Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century , it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern , and included serial music , electronic music , experimental music , and minimalist music . Newer forms of music include spectral music and post-minimalism .
123-493: György Sándor Ligeti ( / ˈ l ɪ ɡ ə t i / ; Hungarian: [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor] ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music . He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time". Born in Romania , he lived in
246-403: A major triad fuses better than a minor triad and a major-minor seventh chord fuses better than a major-major seventh or minor-minor seventh . These differences may not be readily apparent in tempered contexts but can explain why major triads are generally more prevalent than minor triads and major-minor sevenths are generally more prevalent than other sevenths (in spite of the dissonance of
369-428: A C chord, there are three notes: C, E, and G. The note C is the root. The notes E and G provide harmony, and in a G7 (G dominant 7th) chord, the root G with each subsequent note (in this case B, D and F) provide the harmony. In the musical scale, there are twelve pitches. Each pitch is referred to as a "degree" of the scale. The names A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are insignificant. The intervals, however, are not. Here
492-445: A backlash against what they saw as the increasingly exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism, certain composers adopted a neoclassic style, which sought to recapture the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of earlier styles (see also New Objectivity and social realism ). After World War II, modernist composers sought to achieve greater levels of control in their composition process (e.g., through
615-421: A chord with a root, third, fifth, and seventh spelled C, E, G, and B ♭ . Other types of seventh chords must be named more explicitly, such as "C Major 7" (spelled C, E, G, B), "C augmented 7" (here the word augmented applies to the fifth, not the seventh, spelled C, E, G ♯ , B ♭ ), etc. (For a more complete exposition of nomenclature see Chord (music) .) Continuing to stack thirds on top of
738-421: A consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. In simple words, that occurs when there is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. For this reason, usually tension is 'prepared' and then 'resolved', where preparing tension means to place a series of consonant chords that lead smoothly to the dissonant chord. In this way
861-484: A major seventh interval alone (i.e., C up to B) may be perceived as dissonant, but the same interval as part of a major seventh chord may sound relatively consonant. A tritone (the interval of the fourth step to the seventh step of the major scale, i.e., F to B) sounds very dissonant alone, but less so within the context of a dominant seventh chord (G7 or D ♭ 7 in that example). In the Western tradition, in music after
984-487: A new methodology of experimental music , which began to question fundamental notions of music such as notation , performance , duration, and repetition, while others (Babbitt, Rochberg, Sessions) fashioned their own extensions of the twelve-tone serialism of Schoenberg . The vocabulary of extended tonality, which flourished in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries, continues to be used by contemporary composers. It has never been considered shocking or controversial in
1107-436: A ninth chord has five members [tonic, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9 th] , not nine.) Extensions beyond the thirteenth reproduce existing chord members and are (usually) left out of the nomenclature. Complex harmonies based on extended chords are found in abundance in jazz, late-romantic music, modern orchestral works, film music, etc. Typically, in the classical common practice period a dissonant chord (chord with tension) resolves to
1230-409: A practice that has come to be known as sonorism . From the 1970s, Ligeti turned away from sonorism and began to concentrate on rhythm. Pieces such as Continuum (1968) and Clocks and Clouds (1972–73) were written before he heard the music of Steve Reich and Terry Riley in 1972. But the second of his Three Pieces for Two Pianos (1976), entitled "Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin in
1353-423: A seventh chord produces extensions, and brings in the "extended tensions" or "upper tensions" (those more than an octave above the root when stacked in thirds), the ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This creates the chords named after them. (Except for dyads and triads, tertian chord types are named for the interval of the largest size and magnitude in use in the stack, not for the number of chord members : thus
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#17328731176791476-533: A sharp distinction. Musical historicism —the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc., whether by a single composer or those associated with a particular school, movement, or period—is evident to varying degrees in minimalism, post-minimalism, world-music, and other genres in which tonal traditions have been sustained or have undergone a significant revival in recent decades. Some post-minimalist works employ medieval and other genres associated with early music, such as
1599-500: A shift in the paradigm of computer technology had taken place, making electronic music systems affordable and widely accessible. The personal computer had become an essential component of the electronic musician's equipment, superseding analog synthesizers and fulfilling the traditional functions of composition and scoring, synthesis and sound processing, sampling of audio input, and control over external equipment. Some authors equate polystylism with eclecticism , while others make
1722-430: A young teacher, Ligeti took the unusual step of regularly attending the lectures of an older colleague, the conductor, and musicologist Lajos Bárdos , a conservative Christian whose circle represented a safe haven for Ligeti. The composer acknowledged Bárdos's help and advice in the prefaces to his two harmony textbooks (1954 and 1956). Due to the restrictions of the communist government, communications between Hungary and
1845-688: Is a similar to that of polyphony , except that the polyphony is obscured in a dense and rich stack of pitches. Micropolyphony can be used to create the nearly static but slowly evolving works such as Atmosphères in which the individual instruments become hidden in a complex web of sound. According to Ligeti, after Apparitions and Atmosphères , he "became famous". With Volumina (1961–62, revised 1966) for solo organ, Ligeti continued with clusters of notes , translated into blocks of sound. In this piece, Ligeti abandoned conventional music notation, instead using diagrams to represent general pitch areas, duration, and flurries of notes. Poème symphonique (1962)
