Ligeti, Geörgy (1923 - 2006)

Introduction
György Ligeti was born in Transylvania, Romania in 1923 and was a leading composer when it came to avant-garde music post World War II.

Work Analysis
The work I will analyze is Atmosphères. This is a piece for a full orchestra. It consists of parts for four flutes, four oboes, four clarinets, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, piano, and fifty six string parts. This work is not in movements and Ligeti disregards traditional meter and rhythm techniques to create a wall of sound. He creates a sense of timelessness as the wall of sound just continues and grows without many changes at all. This piece was originally written for a synthesizer but technology was not advanced enough to achieve the sound Ligeti was searching for.

Comparisons
I find his music to be similar to that of many of the composers that use serialism such as Schoenberg, Webern, and Babbitt. Ligeti used techniques that had never been used before just as these composers did and paved the way for future musical breakthroughs. I would compare his atmospheres piece to the serialism pieces written by Babbitt. His music is highly complex and was truly pushing the boundaries of what was being done previously.

Observations
His music was extremely unique and I enjoyed listening to it. The sense of timelessness in atmospheres was something I've never heard before. He played with the sounds and created a wall of sound that was hard to identify as an actual full orchestra. He made all of those instruments sound like a synthesizer machine and I think that is really awesome.