Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Atmospheres”

Hey everyone,

“Atmospheres” is an orchestral work based entirely on timbral and textural manipulations, as opposed to owing inception to a melodic or rhythmic motif. Regardless of your compositional voice, I think “Atmospheres” is a fantastic work to study in terms of its orchestration.

Ligeti places particular focus on creating clusters of sound over a period of time. He achieves this through large chords played by the entire orchestra or sectional divisi, and combinations of swift rhythms across a variety of instruments. What I must point out here is that each member of the orchestra has their own part – the violins, for instance, never play as a section in unison. Rhythmic pulse is devolved from this composition; instead, Ligeti offers us a myriad of sounds tha evolve over time.

The sonic evolutions are achieved through a variety of means. Increasing and decreasing dynamics over various parts highlights various components of each sound. Occasionally, rhythmic separations within a section will be used to create new colours. Furthermore, Ligeti may spontaneously stop one sound and produce a vastly different sound in its place. It seems reminiscent of a sound artist fiddling away at the knobs of  a synthesiser.

However, the most remarkable thing I found about this work was that despite the almost revolutionary nature of this composition, and Ligeti’s purposeful avoidance of thematic material (melodic or otherwise), the work is based entirely on the two most used tools in a composer’s toolkit: variation and contrast!

Timothy

Gyorgy Ligeti – Continuum fur Cembalo

Ligeti wrote this piece in 1968, for harpsichord, as a slow motion representation and deconstruction of the human ears perception of a continuous sound. When we hear a continuous sound it is made of 18 individual sounds per second and a harpsichordist (at peak speed) can reach 15-16 notes per second.

“I thought to myself, what about composing a piece that would be paradoxically continuous sound…but that would have to consist of innumerable thin slices of salami?” _ Ligeti on “Continuum”

The score specifies that the correct speed has been reached when the piece lasts less than 4 minutes, though there are many versions circulating that last as much as 90 seconds longer. There is also versions played on piano, by two separate players and on marimba, also by two separate players, though the piece is designed for harpsichord on 2 practical levels. 1. Speed 2. No dynamics, which leads me to the next aspect about the composition itself and its musical variations.

To look at the score, on would think this piece has almost no variation but upon listening, it is quite surprising the level of musicality achieved under such restrictions. The rhythms are unchanging and constant, as well as very fast, there are no dynamics, the range is quite small and when the range does change it does so in step-wise motion making it visually uninteresting. Ligeti has maintained interest in this piece by the tension of discordant harmonies and subsequent relief of their fading, the discordance is much more prominent in this piece due to the speed, even the harpsichords lack of sustain produces resonance between successive notes of tense harmonies. Also by the use of 2 different “themes” of trilling, which is just 2 notes played rapidly (the A section) and “waves” (the B section). The B section is 3, 4 or 5 note runs, played over and over again, sometimes both hands play simultaneously and sometimes they are displaced by one note. Ligeti gives the feeling of slowing down, with these “waves” by beginning on 4 notes and expanding to 5, or speeding up by doing the opposite.

The structure of this piece is A B A B A B A

This is a fascinating piece in concept and musically. When considering the self imposed musical restraints, Ligeti has achieved a great feat in creating a  dynamic and varied piece of music with Continuum.

- Jamie

Ligeti – Etudes pour piano

EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT

Ligeti’s Etudes, in the tradition of Debussy, Chopin, Liszt etc and their piano etudes. Pretty impressive, I think Ligeti is God and we are all terribly inferior, can never hope to attain such Godfulness and in general, should all give up before we can. Ligeti can do no wrong, his work is flawless and so on.
/wittyness

So seriously, why did I put a dalek in this post? Asides the fact that Daleks are supreme, and so is Ligeti, and therefor Ligeti is a Dalek, the Dalek and “EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT” are related to my current pattern of watching whole seasons of Doctor Who at a time, and also to the first etude from this book of etudes by whats’isface…

Etude 1: Desordre

This is a study in fast polyrhythmic playing on two hands. Immediately you notice some qualities to the composition: the bass clef has five sharps as a key signature, while the treble has none. Oooh, you crazy geezer, you. Secondly, this is the instruction: “Molto vivace, vigoroso, molto ritmico, semibreve=63″. Semibreve? Seriously? Is that necessary? Crazy kids these days…

The other instruction is this *) use the pedal sparingly throughout. Play the melody legato in both hands.

