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LIGETI'S DODECAPHONIC REQUIEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2014

Jennifer Iverson
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Abstract

Ligeti has largely been understood as an opponent of serialism, though he was deeply entangled with the mid-century Darmstadt avant-garde in the late 1950s and 1960s. As such, appearances of twelve-tone techniques in his works are typically dismissed as borrowed, superficial or juvenile. This article synthesises previous research, original analysis and sketch materials to reassess Ligeti's engagement with dodecaphonic techniques. The Kyrie movement is steeped in Webernian dodecaphony, from the foundational plan to the surface expression of the vocal melodies. Ligeti's use of palindromes also harkens to Bartók's music. In this sense, the Kyrie movement of the Requiem can be understood as a eulogy for both Webern and Bartók, as well as for the dodecaphonic techniques that intrigued Ligeti even as his compositional technique moved far beyond them.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 68 , Issue 270 , October 2014 , pp. 31 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

1 Ligeti, György, ‘Pierre Boulez: Decision and Automatism in Structures Ia’, Die Reihe, 4 (English ed., trans. Black, Leo, 1960), pp. 36–62Google Scholar.

2 Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation with Peter Varnai, Josef Hausler, Claude Samuel, and Himself (London: Eulenberg, 1983), p. 29Google Scholar.

3 Ligeti, Träumen Sie im Farbe? György Ligeti im Gespräch mit Eckhard Roelcke (Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 2003), pp. 94–6Google Scholar.

4 Steinitz, Richard, György Ligeti: Music of the Imagination (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003), pp. 76–7Google Scholar; see also Toop, Richard, György Ligeti (London: Phaidon, 1999)Google Scholar; Lobanova, Marina, György Ligeti: Style, Ideas, Poetics, trans. Shuttleworth, Mark (Berlin: Verlag Ernst Kuhn, 2002)Google Scholar.

5 Paul Driver, ‘György Ligeti: Innovative Composer of Genius’, The Independent (13 June 2006). See also Paul Griffiths, ‘György Ligeti, Central European Composer of Bleakness and Humor, Dies at 83’, New York Times (13 June 2006); Stephen Plaistow, ‘György Ligeti: Obituary’, The Guardian (13 June 2006); Mark Swed, ‘György Ligeti, 83: A Mercurial Composer who Despised Dogmas’, Los Angeles Times (13 June 2006).

6 See Sallis, Fridemann, An Introduction to the Early Works of György Ligeti (Cologne: Studio, 1996), pp. 204–20Google Scholar. The movement is subtitled ‘Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi’, and also bears a strong relationship to the fugue from Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, with its chromatic subject and entries disposed in a circle-of-fifths scheme.

7 Ligeti, György, ‘Metamorphoses of Musical Form’, Die Reihe, 7 (English ed., trans. Cardew, Cornelius, 1965), p. 14Google Scholar; Bauer, Amy, Ligeti's Laments: Nostalgia, Exoticism, and the Absolute (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 35–42Google Scholar; Floros, Constantin, György Ligeti: jenseits von Avantgarde und Postmoderne (Vienna: Lafite, 1996), p. 88Google Scholar; Frobenius, Wolf, ‘György Ligeti und der Serialismus’, Zwischen Volks- und Kunstmusik: Aspekte der Ungarischen Musik (Saarbrücken: Pfau, 1999), pp. 162–7Google Scholar; and Lobanova, György Ligeti, pp. 42–3.

8 Levy, Benjamin, ‘Shades of the Studio: Electronic Influences on Ligeti's Apparitions’, Perspectives of New Music, 47/2 (2009), pp. 59–87Google Scholar; Iverson, Jennifer, ‘Shared Compositional Techniques between György Ligeti's Pièce électronique Nr. 3 and Atmosphères’, Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, 22 (2009), pp. 29–33Google Scholar; Iverson, ‘The Emergence of Timbre: Ligeti's Synthesis of Electronic and Acoustic Music in Atmosphères’, twentieth-century music, 7/1 (2010), pp. 61–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 On whether Nono's use of the chromatic scale as a row is ‘impoverished’, see Ligeti, ‘Metamorphoses’, p. 6.

10 Bernard, Jonathan, ‘Rules and Regulation: Lessons from Ligeti's Compositional Sketches’, in György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, ed. Duchesneau, Louise and Marx, Wolfgang (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011), p. 161Google Scholar.

