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Ligeti's Chamber Concerto – Summation or Turning Point?

Michael Searby

Tempo / Issue 168 / March 1989, pp 30 ­ 34 DOI: 10.1017/S004029820002492X, Published online: 04 February 2010

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S004029820002492X

How to cite this article: Michael Searby (1989). Ligeti's Chamber Concerto – Summation or Turning Point?. Tempo, pp 30­34 doi:10.1017/S004029820002492X

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Gyorgy Ligeti's music of the 1970s shows a movements are closely related to the processes distinct change of direction in its main pre- in late 1960s works - for example Lontano (1967), occupation. Up to the middle 1970s his Lux Aetema (1966) and the Second String dominant concern was with textural elements, Quartet (1968) - the compositional process itself note-cluster development and the use of strict appears to evolve throughout, reaching a new canons to create 'Mikropolyphonie'. Mikro- and more open-ended process in the last polyphonie is usually generated by a canonic movement. The significant features of this new development where each entry uses the same process are the unravelling of the tightly- pitch array but also has a unique rhythmic shape controlled canons, which are important in much and is therefore unlike-a normal canon (Example of the Chamber Concerto and many of Ligeti's 1, below, is a good illustration). Melody, non- other works; and also the rediscovery, however cluster harmony, and rhythmic clarity were not fleeting, of melody. usually significant features. However the opera The Chamber Concerto (1969-70) is for eleven Le Grande Macabre (1974-77) shows a clear,orchestral instruments,2 harpsichord doubling unambiguous change of approach and a greater Hammond Organ, and piano doubling celeste; eclecticism; as Ligeti states: 'In Le Grande it has four movements. The first is an elusive, Macabre there is less of the static, slowly, texture-based movement containing much rapid gradually evolving music. I felt I had worn figuration. The structural outline is simple these types out'.1 because, in common with Lux Aetema and This change can be seen to have its roots in Lontano, it consists of a slowly evolving and the music of the late 1960s, particularly the expanding pitch cluster. This background Chamber Concerto, although the evolution cluster structure is articulated in the foreground towards his total recapture of melody and har- by canonic development, a common feature in mony in the 1980s was gradual and fluctuating. much of Ligeti's work. (See Example 1.) The Chamber Concerto has an ambivalent However only the resulting textural Mikro- nature, because although the first three polyphonie can be heard, not the individual

EX.1 1st Movement bars 1-2 Pitch array >° Iw fi ft" In

barl Corrente (Fleifiend)

i p dolce,eapr. •Fluta opening

Ligeti, Ligeti in conversation (Eulcnbcrg: London, 2 Flute doubling piccolo, oboe doubling oboe d'amore and 1983), p.67. cor anglais, clarinet, bass clarinet doubling second clarinet, horn, trombone, two violins, viola, violoncello, and double bass.

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canons. In the first movement the complexity The melodic line of each instrument skips of the texture is quite distinctive (especially, for between all the chromatic lines, disguising this example, bars 47-50 and the final six bars). underlying movement - the motion that is By contrast, the third movement of the created is somewhat like 'running on the spot'. Chamber Concerto reflects one of Ligeti's This differs from the cluster movement more recurrent obsessions: that of mechanical objects commonly found in Ligeti's works in three in general and clocks in particular - also seen significant ways: the background chromatic lines in the Poeme Symphonique (1962) for 100 are aurally more important than the canons (or metronomes, the third movement of the Second possibly even the clusters); since the number of String Quartet, and Continuum for harpsichord chromatic lines remains the same throughout, (1968). The movement has basically two types the germ clusters have a constant number of of texture. The first consists of indeterminate notes; and the process of pitch-change occurs at fast articulation in all the instruments (perhaps a a greater velocity than in many other works. 'grained' version of the cluster development); The aural effect is one of the frenetic dissipation the second contains ultimately every instrument, of potential energy until it gradually reaches an iterating regularly at a different tempo. This equilibrium. takes the concept of simultaneous tempi, which The process of gradual change of pitch can also be seen in the second movement, to an material in many of Ligeti's works up to the extreme. composition of the Chamber Concerto is here The second movement, nevertheless, cannot transformed, so that the chromatic changes of be as easily identified as one of Ligeti's the background cluster (rather than within it), compositional process types as the movements have become the contrapuntal element. Whereas which encompass it. What is significant is the in the first movement the canonic construction slowing down of Mikropolyphonie in the first provides the complex counterpoint, in the section (bars 1-35), so that the dynamically second movement the most aurally apparent highlighted melodic lines in the oboe d'amore, counterpoint (particularly at the outer pitch horn, and trombone can be heard. This increased limits) is provided by the background chromatic melodic element can be seen in later works like lines, which govern the content of the fore- Melodien (1971) and the Double Concerto (1972) ground melodic lines. This is a substantial and also in the earlier Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet change in compositional design, and perhaps (1968). The second section, from bar 39,3 shows suggests that Ligeti was becoming dissatisfied a distinct development of the canonic com- with the canonic constructions which dominate positional process. The initial cluster at bar 39 his work of that period. expands gradually, with each note in the cluster The use of chromatic lines is quite rare in initiating a mobile chromatic line (see Example Ligeti's music and, in addition to the back- 2) which gradually evolves, tending towards ground chromatic counterpoint of the second a stable position (at bar 73) consisting of movement, the lower instrumental parts mirror interlocking superimposed fifth chords. this in a more overt manner4 (see Example 3).