The piece seems to borrow from Messiaen’s rhythmic devices, as there is no metering and the barlines, as they are, shift around (a la ol’ Reichy-chap), in fact, you could say that Ligeti is using the technique of EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT, to shift our perception of accent. Let’s look at this more closely…

First bar:

3+5. That is the additive metre in both hands, if we use 8th notes as the division on which everything is based, then we also have the following metre implied.

RH: 2+3

LH: 2+2 (3 underneath)

I suppose you could call that 2:3:5:8, which is pretty polyrhythmic, when you think aboot it. In measure 4 Ligeti adds a 4:7 meter in the treble and a 3:4(8) in the bass, with a single 8th note rhythmic displacement at the end of the phrase on the treble clef. This ingoing rhythmic and accent-based displacement creates a flowing rhythmic texture that is indeed interesting.

There is rather a lot more to discuss on this, it’s a bit like a less amazing version of Vingt Regards su le`Enfant Jesus, by Messiaen.

Etude 2: Cordes a vide

More unmetred, bar-crossing crazyness from the God among humans, Ligeti… (dedicate to Pierre Boulez?).

This is a piece that is more concerned with harmonic exploration, but is no less rhythmically complex than the last. More overlapping phrases that create a sense of counterpoint that is literal, in the sense that most of the time things are going in opposing direction, but also rhythmic counterpoint where phrases begin at various notational intersections. Ie. from bar 11 onward, Ligeti has indicated certain points that MUST align when playing, which creates a 3:2 :6 (and other) such polyrhythmic patterns.

The form of this piece is dictated by how complex the harmonic density becomes, and through dynamic-based crescendos.

Etude 3: Touches bloquees

This is neat. Diamond notehead = depress the key silently and hold
Fat notehead = depress the key, sounding the note, and hold
Fat notehead tied to diamond: depress the key, sounding the note, and hold. The sounded note is joined on to the silent note in the next bar with a tie, even if the note continues to sound.

Extended techniques that don’t involve beating the piano, inserting screws, nuts and bolts into the strings, magnetic stimulation of the strings or playing inside the piano…

The idea with this is that the blocked notes inhibit the playing of certain other notes. This creates an interlocking rhythmic pattern akin to the kotekan in Balinese Gamelan music.

The complexity of patterns gets progressively denser and denser with lots of articulations and the difficulty increases to large wholetone chords and such.

Etude 4: Fanfares

This is a study in very fast ostinato playing that crosses the entire range of the piano with the same melodic gesture. The important thing is that there are no special accents to note the beginning of the bar compared to the subdivisions. It is 3+2+3. The other hand also echoes this but with chords rather than the constant subdivision.

As the piece progresses the rhythmic divisions get more complex and again, Ligeti engages an EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT to displace the rhythms, creating a polyrhythmic quality. Then he spreads the ostinato across both hands creating more fluency, then there is the doubling and the syncopation and the oh my GOD.

Etude 5: Arc-en-ciel

So I’m sure there’s a Japanese rock guy who uses “Arc-en-ciel” in his stage name…

This is my favourite of the etudes:

*) Varying tempo: The metronome mark represents an average, the semiquaver movement fluctuating freely aroudn this average tempo, as in jazz.
**) Play all accents very clearly.

The tempo marking is “Andante con eleganza, with swing, semiquaver ca. 84.”

Genius. The result is that it is a completely notated, and stunningly elegant, jazz solo.

Again he employed the EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT, but in this example it doesn’t create a sense of dissonance, but rather a sense of fluid movement and form.

The harmony becomes increasingly more dense as the piece progresses.

Etude 6: Automne a Varsovie

This is cool, lots of ostinati again, but this time with gradual shifts (a la minimalism) in pitch material, but it is basically continual transformation of the initial material, which eventually ends up at the bottom of the piano. Viva la composition techniques.

Exterminate, exterminate.