1968-428: Is a work for one hundred mechanical metronomes during his brief acquaintance with Fluxus movement. Aventures (1962), like its companion piece Nouvelles Aventures (1962–65), is a composition for three singers and instrumental septet, to a text (of Ligeti's own devising) that is without semantic meaning. In these pieces, each singer has five roles to play, exploring five areas of emotion, and they switch from one to
2091-453: Is a work of Absurd theatre —Ligeti called it an "anti-anti-opera"—in which Death (Nekrotzar) arrives in the fictional city of Breughelland and announces that the end of the world will occur at midnight. Musically, Le Grand Macabre draws on techniques not associated with Ligeti's previous work, including quotations and pseudo-quotations of other works and the use of consonant thirds and sixths. After Le Grand Macabre , Ligeti would abandon
2214-428: Is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. The notion of counterpoint seeks to understand and describe the relationships between melodic lines, often in the context of a polyphonic texture of several simultaneous but independent voices. Therefore, it is sometimes seen as a type of harmonic understanding, and sometimes distinguished from harmony. Typically, in
2337-404: Is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. Following the tertian practice of building chords by stacking thirds, the simplest first tension is added to a triad by stacking, on top of the existing root, third, and fifth, another third above the fifth, adding a new, potentially dissonant member a seventh away from the root (called the "seventh" of
2460-461: Is an example: As can be seen, no note will always be the same scale degree. The tonic , or first-degree note, can be any of the 12 notes (pitch classes) of the chromatic scale. All the other notes fall into place. For example, when C is the tonic, the fourth degree or subdominant is F. When D is the tonic, the fourth degree is G. While the note names remain constant, they may refer to different scale degrees, implying different intervals with respect to
2583-421: Is based on a simple restriction: the first piece uses exclusively one pitch A, heard in multiple octaves , and only at the very end of the piece is a second note, D, heard. The second piece uses three notes (E ♯ , F ♯ , and G), the third piece uses four, and so on, so that in the final piece all twelve notes of the chromatic scale are present. Shortly after its composition, Ligeti arranged six of
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#17328731176792706-496: Is best known by the public through the use of his music in film soundtracks . Although he did not directly compose any film scores, excerpts of pieces composed by him were taken and adapted for film use. The sound design of Stanley Kubrick 's films, particularly the music of 2001: A Space Odyssey , drew from Ligeti's work. Ligeti was born in 1923 at Diciosânmartin ( Dicsőszentmárton ; renamed to Târnăveni in 1941) in Romania , to Dr. Sándor Ligeti and Dr. Ilona Somogyi. His family
2829-480: Is commonplace in music theory. This is usually accounted for by the replacement of horizontal (or contrapuntal ) composition, common in the music of the Renaissance , with a new emphasis on the vertical element of composed music. Modern theorists, however, tend to see this as an unsatisfactory generalisation. According to Carl Dahlhaus : It was not that counterpoint was supplanted by harmony (Bach's tonal counterpoint
2952-511: Is convention, if possible, to use each letter in the alphabet only once in describing a scale. A note spelled as F♭ conveys different harmonic information to the reader versus a note spelled as E. In a tuning system where two notes spelled differently are tuned to the same frequency, those notes are said to be enharmonic . Even if identical in isolation, different spellings of enharmonic notes provide meaningful context when reading and analyzing music. For example, even though E and F♭ are enharmonic,
3075-420: Is created using steps of the same size, producing harmonic relations marginally 'out of tune' from pure frequency ratios as explored by the ancient Greeks. 12-tone equal temperament evolved as a compromise from earlier systems where all intervals were calculated relative to a chosen root frequency, such as just intonation and well temperament . In those systems, a major third constructed up from C did not produce
3198-399: Is dedicated to Siegfried Palm , is composed of two movements: the first begins with an almost imperceptible cello which slowly shifts into static tone clusters with the orchestra before reaching a crescendo and slowly decaying, while the second is a virtuoso piece of dynamic atonal melody on the part of the cello. Lontano (1967), for full orchestra, is another example of micropolyphony, but
3321-461: Is for flute (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling oboe d'amore and cor anglais), clarinet, bass clarinet (doubling second clarinet), horn, trombone, harpsichord (doubling Hammond organ), piano (doubling celesta), and solo string quintet. He also wrote a Double Concerto for Flute, Oboe & Orchestra (1972). Most of these compositions establish timbre, rather than the traditionally-favored dimensions of pitch and rhythm, as their principal formal parameter,
3444-441: Is frequently cited as placing little emphasis on what is perceived in western practice as conventional harmony; the underlying harmonic foundation for most South Asian music is the drone , a held open fifth interval (or fourth interval) that does not alter in pitch throughout the course of a composition. Pitch simultaneity in particular is rarely a major consideration. Nevertheless, many other considerations of pitch are relevant to
3567-621: Is heard during the "Star Gate" sequence, with portions also heard in the Overture and Intermission. Lux Aeterna is heard in the moon-bus scene en route to the Tycho monolith. The Kyrie sequence of his Requiem is heard over the first three monolith encounters. An electronically altered version of Aventures , unlisted in the film credits, is heard in the cryptic final scenes. The music was used, and in some cases modified, without Ligeti's knowledge, and without full copyright clearance. When he learned about
3690-497: Is judged to detract from the whole composition can be described as disharmonious rather than dissonant. The term harmony derives from the Greek ἁρμονία harmonia , meaning "joint, agreement, concord", from the verb ἁρμόζω harmozō , "(Ι) fit together, join". Aristoxenus wrote a work entitled Elements of Harmony , which is thought the first work in European history written on
3813-454: Is one of the core concepts underlying the theory and practice of Western music . The study of harmony involves the juxtaposition of individual pitches to create chords, and in turn the juxtaposition of chords to create larger chord progressions . The principles of connection that govern these structures have been the subject of centuries worth of theoretical work and vernacular practice alike. Drawing both from music theoretical traditions and
