overtly lyrical movement, using Balkan and Latin-Americanrhythms. As Ligeti
extensively a figure described by Ligeti as the states:
'Lamento motif 17 (see Ex.6). Steven Taylor For a
great many years I have been interestedin
suggests this is a fundamentalmelodic 'signal' in asymmetricalrhythms,whichBartokcalledBulgarian
Ligeti'slater works such as the second movement rhythms... These asymmetrical rhythmicformations
of the Piano Concerto and the sixth Piano Study havebeen very muchin line with my searchfor new
(1985).18 According to Jeffery Bossin this motif rhythmic . . [Hungarian
solutions. Rock] hasa littleof
is based on the funeral laments of the women of the influenceof LatinAmericanrhythm.But it was
Siebenbiirgen.19 derivedfromthe commercialsemi-folkloreof South

Ex.6 4th Movementbars 51- 3

}
inF F Y 1> I 10
f

This significant figure is characterizedby falling and Central America and from pop music and
semitones interspersed with tones, and in the jazz.22
Horn Trio it also includes the horn's natural The basic rhythm of HungarianRockis divided
harmonics, causing a shift in the size of the into
5/8 plus 4/8, which creates a constant four-
intervals.
bar backgroundostinato in the left hand for the
The use of the chromaticline in Ligeti's music
right hand to play against. This has a clear
is not new, as it can be found in all his 1960s
relationship with Passacagliain terms of the
works, especially the Second String Quartet structuralmodel and harmonic
language, but the
which uses octave displacement to disguise the
rhythmicelementsarequite different.In Hungarian
fact. What is new in the Horn Trio is the way it
Rock,rhythmis the main driving force; Passacaglia
is used expressively, as an emotionally charged
does not have the same distinctive rhythmic
statement. There is a communication of deep
energy, although it does have a 'clock-like
melancholy and seriousness, rarely found with forward motion.
such intensity up to this point in his output.
The increased emphasisof pulse and clear-cut
Another element which has evolved is Ligeti's
rhythms can be observed in a number of
use of rhythm; much of his music has become
subsequentworks. In the Horn Trio, the second
more clearly pulse-driven from the late 1970s
movement explores asymmetric rhythms by
onwards. In the 'Farbenmusik'20 of the 1960s,
shifting the accent within the bars of 8 quavers
including such works as Lontanoand Atmospheres, to create
contrasting groupings such as 3+3+2,
it is very difficult to perceive any sense of beat
3+2+3, 4+4, or 2+3+3; but the underlying
or barline; the music is purposefully constructed
quaver pulse is never in doubt. In the third
to avoid a sense of pulse. Where a pulse can be
movement, Alla Marcia,the underlying pulse is
heard,for example in the 'mechanico'21 movements
fairly clear, although Ligeti continually confuses
such as the third movements of the Chamber
or disrupts the listener by displacing the beat,
Concerto and the Second String Quartet, it
creating an erratic 'off-beat' and slightly ironic
consists of a number of conflicting and inter-
'march'.
fering pulses which confuse the total rhythmic
Ligeti's interest in rhythmhas extended to the
result.
structures of Sub-Saharanmusic, and also the
In HungarianRock(Chaconne)for harpsichord
player-pianostudies of Nancarrow, which create
(1978), the rhythmic language is completely multilayered and multi-tempo lines. A simple
17 The Lamento
Motif, p.3.
example of the former is in the third movement
of the Piano Concerto, where Ligeti builds up
18Ibid., p.3.
two layers, articulating three crotchets against
19
Jeffrey Bossin, 'Gy6rgy Ligeti's New Lyricism and the four dotted quavers (Ex.7). Far more complex
Aesthetic of Currentness:The Berlin Festival's Retrospective
of the Composer's Career', CurrentMusicology,37/38, 1984,
combinationsof differentsimultaneoustempi can
p.237.
be seen in the sixth Piano Study - but as Keith
20 Potter points out, these different speeds can be
Literally 'colour music', where texture and timbre are more
important than the traditional parameters of music. 22Satory, S., 'An Interview with
Gyorgy Ligeti in Hamburg',
21 CanadianUniversityMusicReview, 10, 1990, p.109.
Based on clock-like, layered mechanisms.
14 Ligetithe Postmodernist?

Ex.7 3rd Movement bars 13 - 14

Vivace cantabile
A~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
vln. 1
i-- 6. 6^ 6j.:, p
^~j.^ .6 J. ;j- ^ 6j-
-0.J. -~
^j_6
poco cresc. _-- _

vla.
LJ r-
b: P6
b:- 6 Ir ir
ppp pp p

more clearly heard when they are performed by pulled apart, the next step would seem to be
separate instrumentalists/singerssuch as in the gradually to reintegrate the elements into the
NonsenseMadrigals(1988).23In general it can be new musical landscape. Where Ligeti differs
seen that rhythm has become more of a from the postmodernistsis that his 'rediscovery'
foreground component of Ligeti's language, and of past materialsilluminates them in a new and
has a clear connexion with Bartok's use of original way, whereas much of what is classified
rhythm. as postmodernistmusic seems to be attemptingto
Ligeti's approach to structure has evolved breathe life into long-dead musical corpses.
towards the use of shapes which are more Ligeti's music is postmodern in the sense that it
preformed and perhaps traditional in nature. goes beyond modernism;but it does not show the
Examplesinclude the use of passacagliastructures sentimentality or backward-looking quality of
in the finale of the Horn Trio, the Passacaglia much of what is classified as postmodernist
Ungherese, and the fourth movement of the Violin music. He has observed:
Concerto; and also the use of a simple ternary We live in an
structure in the first three movements of the modernismand even age of artistic pluralism.While
the experimentalavant-garde
Horn Trio. This approachis very different to that arestillpresent,'post-modern' artisticmovementsare
in works like Lontano,where the structuralmodel becomingmore prevalent.'Pre-modern',however,
has an almostimprovisationalcharacterwith very wouldbe a betterwordto describethesemovements,
little repetition of earliermaterial.The structures forthe artistswhobelongto themareinterestedin the
of his music up to Le GrandMacabrehave a high restorationof historicalelementsand forms.24
degree of unpredictability about them; the recent music shows that it is important
listener is never sure what is going to happen forLigeti's
him to continue to explore Mankind's
next. A good example is in the first movement of
relationship with sound and structure, which
the Chamber Concerto at bar 38, where a solo
implies looking to the future and not wallowing
violin trill opens up into a huge ED in several in the
self-indulgence of the 'musical museum'
octaves, apparentlyon a completely new tonal,
(whether this 'museum' consists of the experi-
registral,and structuraldimension.The unpredict- mentalism of the 1960s or the Romanticism of
ability in the direction of the musical discourse Wagner or
Mahler). Like Stravinsky'smusic, all
continues in Ligeti's latest music, but there are music has a distinctive individuality
also many examples showing a more traditional Ligeti's
irrespective of the particular stylistic/composi-
approach to structure, and a greater use of tional approachhe has used. This is the sign of a
repetition than in his works from the 1960s. musician who still has meaningful ideas to
It was almost inevitable that Ligeti's musical communicate to our
society.
languagewould become more conservativeafter
the sonic adventures and experiments of the
1960s. When melody, harmony, rhythm and
structure have been atomized, and apparently Musicexamples? copyrightby Schott& Co. Ltd.

24Ligeti, G., 'Ma Position comme compositeur aujourd'hui',

Contrechamps, 12/13, 1990, pp.8-9, cited in The LamentoMotif,
23
Potter, K., 'Ligeti on Ligeti', MusicalTimes,131, 1990, p.43. p. 146.