-Vince

György Ligeti – Atmospheres

This composition is another of Ligeti’s which was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is easy to see why director Stanley Kubrick chose such a work. The surreal, intense timbres and the total lack of movement in this piece effectively portrays the deep mystery and vast atmosphere of our universe.

Although composed for a range of typical orchestral instruments, this piece is by no means your typical orchestral music. With no time signature, and indeed “no such thing as a beat in the sense of metrical pulsation”, what we hear is essentially a series of motionless, dissonant combinations of sounds which do not move in any way, and could seemingly go on forever. The best example of this occurs at the beginning of the piece, where each instrument plays one note of a five octave (yes, five octave) chromatic chord, creating a piercing yet still beautiful array of timbres.

One of the most interesting effects in this composition is created by sweeping across the strings of grand pianos. From the performance notes:

“The necessary tools are: a pair of wire brushes, thick, soft, wadded cloths, and two pairs of brushes for each player…The sweeping motions are to be performed that a soft, completely continuous and balanced sound is created, without any glissando character and without a trace of periodicity.”

As a piano player myself, I must admit I have never actually experimented with what sounds can be created from other parts of the piano, particularly the strings. Next time I find myself alone with a grand piano, I am determined to see what I can do and perhaps even incorporate these sorts of effects into my own music at some stage.

The other thing this piece has inspired me to do is watch 2001: A Space Odyssey again. When I first saw it a few years ago, the immobile music, and ultimately the film itself, infuriated me. Now that I have some background knowledge into the musical score and just what it takes to compose such a piece, I think I would perceive the film quite differently, and acknowledge the fact that although this music is bizarre, it almost perfectly achieves what it was originally intended for.

*Apologies to Shannon for putting this up after he covered it recently, but I did finish this one before I saw his post, so thought I’d put it up anyway…

- Tully

György Ligeti – Continuum for harpsichord

Do you have the sudden urge to enter a mental asylum? Then I suggest you put this composition on repeat, turn up the volume full blast, lie down and within no time a straightjacket will come flying at you. I’m possibly exaggerating here, but seriously, a few more listens and I would have gone insane.

That is not to take anything away from Continuum – it is as much brilliant as it is maddening. When I first listened I was positive I was hearing two harpsichords, maybe even more, but there is in fact only one. The piece, without key or time signature, is composed of a constant series of tones which must be played prestissimo. This furious tempo is essential. It has to be prestissimo in order to achieve the composer’s main concept of a musical ‘continuum’, where the individual notes cannot be perceived. This is perhaps why at first I thought the piece involved more than one harpsichord. The rapid playing does in fact create the effect of a constant stream of numerous tones – I would have initially said five or six at a time. But, of course, this is achieved through the tempo, the even playing and the total lack of articulation.

One of my favourite aspects of the piece is the sudden change in the middle, where dynamics and the overall intensity increases dramatically. Before this change I felt myself becoming utterly absorbed in the music, literally riding the continuum, but I was jolted awake by the beginning of this contrasting section. I can just imagine the harpsichord player hammering the hell out of the keys here, their face screwed up in unbelievable concentration. Following this brief explosion of notes comes the final section, with endless tones played in a higher register and therefore made even more jarring. Then out of nowhere, the piece stops. As the score advises, the music should be ‘torn off.’ Indeed it is.

In a similar fashion to other pieces I have written about for this blog, I cannot get the word surreal out of my mind when listening to this work. I possibly need to think of synonyms for the word surreal. But I think it sums up the piece well. Continuum takes you to a place other than your own. It emerges itself in your subconscious and stays there. It is a wonderful composition which achieves exactly what it was intended to achieve – a constant, raucous flow of music that will seemingly continue forever.

- Tully

György Ligeti – Etude no.4 “Fanfares”

...dammit

This piece is a seriously impressive technical feat. Études by their nature tend to be very technical and highly virtuosic but this piece in particular has some very tight rhythmic ideas, particular the perpetual ostinato that begs to be played continuously and mechanically. The ostinato itself is very interesting melodically.

Richard Steinitz describes the ostinato as follows:

“The ostinato comprises two identical ascending tetrachords (c, d, e, f and f#, g#, a#, b) an augmented fourth apart, whose tritonal axis is matched throughout the study by a balance of diatonic and chromatic ingredients, here favouring the diatonic and consonant.”