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3936-573: Is surely no less polyphonic than Palestrina's modal writing) but that an older type both of counterpoint and of vertical technique was succeeded by a newer type. And harmony comprises not only the ("vertical") structure of chords but also their ("horizontal") movement. Like music as a whole, harmony is a process. Descriptions and definitions of harmony and harmonic practice often show bias towards European (or Western ) musical traditions, although many cultures practice vertical harmony. In addition, South Asian art music ( Hindustani and Carnatic music )
4059-558: Is the older Medieval and Renaissance tonalité ancienne , "The term is meant to signify that sonorities are linked one after the other without giving rise to the impression of a goal-directed development. A first chord forms a 'progression' with a second chord, and a second with a third. But the former chord progression is independent of the later one and vice versa." Coordinate harmony follows direct (adjacent) relationships rather than indirect as in subordinate. Interval cycles create symmetrical harmonies, which have been extensively used by
4182-415: Is usually called doubling , a technique The Beatles used in many of their earlier recordings. As a type of harmony, singing in unison or playing the same notes, often using different musical instruments, at the same time is commonly called monophonic harmonization . An interval is the relationship between two separate musical pitches. For example, in the melody " Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ", between
4305-534: The Arnold Schoenberg Choir . His ashes were buried at Vienna Central Cemetery in a grave of honor (German: Ehrengrab ). He was survived by his wife Vera and son Lukas . The latter is a composer and percussionist based in the United States. Many of Ligeti's earliest works were written for chorus and included settings of folk songs. His largest work in this period was a graduation composition for
4428-626: The Brothers Quay in In Absentia (2000) used music by Karlheinz Stockhausen . Some notable works for chamber orchestra: In recent years, many composers have composed for concert bands (also called wind ensembles). Notable composers include: The following is an incomplete list of contemporary-music festivals: Harmony In music , harmony is the concept of combining different sounds together in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain
4551-547: The Budapest Academy , entitled Cantata for Youth Festival , for four vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. One of his earliest pieces now in the repertoire is his Cello Sonata , a work in two contrasting movements that were written in 1948 and 1953. It was initially banned by the Soviet-run Composer's Union and was not performed publicly for a quarter of a century. Ligeti's earliest works are often an extension of
4674-547: The Cologne School of Electronic Music , because there was much factional in-fighting: "there were [ sic ] a lot of political fighting because different people, like Stockhausen, like Kagel wanted to be first. And I, personally, have no ambition to be first or to be important." Between 1961 and 1971 he was guest professor for composition in Stockholm. In 1972 he became composer-in-residence at Stanford University in
4797-603: The Franz Liszt Academy of Music . He studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas , Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress . He conducted ethnomusicological research into the Hungarian folk music of Transylvania. However, after a year he returned to Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, this time as a teacher of harmony , counterpoint , and musical analysis . He secured this position with the help of Kodály and held it from 1950 to 1956. As
4920-605: The Hungarian People's Republic before emigrating to Austria in 1956. He became an Austrian citizen in 1968. In 1973 he became professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg , where he worked until retiring in 1989. His students included Hans Abrahamsen , Unsuk Chin and Michael Daugherty . He died in Vienna in 2006. Restricted in his musical style by the authorities of Communist Hungary, only when he reached
5043-581: The Violin Concerto ). Additionally, most of his works in this period are multi-movement works, rather than the extended single movements of Atmosphères and San Francisco Polyphony . From 1985 to 2001, Ligeti completed three books of Études for piano (Book I, 1985; Book II, 1988–94; Book III, 1995–2001). Comprising eighteen compositions in all, the Études draw from a diverse range of sources, including gamelan , African polyrhythms , Béla Bartók, Conlon Nancarrow , Thelonious Monk , and Bill Evans . Book I
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5166-410: The additive rhythms of Balkan folk music , the music of Ligeti's youth. He described the music of Conlon Nancarrow, with its extremely complex explorations of polyrhythmic complexity, as "the greatest discovery since Webern and Ives ... something great and important for all music history! His music is so utterly original, enjoyable, perfectly constructed, but at the same time emotional... for me it's
5289-509: The chromatic scale is the minor second and its inversion , the major seventh. For typical spectral envelopes in the central range, the second roughest interval is the major second and minor seventh, followed by the tritone, the minor third ( major sixth ), the major third ( minor sixth ) and the perfect fourth (fifth). Familiarity also contributes to the perceived harmony of an interval. Chords that have often been heard in musical contexts tend to sound more consonant. This principle explains
5412-401: The indigenous music of sub-Saharan Africa . The difference between the earlier and later pieces lies in a new conception of pulse . In the earlier works, the pulse is something to be divided into two, three and so on. The effect of these different subdivisions, especially when they occur simultaneously, is to blur the aural landscape, creating the micropolyphonic effect of Ligeti's music. On
5535-530: The song cycle Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel ("With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles", 2000), and the eighteenth piano étude "Canon" (2001). The printed score and the manuscript of the Hamburg Concerto contain numerous errors and inconsistencies. The revision of the piece, realized by the Italian composer Alessio Elia and published in the book The Hamburgisches Konzert by György Ligeti , published by Edition Impronta,
5658-459: The " Introitus ", the " Kyrie " (a completely chromatic quasi- fugue , where the parts are a montage of melismatic , skipping micropolyphony), and the " Dies irae "—dividing the latter sequence into two parts, "De die judicii" and " Lacrimosa ". Lux Aeterna (1966) is a 16-voice a cappella piece whose text is also associated with the Latin Requiem. Ligeti's Cello Concerto (1966), which
5781-503: The "Oi me lasso" and other laude of Gavin Bryars . The historicist movement is closely related to the emergence of musicology and the early music revival . A number of historicist composers have been influenced by their intimate familiarity with the instrumental practices of earlier periods ( Hendrik Bouman , Grant Colburn, Michael Talbot , Paulo Galvão , Roman Turovsky-Savchuk ). The musical historicism movement has also been stimulated by