11 See Ligeti, György, ‘Mein Kölner Jahr 1957’, in Lichtenfeld, Monika (ed.), Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 2 (Mainz: Schott, 2007), pp. 29–32Google Scholar; Ligeti, Träumen Sie im Farbe?, 82–100.

12 Wilson, Charles, ‘György Ligeti and the Rhetoric of Autonomy’, twentieth-century music, 1/1 (2004), pp. 5–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Frisius, Rudolf, ‘Personalstil und Musiksprache: Anmerkungen zur Positionsbestimmung György Ligetis’, in György Ligeti: Personalstil—Avantgardismus—Popularitat, ed. Kolleritsch, Otto (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1987), pp. 179–203Google Scholar.

13 Wilson, ‘Rhetoric of Autonomy’, pp. 7–8; pp. 11–12. Bourdieu, Pierre, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)Google Scholar. Seth Brodsky argues that the neither/nor stance is symptomatic of the mid-century avant-garde and of Adorno's thought in particular (‘Utopian Strain: Ambivalent Absolutes in European Composition 1968-2001’ (PhD diss., Eastman, 2007), pp. 110–47).

14 Steinitz, György Ligeti, p. 146; Lobanova, György Ligeti, p. 115.

15 See Jane Piper Clendinning, Contrapuntal Techniques in the Music of György Ligeti, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1989), pp. 126–139; Clendinning, ‘Structural Factors in the Microcanonic Compositions of György Ligeti’, Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945, (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995), pp. 229–256Google Scholar; Dibelius, Ulrich, György Ligeti: Eine Monographie in Essays (Mainz: Schott, 1994), pp. 84–106Google Scholar.

16 See Drott, Eric, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony: Ligeti's Kyrie and the “Crisis of the Figure”’, Perspectives of New Music, 49/1 (2011), pp. 4–46Google Scholar for a chronicle of the critical reception and hermeneutic readings given to the piece, which often invoke images of mobs, society, and the individual's place in humanity. See also Drott, ‘Agency and Impersonality in the Music of György Ligeti’ (PhD diss., Yale University, 2001), pp. 151–200.

17 Bernard, Jonathan, ‘A Key to Structure in the Kyrie of György Ligeti's Requiem’, Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stifting, 16 (2003), pp. 42–7Google Scholar; Bernard, ‘Rules and Regulation’, p. 161; Lobanova, György Ligeti, p. 120; Steinitz, György Ligeti, p. 147.

18 Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, p. 27.

19 Bernard, ‘A Key to Structure’, p. 44; Bernard, ‘Rules and Regulation’, p. 163.

20 The adjacency interval series (AIS) is ordered pitch-class intervals between adjacent pitch classes. A prime-retrograde inversion relationship exists when the AIS appears as a retrograde. See Roig-Francolí, Miguel, Understanding Post-Tonal Music (New York: McGraw Hill, 2008)Google Scholar, p. 77, p. 172.

21 Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, pp. 21–4; Cavallotti, Pietro, ‘Sul rapporto tra “Formstellung” und “Satztechnik” nel Requiem di György Ligeti’, Rivista internazionale di musica sacra, 20/1 (1999), pp. 279–320Google Scholar, esp. pp. 308–10; Lobanova, György Ligeti, pp. 120–23; Michel, Pierre, György Ligeti, 2nd ed. (Paris: Minerve, 1995), pp. 68–9Google Scholar.

22 In the following examples, I presume the note is natural unless it is preceded immediately by an accidental. In his score, Ligeti tends to preface each note with a sign, but there simply was not enough space to carry out that notation here.

23 For more on the registral implications, see Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, pp. 22–6.

24 Cavallotti, ‘Sul rapporto’, p. 307; Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, pp. 20–22.

25 Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, p. 22.

26 Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, p. 16; Steinitz, György Ligeti, p. 146; Lobanova, György Ligeti, p. 120.

27 Amy Bauer, ‘Compositional Process and Parody in the Music of György Ligeti’ (PhD diss., Yale University, 1997), pp. 102–5; Cavallotti, ‘Sul rapporto’, pp. 305–8; Drott, ‘Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony’, pp. 10–12; Floros, György Ligeti, p. 110; Lobanova, György Ligeti, p. 123; Salmenhaara, Erkki, Das musikalische Material und seine Behandlung in den Werken Apparitions, Atmosphères, und Requiem von György Ligeti (Regensburg: Bosse, 1969)Google Scholar, p. 154.