As is pointed out, this ostinato gives the piece a very distinct colour, and it is played throughout the piece with only octave transpositions. Combined with this constant, pulse-like ostinato is an interesting rhythm in the chords. 3+2+3. Also the piece is made even more difficult because the ostinato not only switches hands (switching the roles of the 3+2+3 chords and the ostinato) but is also marked as legato. It’s quite a mental feat really. Another very interesting aspect of the piece is that it is ridiculously dynamic, with a range from pppppppp to ffffff. (piapiapiapiapiapianissimo?). Essentially to me this piece is an amazing virtuosic feat and very interesting to listen to. Out of ideas.

Nathan

(Steinitz, Music of the Imagination, 289.)

Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna

The lyrics of this piece translate to “Let eternal light shine upon them, O Lord.” Perhaps then we could say that I listened to the music of heaven this week and Saska listened to the music of hell (or at least fell down The Devil’s Staircase)!

Ahhh… sorry about that joke, I couldn’t resist. Anyway, this week I listened to the afore-mentioned work. As Peter said in our music technology lecture, the most striking effect of this song (heh heh) is the employment of vocal entries for textural effect. In most of this piece the soloists start singing their notes alone, and hold them for a period of time underneath other vocal entries. In fact, there is only one part of this piece where most chorus members enter together (at bar 61), and this provides a striking contrast to the rest of the piece. The result of these rhythmically disunified voicings is that it creates a texture that “bubbles,” with different parts becoming prominent at different times before vanishing into obscurity.  The fact that few notes are sung in succession by one singer also makes it difficult to pinpoint individual parts, except for when they start producing a note.

I was very pleased that I was able this time to listen to the whole piece, as it showed me the advantages of this technique. It is very difficult for our ears to perceive each voice in so abstract a texture, in fact, in this way Ligeti’s music is the parrallel opposite of minimalism where you can clearly analyse each line aurally. This means that you can make subtle changes to the arrangement without it being noticeable. for instance, without the score I would not have known that between bars 22 and 37 that the then all-female choir is expanded to include tenors. Without the score, I would not have realised that basses were singing alone at bar 38.

This brings me to my next point. Ligeti uses a technique I didn’t think of when I was writing my choral piece – he instructs the men in his choir to sing in falsetto. This probably doesn’t sound all that exciting, or even remarkable; but when he first does it, the men are singing on their own after a particularly female-dominant section. I couldn’t tell the difference in tone colour, because I was mainly concerned with the smaller texture. To an audience, this must be amazing – you would see something that would contradict what you think you’re hearing. Later, when Ligeti uses falsetto, he blends it with an alto part which doubles what the guys are singing. This gives it a richer quality.

I think what I have learned about writing music for choir in this piece is also relevant to instrumental composition

Gyorgy Ligeti- Etudes Pour Piano (Book 1)

A solo piano piece in 5 movements, Etudes Pour Piano portrays Ligeti’s masterful compositional technique, pushing the technical limitations of the pianist with unconventional non-metered rhythms, interchanging phrases and patterns and extremely precise articulations.

This is the 1st page of Movement 1, notice the lack of a time signature (though the number of quavers equal a steady 4/4 meter, this changes quickly) and the difference in key signatures in the Bass and the Treble. The first two bars indicates a strong emphasis on 2 contrasting statements (dun-duuuuun….dun-duuuuun), forming a unified phrase which becomes the basis of the entire movement.

This phrase becomes reversed in the third and fourth bar (among many other modulations later on). In the process of this, the bars in the Bass clef go out of sync with the Treble, though more precisely, the Treble drops the offbeat following the ’4′ and begins a new bar, whereas the Bass gains a new downbeat on the ’5′, thus the Treble loses a beat (1+2+3+4) and the Bass gains one (1+2+3+4+5). Ligeti is in a sense implementing the ‘phasing’ technique for the number of beats, which gives the piece a great sense of continuity and growth.

This formula remains consistent for the entire movement, along with modulation of the original ‘dun–duuun’ phrase (different note values, retrograde etc) and often the Treble and Bass parts imitate each other and swap roles.

Overall, an interesting listen and an involved study score.

Shannon