5904-543: The 'bottom drawer'. Composed of a single movement divided into seventeen contrasting sections linked motivically , the First String Quartet is Ligeti's first work to suggest a personal style of composition. The string quartet was not performed until 1958, after he had fled Hungary for Vienna. Upon arriving in Cologne, Ligeti began to write electronic music alongside Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig at
6027-464: The English style of consonance that used thirds and sixths. The English style was considered to have a sweeter sound, and was better suited to polyphony in that it offered greater linear flexibility in part-writing. Carl Dahlhaus (1990) distinguishes between coordinate and subordinate harmony . Subordinate harmony is the hierarchical tonality or tonal harmony well known today. Coordinate harmony
6150-701: The United States. In 1973 Ligeti became professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater , eventually retiring in 1989. While he was living in Hamburg, his wife Vera remained in Vienna with their son, Lukas , who later also became a composer. Invited by Walter Fink , Ligeti was the first composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1990. Apart from his far-reaching interest in different styles of music, from Renaissance to African music, Ligeti
6273-405: The United States. Some of their compositions use an ordered set or several such sets, which may be the basis for the whole composition, while others use "unordered" sets. The term is also often used for dodecaphony , or twelve-tone technique , which is alternatively regarded as the model for integral serialism. Despite its decline in the last third of the 20th century, there remained at the end of
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#17328731176796396-564: The West by then had become difficult, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the Eastern Bloc . In December 1956, two months after the Hungarian uprising was violently suppressed by the Soviet Army, Ligeti fled to Vienna with his ex-wife Vera Spitz. They remarried in 1957 and had a son together. He would not see Hungary again for fourteen years, when he
6519-519: The West in 1956 could Ligeti fully realise his passion for avant-garde music and develop new compositional techniques. After experimenting with electronic music in Cologne , Germany, his breakthrough came with orchestral works such as Atmosphères , for which he used a technique he later dubbed micropolyphony . After writing his "anti-anti-opera" Le Grand Macabre , Ligeti shifted away from chromaticism and towards polyrhythm for his later works. He
6642-573: The background)", commemorates this affirmation and influence. During the 1970s, he also became interested in the polyphonic pipe music of the Banda -Linda tribe from the Central African Republic , which he heard through the recordings of one of his students. In 1977, Ligeti completed his only opera, Le Grand Macabre , thirteen years after its initial commission. Loosely based on Michel de Ghelderode 's 1934 play, La balade du grand macabre , it
6765-558: The best music of any composer living today." In 1988, Ligeti completed his Piano Concerto, writing that "I present my artistic credo in the Piano Concerto : I demonstrate my independence from criteria of the traditional avantgarde , as well as the fashionable postmodernism ." Initial sketches of the Concerto began in 1980, but it was not until 1985 that he found a way forward and the work proceeded more quickly. The Concerto explores many of
6888-623: The century an active core of composers who continued to advance the ideas and forms of high modernism. Those no longer living include Pierre Boulez , Pauline Oliveros , Toru Takemitsu , Jacob Druckman , George Perle , Ralph Shapey , Franco Donatoni , Helmut Lachenmann , Salvatore Sciarrino , Jonathan Harvey , Erkki Salmenhaara , and Henrik Otto Donner . Those still living in June 2024 include Magnus Lindberg , George Benjamin , Brian Ferneyhough , Wolfgang Rihm , Richard Wernick , Richard Wilson , and James MacMillan . Between 1975 and 1990,
7011-412: The chord) producing a four-note chord called a " seventh chord ". Depending on the widths of the individual thirds stacked to build the chord, the interval between the root and the seventh of the chord may be major, minor, or diminished. (The interval of an augmented seventh reproduces the root, and is therefore left out of the chordal nomenclature.) The nomenclature allows that, by default, "C7" indicates
7134-440: The classical common practice period , a dissonant chord (chord with tension) "resolves" to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant when there is a balance between consonance and dissonance. This occurs when there is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. Dissonance is an important part of harmony when it can be resolved and contribute to the composition of music as a whole. A misplayed note or any sound that
7257-1208: The composer Nigel Osborne , the Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich , and the British/Australian musicologist Richard Toop , who gave currency to the concept of a movement with his article "Four Facets of the New Complexity". Though often atonal , highly abstract, and dissonant in sound, the "New Complexity" is most readily characterized by the use of techniques which require complex musical notation . This includes extended techniques , microtonality , odd tunings , highly disjunct melodic contour , innovative timbres , complex polyrhythms , unconventional instrumentations , abrupt changes in loudness and intensity, and so on. The diverse group of composers writing in this style includes Richard Barrett , Brian Ferneyhough , Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf , James Dillon , Michael Finnissy , James Erber , and Roger Redgate . Notable composers of operas since 1975 include: Notable composers of post-1945 classical film and television scores include: Contemporary classical music originally written for
7380-513: The composer ensures introducing tension smoothly, without disturbing the listener. Once the piece reaches its sub-climax, the listener needs a moment of relaxation to clear up the tension, which is obtained by playing a consonant chord that resolves the tension of the previous chords. The clearing of this tension usually sounds pleasant to the listener, though this is not always the case in late-nineteenth century music, such as Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. A number of features contribute to
7503-436: The composers Alban Berg , George Perle , Arnold Schoenberg , Béla Bartók , and Edgard Varèse 's Density 21.5 . Close harmony and open harmony use close position and open position chords, respectively. See: Voicing (music) and Close and open harmony . Other types of harmony are based upon the intervals of the chords used in that harmony. Most chords in western music are based on "tertian" harmony, or chords built with