28 Bernard, ‘A Key to Structure’, pp. 42–7. A facsimile of the sketch can also be found in György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, p. 177.

29 Bernard, ‘Rules and Regulation’, pp. 166–7; Cavalotti, ‘Sul rapporto’, pp. 311–12; Bauer, Compositional Process, pp. 106–7.

30 Ligeti, ‘Formtendenzen bei Webern [1960]’, Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1, pp. 364–8Google Scholar.

31 An excellent introduction to the types of sketches in the Ligeti collection is Bernard, ‘Rules and Regulation’. A few of the sketches in question are reproduced in facsimile in the same volume (György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, pp. 178–9).

32 Bernard's ‘first version’ corresponds with my ‘fourth, fifth, sixth drafts’ in Example 9 (‘Rules and Regulation’, 165–7).

33 Bernard, Jonathan, ‘The Legacy of the Second Viennese School’, in Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern: A Companion to the Second Viennese School, ed. Simms, Bryan (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), pp. 315–83Google Scholar; Andraschke, Peter, ‘Von Webern zu Schoenberg: Stockhausen und die Wiener Schule’, Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 32/1 (1990), pp. 38–41Google Scholar; Bailey, Kathryn, ‘Coming of Age’, Musical Times, vol. 136, no. 1834 (1995), pp. 644–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Borio, Gianmario and Danuser, Hermann, eds, Im Zenit Der Moderne: Die Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 1946-1966, Vol. 1 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach 1997), pp. 213–66Google Scholar; Grant, M.J., Serial Music, Serial Aesthetics: Compositional Theory in Post-War Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 105–20Google Scholar.

34 See Stockhausen, Karlheinz, ‘Weberns Konzert für neun Instrumente Op. 24’, Texte zur elektronischen und instrumentalen Musik, Vol. 1 (Cologne: DuMont Schauberg, 1963), pp. 24–31Google Scholar; Stockhausen, ‘Structure and Experiential Time’, Die Reihe, 2 (English ed., trans. Black, Leo, 1958), pp. 64–74Google Scholar; Herbert Eimert, ‘A Change of Focus’ (pp. 29–36) and ‘Interval Proportions’ (pp. 93–9) in Die Reihe, 2 (English ed., trans. Black, Leo, 1958)Google Scholar; Pousseur, Henri, ‘Anton Webern's Organic Chromaticism’, Die Reihe, 2 (English ed., trans. Black, Leo, 1958), pp. 51–60Google Scholar; Pousseur, ‘Webern und die Theorie’, Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik, 1 (1958), pp. 38–43Google Scholar; Luigi Nono, ‘Zur Entwicklung der Serielltechnik’ (pp. 16–20) and ‘Die Entwicklung der Reihentechnik’ (pp. 21–33) in Stenzl, Jürg, ed., Texte: Studien zu Seiner Musik (Zürich: Atlantis, 1975)Google Scholar; Pierre Boulez, ‘Possibly’ (pp. 111–40), ‘Incipit’ (pp. 215–16) and ‘Anton Webern’ (pp. 293–304), in Thévenin, Paule, ed., Walsh, Stephen, trans., Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

35 Stockhausen, ‘Weberns Konzert’, p. 26.

36 Eimert writes, ‘[Webern's] mode of working is the exact opposite of total pre-determination; he does not raise patterned manipulation of material to an ideal but starts from the living seed, which contains all the possibilities that are to be made music, which controls and guides them and brings them to a wonderful florescence’ (‘Interval Proportions’, trans. Leo Black, p. 99).

37 Bernard, ‘A Key to Structure’, pp. 45–6; ‘Rules and Regulation’, p. 163.

38 Ligeti, ‘Metamorphoses’, p. 7.

39 Cavallotti, ‘Sul rapporto’, p. 306. Cavallotti also suggests that Ligeti's Grundtypus row is quite similar to Nono's row for Il canto sospeso, which is an all-interval wedge. For more on Nono's row construction see Guerrero, Jeannie Ma., ‘Serial Intervention in Nono's Il canto sospeso’, Music Theory Online, 12/1 (2006)Google Scholar and Ligeti, ‘Metamorphoses’, p. 6.

40 Ligeti, ‘Formtendenzen bei Webern [1960]’, Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1, pp. 364–8Google Scholar.

