Of Hungarian-Jewish origin, Ligeti made his career in Hungary until 1956, when he escaped to Vienna, there to be influenced by contact with more experimental
Western techniques of composition, notably with work at the electronic studios in Cologne. His music now achieved a wider international reputation, incorporating
contemporary techniques and experiment in a musical idiom that has proved both influential and palatable.
Keyboard Music
Ligetis piano
Etudes increased in number over the years, a product, he modestly explained, of the inadequacy of his own piano technique, works that he described as neither avant-garde nor traditional, drawing allusively on a wide variety of sources. Some of the
Etudes make extreme technical demands on the performer.
Vocal Music
Aventures in 1962 and
Nouvelles Aventures four years later, for three voices and a small ensemble, are examples of Ligetis blend of humour and seriousness.
His
Requiem, completed in 1965, makes considerable use of counterpoint and is a moving and colourful work. It was followed by
Lux aeterna, a setting of the last part of the Requiem Mass, for sixteen solo voices, in which he again makes considerable use of the technique of canon. His
Nonsense Madrigals include settings of words from Lewis Carroll.
(Keith Anderson)