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#17328731176797626-671: The composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig , both then working on groundbreaking electronic music . During the summer, he attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse . Ligeti worked in the Cologne Electronic Music Studio with Stockhausen and Koenig and was inspired by the sounds he heard there. However, he produced little electronic music of his own, instead concentrating on instrumental works which often contain electronic-sounding textures . After about three years' working with them, he fell out with
7749-559: The concert hall can also be heard on the music track of some films, such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), both of which used concert music by György Ligeti , and also in Kubrick's The Shining (1980) which used music by both Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki . Jean-Luc Godard , in La Chinoise (1967), Nicolas Roeg in Walkabout (1971), and
7872-592: The different methods of performance adopted: in Indian Music, improvisation takes a major role in the structural framework of a piece, whereas in Western Music improvisation has been uncommon since the end of the 19th century. Where it does occur in Western music (or has in the past), the improvisation either embellishes pre-notated music or draws from musical models previously established in notated compositions, and therefore uses familiar harmonic schemes. Emphasis on
7995-478: The effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harmonic objects such as chords , textures and tonalities are identified, defined, and categorized in the development of these theories. Harmony is broadly understood to involve both a "vertical" dimension (frequency-space) and a "horizontal" dimension (time-space), and often overlaps with related musical concepts such as melody , timbre , and form . A particular emphasis on harmony
8118-401: The electronic studio of West German Radio (WDR) . He completed only two works in this medium, however—the pieces Glissandi (1957) and Artikulation (1958)—before returning to instrumental music. A third work, originally entitled Atmosphères but later known as Pièce électronique Nr. 3 , was planned, but the technical limitations of the time prevented Ligeti from realizing it completely. It
8241-469: The entire history of music theory appears to depend on just such a distinction between harmony and counterpoint, it is no less evident that developments in the nature of musical composition down the centuries have presumed the interdependence – at times amounting to integration, at other times a source of sustained tension – between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of musical space. The view that modern tonal harmony in Western music began in about 1600
8364-903: The field of psychoacoustics , its perception in large part consists of recognizing and processing consonance , a concept whose precise definition has varied throughout history, but is often associated with simple mathematical ratios between coincident pitch frequencies. In the physiological approach, consonance is viewed as a continuous variable measuring the human brain's ability to 'decode' aural sensory input. Culturally, consonant pitch relationships are often described as sounding more pleasant, euphonious, and beautiful than dissonant pitch relationships, which can be conversely characterized as unpleasant, discordant, or rough. In popular and jazz harmony , chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. In many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern, and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension
8487-485: The first two notes (the first "twinkle") and the second two notes (the second "twinkle") is the interval of a fifth. What this means is that if the first two notes were the pitch C , the second two notes would be the pitch G —four scale notes, or seven chromatic notes (a perfect fifth), above it. The following are common intervals: When tuning notes using an equal temperament, such as the 12-tone equal temperament that has become ubiquitous in Western music, each interval
8610-520: The formation of such international organizations as the Delian Society and Vox Saeculorum . Some composers have emerged since the 1980s who are influenced by art rock , for example, Rhys Chatham . New Complexity is a current within today's European contemporary avant-garde music scene, named in reaction to the New Simplicity. Amongst the candidates suggested for having coined the term are
8733-475: The former is considered to be a major third up from C, while F♭ is considered to be a diminished fourth up from C. In the context of a C major tonality, the former is the third of the scale, while the latter could (as one of numerous possible justifications) be serving the harmonic function of the third of a D♭ minor chord, a borrowed chord within the scale. Therefore, the combination of notes with their specific intervals—a chord—creates harmony. For example, in
8856-467: The gradual historical increase in harmonic complexity of Western music. For example, around 1600 unprepared seventh chords gradually became familiar and were therefore gradually perceived as more consonant. Individual characteristics such as age and musical experience also have an effect on harmony perception. The inferior colliculus is a mid-brain structure which is the first site of binaural auditory integration , processing auditory information from
8979-692: The ideas worked out in the Études but in an orchestral context. In 1993, Ligeti completed his Violin Concerto after four years of work. Like the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto uses the wide range of techniques he had developed up until that point as well as the new ideas he was working out at the moment. Among other techniques, it uses a passacaglia, " microtonality , rapidly changing textures , comic juxtapositions... Hungarian folk melodies , Bulgarian dance rhythms , references to Medieval and Renaissance music and solo violin writing that ranges from
9102-407: The instrumentalists are not given linear freedom; Ligeti insists on keeping his texture under strict control at any given moment. The form is like a "precision mechanism". Ligeti was always fascinated by machines that do not work properly and by the world of technology and automation. The use of periodic mechanical noises, suggesting not-quite-reliable machinery, occurs in many of his works. The scoring
9225-487: The instruments in the first group tuned approximately a quarter-tone higher (four violins, a viola and a cello). As the group play, the one tuned higher inevitably tends to slide down toward the other, and both get nearer each other in pitch. In the Chamber Concerto (1969–70), several layers, processes and kinds of movement can take place on different planes simultaneously. In spite of frequent markings of "senza tempo",
9348-441: The interval of thirds. In the chord C Major7, C–E is a major third; E–G is a minor third; and G to B is a major third. Other types of harmony consist of quartal and quintal harmony . A unison is considered a harmonic interval, just like a fifth or a third, but is unique in that it is two identical notes produced together. The unison, as a component of harmony, is important, especially in orchestration. In pop music, unison singing