41 See Bauer, ‘Compositional Process and Parody’, p. 102.

42 Ligeti, ‘Formtendenzen’, p. 364.

43 Ligeti, ‘Formtendenzen’, p. 367. ‘Die beiden Kanons sind derart eng miteinander verwoben, dass man kaum imstande ist, sie regelrecht als Kanons zu hören’.

44 Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation, p. 14.

45 Ligeti, ‘Formtendenzen’, p. 367. ‘Die simultane Verquickung von Symmetriebildung und Symmetrieauflösung bezieht sich gleichermassen auf Melodik, Akkordik, Rhythmus und Instrumentation und manifestiert sich in sämtlichen Variationen. Gleich die erste Variation, übrigens wieder ein Doppelkanon, läuft vorwärts bis zur Mitte und von dort wieder zurück’.

46 Nono, Luigi, ‘Die Entwicklung der Reihentechnik’, Darmstädter Beitrage, Vol. 1 (1958), pp. 25–37Google Scholar; Eimert, ‘Interval Proportions’, pp. 93–99; Ligeti, ‘Über die Harmonik in Weberns Erster Kantate’, Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1, p. 401Google Scholar. Note that the row for Webern's Op. 21 shows a prime-retrograde relationship between its hexachords.

47 All of Ligeti's writings on Webern – he intended to write a book at one time – are collected in the Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1, pp. 325–412. Of particular relevance, here, are the essays that date from ca. 1960, including ‘Formtendenzen bei Webern’ (pp. 364–8), in which he discusses Op. 21; and ‘Über die Harmonik in Weberns Erster Kantate’ (pp. 395–412) in which he develops his ideas from the 1959 Darmstadt lecture notes more thoroughly. See also Christoph von Blumröder, ‘Ein weitverzweigtes Spinnennetz: Ligeti über Webern’, in György Ligeti: Personalstil-Avantgardismus-Popularitat, pp. 27–43.

48 The György Ligeti Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation has a bibliography and 175 pages (on small graph paper) of analysis and lecture notes. Ligeti focused on Webern's Symphonie Op. 21, II; Konzert Op. 24, I; Variationen für Klavier Op. 27 I and II; and Erster Kantate Op. 29, II.

49 Lendvai's axial and Golden Section analyses of Bartók's music were published in Hungary between 1947 and 1955; see Lendvai, Ernö, Béla Bartók: An Analysis of His Music (London: Kahn & Averill, 1971)Google Scholar.

50 Ligeti, ‘Über die Harmonik’, pp. 389–410.

51 Later scholars have been willing to acknowledge similarities. See Antokoletz, Elliott, The Music of Béla Bartók (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. 16–25Google Scholar.

52 Ligeti, György, ‘Meeting with Kurtág in Post-War Budapest’, Hannah, John A., trans., World New Music Magazine, 16 (July 2006), p. 71Google Scholar.

53 Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation, 88.

54 Before emigration, Ligeti had begun publishing on Bartók's music. See Ligeti, ‘Remarks on Several Conditions for the Development of Bartók's Chromaticism’, trans., Sallis, Friedmann and Finger, Zuzana, in Sallis, An Introduction to the Early Works of György Ligeti (Cologne: Studio, 1996), pp. 256–61Google Scholar; in German in Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1, pp. 295–308Google Scholar.

55 Fosler-Lussier, Danielle, Music Divided: Bartók's Legacy in Cold War Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Willson, Rachel Beckles, Ligeti, Kurtág, and Hungarian Music During the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Carroll, Mark, Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

56 Stockhausen, Karlheinz, ‘Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion’, New Hungarian Quarterly, 9/40 (1970), pp. 49–53Google Scholar; Sallis, Friedemann, ‘The Reception of Béla Bartók's Music in Europe after 1945’, in Settling New Scores, ed. Meyer, Felix (Mainz: Schott, 1998), pp. 255–6Google Scholar; Fosler-Lussier, Music Divided, pp. 38–47.

57 Fosler-Lussier, Music Divided, p. 46.

58 Boulez, ‘Béla Bartók’, in Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, p. 241.

59 Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation, p. 13.

60 Stockhausen, ‘For the 15th of September, 1955’, Die Reihe, 2 (English ed., trans. Black, Leo, 1956), p. 37Google Scholar.

61 Ligeti, Ligeti in Conversation, p. 43.

62 Wolfgang Marx, ‘The Concept of Death in Ligeti's Oeuvre’, in György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, pp. 71–84.

63 Marx, ‘The Concept of Death’, p. 75.