György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti (born May 28, 1923) is a Hungarian composer (now living in, and a citizen of, Austria), widely seen as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the 20th century. Many of his works are well known in classical music circles, but among the general public, he is probably best known for the various pieces which feature prominently in the Stanley Kubrick films ', The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut.

Biography

Ligeti was born in Dicsöszentmárton (now Târn?veni) and received his initial musical training in the conservatory at Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca), both in Transylvania, Romania. His education was interrupted in 1943 when, as a Jew, he was forced to labor by the Nazis. At the same time his parents, brother, and other relatives were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, his mother being the only survivor.

Related Topics:
Târn?veni - Cluj-Napoca - Transylvania - Romania - Jew - Auschwitz concentration camp

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Following the war, Ligeti returned to his studies in Budapest, graduating in 1949. He studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress. He went on to do ethnomusicological work on Romanian folk music, but after a year returned to his old school in Budapest, this time as a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis. However, communications between Hungary and the west had been cut off by the then communist government, and Ligeti had to secretly listen to radio broadcasts to keep abreast of musical developments. In December of 1956, two months after the Hungarian uprising was put down by the Soviet Army, he fled to Vienna and eventually took Austrian citizenship.

Related Topics:
Budapest - Pál Kadosa - Ferenc Farkas - Zoltán Kodály - Sándor Veress - Ethnomusicological - Romania - Folk music - Harmony - Counterpoint - Musical analysis - Communist - Radio - 1956 - Vienna

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There, he was able to meet several key avant-garde figures from whom he had been cut off from in Hungary. These included the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig, both then working on groundbreaking electronic music. Ligeti worked in the same Cologne studio as them, and he was inspired by the sounds he was able to create there. However, he produced little electronic music of his own, instead concentrating on instrumental works which often contain electronic-sounding textures.

Related Topics:
Avant-garde - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gottfried Michael Koenig - Electronic music - Cologne

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From this time, Ligeti's work became better known and respected, and his best known work might be said to span the period from Apparitions (1958-9) to Lontano (1967), although his later opera, Le Grand Macabre (1978) is also fairly well known. In more recent years, his three books of piano Études have become quite well known thanks to recordings made by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Fredrik Ullén, and others.

Related Topics:
Opera - Le Grand Macabre - Piano - Étude - Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Fredrik Ullén

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Ligeti took a teaching post in Hamburg in 1973, resigning in 1989. Since the 1980s, he has suffered from ill health, which has slowed his compositional output, though he continues to write.

Related Topics:
Hamburg - 1980s

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Ligeti has expressed fondness for the fractal geometry of Benoît Mandelbrot, and the writings of Lewis Caroll and Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Related Topics:
Fractal geometry - Benoît Mandelbrot - Lewis Caroll - Douglas R. Hofstadter

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