9471-667: The larger musical world—as has been demonstrated statistically for the United States, at least, where "most composers continued working in what has remained throughout this century the mainstream of tonal-oriented composition". Serialism is one of the most important post-war movements among the high modernist schools. Serialism, more specifically named "integral" or "compound" serialism, was led by composers such as Pierre Boulez , Luciano Berio , Bruno Maderna , Luigi Nono , and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Europe, and by Milton Babbitt , Donald Martino , Mario Davidovsky , and Charles Wuorinen in
9594-625: The left and right ears. Frequency following responses (FFRs) recorded from the mid-brain exhibit peaks in activity which correspond to the frequency components of a tonal stimulus. The extent to which FFRs accurately represent the harmonic information of a chord is called neural salience, and this value is correlated with behavioral ratings of the perceived pleasantness of chords. In response to harmonic intervals, cortical activity also distinguishes chords by their consonance, responding more robustly to chords with greater consonance. The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions
9717-509: The listener's ear determines harmony. Current dictionary definitions, while attempting to give concise descriptions, often highlight the ambiguity of the term in modern use. Ambiguities tend to arise from either aesthetic considerations (for example the view that only pleasing concords may be harmonious) or from the point of view of musical texture (distinguishing between harmonic (simultaneously sounding pitches) and "contrapuntal" (successively sounding tones)). According to A. Whittall : While
9840-457: The most influential composers in Europe were Pierre Boulez , Luigi Nono , and Karlheinz Stockhausen . The first and last were both pupils of Olivier Messiaen . An important aesthetic philosophy as well as a group of compositional techniques at this time was serialism (also called "through-ordered music", "'total' music" or "total tone ordering"), which took as its starting point the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern (and thus
9963-481: The most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time". From about 1960, Ligeti's work became better known and respected. His best-known work was written during the period from Apparitions to Lontano , which includes Atmosphères , Volumina , Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures , Requiem , Lux Aeterna , and his Cello Concerto; as well as his opera Le Grand Macabre . In recent years, his three books of piano études have also become well known and are
10086-488: The movements of Musica ricercata for wind quintet under the title 'Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet'. The Bagatelles were performed first in 1956, but not in their entirety: the last movement was censored by the Soviets for being too 'dangerous'. Because of Soviet censorship, his most daring works from this period, including Musica ricercata and his String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes (1953–1954), were written for
10209-405: The music seems to be coming from a distance, with great lyricism. The pizzicato third movement is a machine-like studies, hard and mechanical, whereby the parts playing repeated notes create a "granulated" continuum. In the fourth, which is fast and threatening, everything that happened before is crammed together. Lastly, in strong contrast, the fifth movement spreads itself out. In each movement,
10332-519: The music, its theory and its structure, such as the complex system of Ragas , which combines both melodic and modal considerations and codifications within it. So, intricate pitch combinations that sound simultaneously do occur in Indian classical music – but they are rarely studied as teleological harmonic or contrapuntal progressions – as with notated Western music. This contrasting emphasis (with regard to Indian music in particular) manifests itself in
10455-407: The musical language of Béla Bartók . Even his piano cycle Musica ricercata (1953), though written according to Ligeti with a "Cartesian" approach, in which he "regarded all the music I knew and loved as being... irrelevant", the piece has been described by one biographer as from a world very close to Bartók's set of piano works, Mikrokosmos . Ligeti's set comprises eleven pieces in all. The work
10578-405: The nature of the performance. Early Western religious music often features parallel perfect intervals; these intervals would preserve the clarity of the original plainsong . These works were created and performed in cathedrals, and made use of the resonant modes of their respective cathedrals to create harmonies. As polyphony developed, however, the use of parallel intervals was slowly replaced by
10701-411: The nomenclature as simple as possible, some defaults are accepted (not tabulated here). For example, the chord members C, E, and G, form a C Major triad, called by default simply a C chord. In an A ♭ chord (pronounced A-flat), the members are A ♭ , C, and E ♭ . In many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension
10824-466: The opera. His music of the 1980s and 1990s continued to emphasise complex mechanical rhythms, often in a less densely chromatic idiom, tending to favour displaced major and minor triads and polymodal structures. During this time, Ligeti also began to explore alternate tuning systems through the use of natural harmonics for horns (as in the Horn Trio and Piano Concerto ) and scordatura for strings (as in
10947-457: The other hand, the later music—and a few earlier pieces such as Continuum —treats the pulse as a musical atom, a common denominator, a basic unit, which cannot be divided further. Different rhythms appear through multiplications of the basic pulse, rather than divisions: this is the principle of African music seized on by Ligeti. It also appears in the music of Philip Glass , Steve Reich and others; and significantly it shares much in common with
11070-460: The other so quickly and abruptly that all five areas are present throughout the piece. Requiem (1963–65) is a work for soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, twenty-part chorus (four each of soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), and orchestra. Though, at about half an hour, it is the longest piece he had composed up to that point, Ligeti sets only about half of the Requiem 's traditional text:
11193-475: The overall effect is closer to harmony, with complex woven textures and opacity of the sound giving rise to a harmonious effect. It has become a standard repertoire piece. String Quartet No. 2 (1968) consists of five movements. They differ widely from each other in their types of motion. In the first, the structure is largely broken up, as in Aventures . In the second, everything is reduced to very slow motion, and
11316-428: The overtone series. In classical music the perfect fourth above the bass may be considered dissonant when its function is contrapuntal . Other intervals, the second and the seventh (and their compound forms) are considered Dissonant and require resolution (of the produced tension) and usually preparation (depending on the music style ). The effect of dissonance is perceived relatively within musical context: for example,
