Click here to load reader
View
213
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
7/25/2019 (Ligeti) Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, Summation or Turning Point
1/6
Ligeti's Chamber Concerto - Summation or Turning Point?
Michael Searby
Tempo, New Ser., No. 168, 50th Anniversary 1939-1989. (Mar., 1989), pp. 30-34.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-2982%28198903%292%3A0%3A168%3C30%3ALCC-SO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
Tempois currently published by Cambridge University Press.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/cup.html.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.
The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]
http://www.jstor.orgWed Jul 4 14:39:13 2007
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-2982%28198903%292%3A0%3A168%3C30%3ALCC-SO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Shttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/journals/cup.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/journals/cup.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.htmlhttp://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-2982%28198903%292%3A0%3A168%3C30%3ALCC-SO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S7/25/2019 (Ligeti) Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, Summation or Turning Point
2/6
ichael Searby
Ligeti's Chamber Concerto
Summation or Turning Point?
Gyorgy Ligeti 's music of the 1970s shows a
distinct change of direction in its main pre-
occupation. U p to the middle 1970s his
dominant concern was with textural elements,
note-cluster develop ment and th e use of strict
canons to create 'Mikropolyphonie' . Mikro-
polyphonie is usually generated by a canonic
development where each entry uses the same
pitch arra y but also has a unique rhythm ic shape
an d is therefore un1ike.a norm al canon (E xam ple
1, below, is a goo d illustration). Me lody, non-
cluster harm ony , and rhythm ic clarity were not
usually significant features. Ho we ve r the opera
Le Grande Macabre (1974-77) shows a clear,
unam biguous change of approach and a greater
eclecticism; as Ligeti states: 'In Le Grande
Macabre
there is less of the static, slowly,
gradually evolving music. felt had wo rn
these types out ' . '
This change can be seen to have its roots in
the music of the late 1960s, particularly the
Chamber Concerto, a l though the evolution
toward s his total recapture of me lody an d har-
m on y in t he 1980s was gradual and fluctuating.
The Chamber Concer to has an ambiva lent
nature, because although the first three
Ex 1
st
Movement bars 1 2
bar 1 Corrente FleiDend)
movements are closely related to the processes
in late 1960s wo rks for examp le Lontano (1 7),
Lux Aetema (1966) and the Second String
Qu ar tet (1968) the comp ositional process itself
appears to evolve throughout, reaching a new
and m or e open-ended process in the last
mo vem ent. T he significant features of this n ew
process are the unravelling of the tightly-
controlled canons, which are imp ortan t in muc h
of the Cham ber Concerto and m any o f Ligeti 's
other work s; and also the rediscovery, howe ver
fleeting, o f melody .
T he C ham ber C onc erto (1969-70) is for eleven
orchestral instruments,' harpsichord doubling
Ham mon d Org an, and piano doubling celeste;
it has fou r mov ements . T h e first is an elusive,
texture-based mo vem ent containing mu ch rapid
figuration. The structural outline is simple
because, in common with Lux Aeterna
and
Lontano it consists of a slowly evolving and
expanding pitch cluster. This background
cluster stru ctur e is articulated in the fore grou nd
by canonic developm ent, a co m m on feature in
much of Ligeti 's work. (See Example 1.)
However only the resulting textural Mikro-
polyphonie can be heard, not the individual
Gyorgy Ligct~,Ligeri tn conversarlotr (Eulcnbcrg: London, Flute doubllng plccolo, obo e doubllng obo e d' am or e and
1YX3 ) ,
p.67. car anglais, clarinet, bass clarinct do ub l~ ng econd clarinet.
horn, tromb one, tw o v~o lins , iola, violoncello, and doublc
ha,,.
7/25/2019 (Ligeti) Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, Summation or Turning Point
3/6
canons. In the first movem ent the com plexity
of the te xtu re is quite distinctive (especially, for
exam ple, ba rs 47-50 and the final six bars).
By contrast, the third movem ent o f the
Cham ber Conc erto reflects one of Ligeti s
recurrent obs bsio ns: that of mechanical objects
in general and clocks in particular also seen
in the P o h e Symphonique (1962) for 100
metronom es, the third movem ent of the Second
String Qu arte t, and
Continuum
for harpsichord
(1968). T he m ove me nt has basically tw o types
of texture. The first consists of indeterminate
fast articulation in all the instrum ents (perhaps a
grained version of the cluster developm ent);
the second contains ultimately every instrument,
iterating regularly at a different tempo. This
takes the concept ofsim ultaneous tempi, which
can also be seen in the second mov em ent, to an
extreme.
Th e second m ovem ent, nevertheless, cannot
be as easily identified as o ne of Ligeti s
compositional process types as the movements
which encompass it. What is significant is the
slowing down of Mikropolyphonie in the first
section (bars 1-35), so that the dynamically
highlighted m elodic lines in the oboe d amo re,
horn, and tro mb one can be heard. This increased
melodic elem ent can be seen in later work s like
Melodien
(1971) and the Do uble C once rto (1972)
and also in the earlier Te n Pieces or Wind Quintet
(1968). T he second section, from bar 39, shows
a distinct development of the canonic com-
positional process. The initial cluster at bar 39
expands gradually, with each note in the cluster
initiating a mobile ch romatic line (see Exam ple
2) which gradually evolves, tending towards
a stable position (at bar 73) consisting of
interlocking superimp osed fifth chords.
Ex 2 nd
Movement
bars 51 2
Ligeti s C ham ber Concerto 3
The melodic line of each instrument skips
between all the chromatic lines, disguising this
underlying mov eme nt the motion that is
created is somew hat like running on the spot .
This differs from the cluster movement more
com mon ly found in Ligeti s works in three
significant ways: the background chro ma tic lines
are aurally m ore important than the canons (or
possibly even the clusters); since the nu m be r o f
chromatic lines remains the same thro ugh out,
the germ clusters have a constant number of
notes; and the process of pitch-change occurs at
a greater velocity than in many other works.
T he aural effect is one of the frenetic dissipation
of potential energy until it gradually reaches an
equilibrium.
The process of gradual change of pitch
material in many of Ligeti s w orks up to the
composition of the Cha mbe r Con certo is here
transformed, so that the chromatic changes of
the background cluster (rather than within it),
have become the contrapuntal elemen t. Whereas
in the first mov eme nt the canonic construction
provides the complex counterpoint, in the
second movement the most aurally apparent
counterpoint (particularly at the outer pitch
limits) is provided b y the b ackground chroma tic
lines, which govern the content of the fore-
ground melodic lines. This is a substantial
change in compositional design, and perhaps
suggests that Ligeti was becoming dissatisfied
with the canonic constructions which dom inate
his work o f that period.
The use of chromatic lines is quite rare in
Ligeti s m usic an d, in addition t o the back-
ground chromatic counterpoint o f the second
mov eme nt, the lower instrumental parts mirror
this in a more overt manner4 (see Exam ple 3).
Backgromnd
hrosatic
Lima
Between the two main sections there is a bridging section of
This melodic chromaticism can also be sccn in thc first
stasis (bars
35-9
which is doubled augmented fourth, a movement of the Second String Quart ct but with octave
typical device in Ligeti's music to halt a process or create a
displacements.
structural division.
7/25/2019 (Ligeti) Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, Summation or Turning Point
4/6
32 Ligeti s Chamber Concerto
Ex 3 nd M