György Ligeti - Biography
György Ligeti is a famous 20th century composer well known in classical music circles. In the general public, however, his work is probably best recognized from its memorable use in Stanley Kubrick’s films 2001 - A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut.
Ligeti György Sándor was born May 28th, 1923 into a Hungarian Jewish family in Târnava-Sânmartin, Transylvania. He was the grand-nephew of violinist Leopold Auer. When he was six, his family moved to Cluj and he studied music. In 1942, he published his first work, Induló (1942). The following year he published Polifón etüd and Allegro (1943). That year, his work was interrupted by the Hungarian invasion of Northern Transylvania. The Hungarian Communist Party, under Miklós Horthy, was allied with Hitler. His younger brother was sent to Mauthausen and his parents to Auschwitz. His brother and father were killed.
After the war, Ligeti moved to Budapest and enrolled in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where he studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress. Influenced by Béla Bartók, he also studied Romanian folk music and incorporated its influence. Works from this era include Idegen földön, Betlehemi királyok, Bujdosó, Húsvét, Magány, Magos kosziklának (1946, Three Weöres Songs (1946—47), Capriccio nº 1 & nº 2 (1947), Invention (1948), and Sonate (1948/1953).
After graduating in 1949, he began teaching harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis at his alma mater. Continuing to compose, he also wrote Andante and Allegretto, Balada si joc, Lakodalmas, Sonatina and Három lakodalmi tánc (all 1950); Concert românesc, Hortobágy and Ricercare - Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi (all 1951); Haj, ifjuság and Five Arany Songs, voice and piano (both 1952); Inaktelki nóták, Pápainé and Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (both 1953); Musica ricercata (1951—1953) -- the tenth piece of Musica ricercata was banned by the authorities on account of it being decadent -- String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes (1953—54); Mátraszentimrei dalok, Éjszaka, Reggel (1955); and Chromatische Phantasie (1956). In December 1956, two months after the Hungarian revolution was crushed by the Soviet Army, Ligeti fled to Vienna where he became an Austrian citizen.
In Cologne, Ligeti met several key figures of the avant-garde including Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig which led to his adoption of contemporary styles and compositional methods. Though he shared a Cologne studio whilst the other two were making electronic music, he produced only three works in this medium, Glissandi (1957), Artikulation (1958), and a third piece, originally entitled Atmosphères (1961) but later known as Pièce électronique Nr. 3. The technical limitations of the time prevented Ligeti from fully realizing his final electronic piece (it was finally realized in 1996 by the Dutch composers Kees Tazelaar and Johan van Kreij of the Institute of Sonology). Afterward these electronic pieces, Ligeti mostly concentrated on instrumental works which often contain electronic-sounding textures.
Ligeti's work became more widely known and respected after Apparitions (1958—59). During this period, he also composed Trois Bagatelles (1961), Volumina (1961—62, revised 1966; Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes and Aventures (both 1962); Nouvelles Aventures (1962—65);Requiem (1963—65); Concertante - Cello Concerto, for Siegfried Palm and Lux Aeterna (both 1966); Lontano (1967); String Quartet No. 2, Continuum and Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet (all 1968); Two Studies for Organ - Coulée, Harmonies (1967, 1969); Ramifications (1968—69); and Chamber Concerto (1969—70).
In the 1970s, Ligeti turned away from chromaticism and increasingly concentrated on rhythm, evinced in several pieces of the decade in which he composed Continuum (1970), Melodien (1971), Double Concerto (1972), and Clocks and Clouds (1972—73). Ligeti took a teaching post at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater in 1973. Afterward he composed San Francisco Polyphony (1973—74) and Three Pieces for Two Pianos (1976). In 1978, he composed his only opera, Le Grand Macabre (1978), loosely based on Michel De Ghelderode's 1934 play, La Balade du grand macabre. The same year he composed Passacaglia ungherese and Hungarian Rock (Chaconne).
With the dawn of the new decade Ligeti again shifted his stylistic position and composed Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, Three Fantasies After Friedrich Hölderlin and Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg (all 1982); Magyar Etüdök, for 16 voices after Sandor Weöres (1983); Piano Concerto (1985—88); The Violin Concerto (1992); and the a cappella Nonsense Madrigals (1993). His three books of Études for piano (Book I, 1985; Book II, 1988—94; Book III, 1995—2001) have become better known since being published after they were recorded by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Fredrik Ullén and others. Ligeti retired from teaching in 1989.
After publishing Sonata for Solo Viola (1991—94), Violin Concerto (1992) and Hamburg Concerto for horn and chamber orchestra (1998—99, revised 2003), Ligeti’s health declined. No further vocal pieces appeared during his life after the song cycle Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (2000). Ligeti's last published original work is the eighteenth piano etude of Canon (2001). Ligeti died in Vienna on June 12, 2006 at the age of 83. His funeral was held at the Vienna Crematorium at the Zentralfriedhof.