11439-425: The perception of a chord's harmony. Tonal fusion contributes to the perceived consonance of a chord, describing the degree to which multiple pitches are heard as a single, unitary tone. Chords which have more coinciding partials (frequency components) are perceived as more consonant, such as the octave and perfect fifth . The spectra of these intervals resemble that of a uniform tone. According to this definition,
11562-409: The perception of what is known as "beating" or "roughness". These precepts are closely related to the perceived dissonance of chords. To interfere, partials must lie within a critical bandwidth, which is a measure of the ear's ability to separate different frequencies. Critical bandwidth lies between 2 and 3 semitones at high frequencies and becomes larger at lower frequencies. The roughest interval in
11685-446: The perfect unison , octave , fifth , fourth and major and minor third and sixth, and their compound forms. An interval is referred to as "perfect" when the harmonic relationship is found in the natural overtone series (namely, the unison 1:1, octave 2:1, fifth 3:2, and fourth 4:3). The other basic intervals (second, third, sixth, and seventh) are called "imperfect" because the harmonic relationships are not found mathematically exact in
11808-486: The precomposed in European art music and the written theory surrounding it shows considerable cultural bias. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ( Oxford University Press ) identifies this clearly: In Western culture the musics that are most dependent on improvisation, such as jazz, have traditionally been regarded as inferior to art music, in which pre-composition is considered paramount. The conception of musics that live in oral traditions as something composed with
11931-500: The root note (e.g. one tone up is a 2nd), so the root is counted twice by adding them. Apart from this categorization, intervals can also be divided into consonant and dissonant. As explained in the following paragraphs, consonant intervals produce a sensation of relaxation and dissonant intervals a sensation of tension. In tonal music, the term consonant also means "brings resolution" (to some degree at least, whereas dissonance "requires resolution"). The consonant intervals are considered
12054-513: The root.) Dyads , the simplest chords, contain only two members (see power chords ). A chord with three members is called a triad because it has three members, not because it is necessarily built in thirds (see Quartal and quintal harmony for chords built with other intervals). Depending on the size of the intervals being stacked, different qualities of chords are formed. In popular and jazz harmony, chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. To keep
12177-554: The same basic configurations return, but each time their colouring or viewpoint is different, so that the overall form only really emerges when one listens to all five movements in context. Ramifications (1968–69), completed a year before the Chamber Concerto, is scored for an ensemble of strings in twelve parts—seven violins, two violas, two cellos and a double bass—each of which may be taken by one player or several. The twelve are divided into two numerically equal groups but with
12300-413: The same frequency as a minor third constructed up from D♭. Many keyboard and fretted instruments were constructed with the ability to play, for example, both of G♯ and A♭ without retuning. The notes of these pairs (even those where one lacks an accidental, such as E and F♭) were not the 'same' note in any sense. Using the diatonic scale , constructing the major and minor keys with each of the 12 notes as
12423-515: The second movement of Ligeti's Musica ricercata is used at pivotal moments in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut . At the German premiere of that film, by which time Kubrick had died, his widow was escorted by Ligeti himself. Contemporary classical music At the beginning of the 20th century, composers of classical music were experimenting with an increasingly dissonant pitch language, which sometimes yielded atonal pieces. Following World War I, as
12546-429: The seventeenth century, harmony is manipulated using chords , which are combinations of pitch classes . In tertian harmony, so named after the interval of a third, the members of chords are found and named by stacking intervals of the third, starting with the "root", then the "third" above the root, and the "fifth" above the root (which is a third above the third), etc. (Chord members are named after their interval above
12669-645: The slow-paced and sweet-toned to the angular and fiery." Other notable works from this period are the Viola Sonata (1994) and the Nonsense Madrigals (1988–93), a set of six a cappella compositions that set English texts from William Brighty Rands , Lewis Carroll , and Heinrich Hoffman . The third Madrigal is a setting of the English alphabet . Ligeti's last works were the Hamburg Concerto for solo horn, four natural horns and chamber orchestra (1998–99, revised 2003, dedicated to Marie-Luise Neunecker ),
12792-414: The subject of harmony. In this book, Aristoxenus refers to previous experiments conducted by Pythagoreans to determine the relationship between small integer ratios and consonant notes (e.g., 1:2 describes an octave relationship, which is a doubling of frequency). While identifying as a Pythagorean, Aristoxenus claims that numerical ratios are not the ultimate determinant of harmony; instead, he claims that
12915-521: The subject of the Inside the Score project of pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard . Ligeti's music is best known to the public not acquainted with 20th century classical music for its use in three films of Stanley Kubrick 's, which gained him a world-wide audience. The soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey includes excerpts from four of his pieces: Atmosphères , Lux Aeterna , Requiem and Aventures . Atmosphères
13038-535: The theatrical potential of the musical performance ( performance art , mixed media , fluxus ). New works of contemporary classical music continue to be created. Each year, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents 700 performances. New works from contemporary classical music program students comprise roughly 150 of these performances. To some extent, European and the US traditions diverged after World War II. Among
13161-430: The tonic can be achieved using only flats or sharps to spell notes within said key, never both. This is often visualized as traveling around the circle of fifths , with each step only involving a change in one note's accidental. As such, additional accidentals are free to convey more nuanced information in the context of a passage of music and the other notes that make it up. Even when working outside diatonic contexts, it
13284-572: The tonic. The great power of this fact is that any musical work can be played or sung in any key. It is the same piece of music, as long as the intervals are the same—thus transposing the melody into the corresponding key. When the intervals surpass the perfect Octave (12 semitones), these intervals are called compound intervals , which include particularly the 9th, 11th, and 13th Intervals—widely used in jazz and blues Music. Compound Intervals are formed and named as follows: These numbers don't "add" together because intervals are numbered inclusive of
13407-549: The tritone interval) in mainstream tonal music. In organ registers, certain harmonic interval combinations and chords are activated by a single key. The sounds produced fuse into one tone with a new timbre. This tonal fusion effect is also used in synthesizers and orchestral arrangements; for instance, in Ravel 's Bolero #5 the parallel parts of flutes, horn and celesta resemble the sound of an electric organ. When adjacent harmonics in complex tones interfere with one another, they create
13530-446: The use of pastiche , but would increasingly incorporate consonant harmonies (even major and minor triads ) into his work, albeit not in a diatonic context. After Le Grand Macabre , Ligeti struggled for some time to find a new style. Besides two short pieces for harpsichord , he did not complete another major work until the Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano in 1982, over four years after
13653-479: The use of his music in the film, he "successfully sued for having had his music distorted" and they settled out of court . Kubrick sought permission and compensated Ligeti for use of his music in later films. Lux Aeterna was used again in Peter Hyams 's 1984 sequel to 2001 , 2010: The Year We Make Contact . A later Kubrick film, The Shining , uses small portions of Lontano for orchestra. One motif from
13776-426: The use of improvisatory techniques separates them from the higher-standing works that use notation. Yet the evolution of harmonic practice and language itself, in Western art music, is and was facilitated by this process of prior composition, which permitted the study and analysis by theorists and composers of individual pre-constructed works in which pitches (and to some extent rhythms) remained unchanged regardless of
13899-440: The use of the twelve-tone technique and later total serialism ). At the same time, conversely, composers also experimented with means of abdicating control, exploring indeterminacy or aleatoric processes in smaller or larger degrees. Technological advances led to the birth of electronic music. Experimentation with tape loops and repetitive textures contributed to the advent of minimalism . Still other composers started exploring
14022-477: Was Hungarian Jewish . He was the great-grandnephew of violinist Leopold Auer and second cousin of Hungarian philosopher Ágnes Heller . Some sources say he was Auer's grandnephew, rather than great-grandnephew. Ligeti recalled that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation between Romanian-speaking town police. Before that, he didn't know that other languages existed. He moved to Cluj with his family when he
14145-414: Was also interested in literature (including the writers Lewis Carroll , Jorge Luis Borges , and Franz Kafka ), painting, architecture, science, and mathematics. He was especially fascinated by the fractal geometry of Benoit Mandelbrot and the writings of Douglas Hofstadter . Ligeti's health deteriorated after the turn of the millennium; he died in Vienna on 12 June 2006, at the age of 83. Although it
14268-533: Was finally realised in 1996 by the Dutch composers Kees Tazelaar and Johan van Kreij of the Institute of Sonology . Ligeti's music appears to have been subsequently influenced by his electronic experiments, and many of the sounds he created resembled electronic textures . Ligeti coined the term " micropolyphony " to describe the texture of the second movement of Apparitions (1958–59) and Atmosphères (1961). This texture
14391-571: Was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labor brigade by the Horthy regime during events of the Holocaust. His brother Gábor, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz . His mother was the only person to survive in his immediate family. Following World War II , Ligeti returned to his studies in Budapest, graduating in 1949 from
14514-569: Was invited there to judge a competition in Budapest. On his rushed escape to Vienna, he left most of his Hungarian compositions in Budapest, some of which are now lost. He took only what he considered to be his most important pieces. He later said, "I considered my old music of no interest. I believed in twelve-tone music!" He eventually took Austrian citizenship in 1968. A few weeks after arriving in Vienna, Ligeti left for Cologne. There he met several key avant-garde figures and learned more contemporary musical styles and methods. These people included
14637-417: Was known that he had been ill for several years and had used a wheelchair for the last three years of his life, his family declined to release details of the cause of his death. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Art Secretary Franz Morak [ de ] both paid tribute to Ligeti. His funeral was held at Feuerhalle Simmering . The memorial concert was performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and
14760-609: Was opposed to traditional twelve-tone music), and was also closely related to Le Corbusier 's idea of the modulor . However, some more traditionally based composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten maintained a tonal style of composition despite the prominent serialist movement. In America, composers like Milton Babbitt , John Cage , Elliott Carter , Henry Cowell , Philip Glass , Steve Reich , George Rochberg , and Roger Sessions formed their own ideas. Some of these composers (Cage, Cowell, Glass, Reich) represented
14883-516: Was six years old. He did not return to the town of his birth until the 1990s. In 1940, Northern Transylvania became part of Hungary following the Second Vienna Award , thus Cluj became part of Hungary as well. In 1941 Ligeti received his initial musical training at the conservatory in Kolozsvár (Cluj) , and during the summers privately with Pál Kadosa in Budapest. In 1944, Ligeti's education
15006-705: Was used for the first revised performance of this work, realized by the Concerto Budapest Ligeti Ensemble with Szabolcs Zempléni as solo horn. The orchestra should have been conducted by Peter Eötvös , replaced due to indisposition by Gergely Vajda. Additionally, after Le Grand Macabre , Ligeti planned to write a second opera, first to be based on Shakespeare 's The Tempest and later on Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , but neither came to fruition. Ligeti has been described as "together with Boulez , Berio , Stockhausen , and Cage as one of
15129-477: Was written as preparation for the Piano Concerto, which contains a number of similar motivic and melodic elements. Ligeti's music from the last two decades of his life is unmistakable for its rhythmic complexity. Writing about his first book of Piano Études, the composer claims this rhythmic complexity stems from two vastly different sources of inspiration: the Romantic-era piano music of Chopin and Schumann and
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