Ex.2 2nd Movement bars 51-2

b»r6l ,...„....••

Vn.l TfrriYrfrmi

d Chromatic Lis«

3 Between the two main sections there is a bridging section of 4 This melodic chromaticism can also be seen in the first stasis (bars 35-9) which is doubled augmented fourth, a movement of the Second String Quartet but with octave typical device in Ligeti's music to halt a process or create a displacements. structural division.

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Ex.3 2nd Movement bars 40-43

Chromaticism can also be seen elsewhere in the rhythm, preserves the cluster and prevents any Chamber Concerto, for example in bars 12-40 pitch having an unwanted emphasis. However, in the third movement (see Example 4), which in the last movement, this solution has can be viewed as a simpler and clearer model of metamorphosed into a process which gives the the process present in the second movement. composer more freedom while still preserving

Ex.4 3rd Movement bars 18-22 barl8 |c>.2" i

siin.,pizt,gliss.

s>m.,pizz.£ lisa.

In the former case (Ex.4) the process consists its basic regulatory function, as the background of a pattern of canonic chromatic lines, rising cluster development is preserved. and falling from the initial A(j at bar 12. The A counterbalancing feature is that as the pitch process of the third movement is a simplification material becomes freer, the rhythm and in- of that of the second, because it does not involve dependence of parts becomes very restricted in an audible interlocking canonic structure: places; for example bars 18-23 (see Example 5). thereby continuing the gradual transformation Perhaps this shows that Ligeti's apparent of the work's, and perhaps Ligeti's, overriding movement towards freedom from construct- compositional process. ional control is only illusory: that complete The gradual erosion of the canonic con- freedom is as undesirable as complete control.6 struction in the Chamber Concerto could Instead he surrenders one type of control for perhaps suggest a denouement in the last another, from canonic construction to parellel movement. Here, the canonic structure which contour, homophony, and also 12-note rows has been weakened in the second and third (bars 24-29). A relevant observation is made by movements is only hinted at. The actual texture Harrison Birtwistle, as cited by Michael Hall: and background cluster structure changes little Composition is concerned with taking decisions, but - which suggests that canonic construction is if a composer has to take decisions about everything not essential to create Mikropolyphonie. Ligeti's that happens in music he will seize up and rapidly canonic construction is perhaps merely one come to halt.7 possible solution to the problem of distributing The Chamber Concerto as a whole seems to pitches of the controlling background clusters have as its fundamental structural tenet the into a polyphonic texture. It operates as a pitch gradual evolution of the compositional process regulator5 and, in conjunction with the fluid 6 Ligcti spends much of'Metamorphoses of Musical Form' 5 Sec Ligcti discussing Nono's use of the chromatic scale in a repudiating integral serialism. serial structure in 'Metamorphoses of Musical Form', Die 7 Michael Hall, Harrison Birtwistle (Robson: London, 1984), R«7«7(1%5), p.6. p.10.

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Ex.5 4th Movement bar 19 bar 19 Vn.l' J Vo.l Pt. Pice.

PP

itself. It appears that Ligeti is experimenting melodies of the horn and piccolo in bars 24-9 with a gradually evolving compositional create such a 'moment'. These tone-rows are approach, perhaps more often confined to a perhaps a reminiscence of the Second Viennese composer's sketchpad, and maybe in the spirit School - perhaps a nostalgic yearning for a time of Ligeti's criticism of mobile form: of greater melodic freedom. It is the only clear melodic expression in the work (the melodies in It seems to me it would me much more worthwhile to the second movement are still rather veiled) and try and achieve a compositional design of the process of change.8 must be seen as a significant feature in his compositional development. Its result can be This can be seen as a reflection of his heard in most of Ligeti's work from Le Crand compositional approach, not only in terms of Macabre, culminating in the unambiguously Mikropolyphonic music, but also perhaps in melodic Horn Trio (1983). As Paul Griffiths relation to the concept of a compositional design observes: which itself evolves throughout a work, as we see in the Chamber Concerto. [The Horn Trio]... has grown out of the earlier works In the Chamber Concerto, from a structural at the end of gradual recovery with the return first of and compositional process view, one can detect harmony, then of melody, then of harmonic movement.10 a change of approach which develops over the work as a whole. In addition, there is a Melodic activity of a more ambiguous kind rediscovery of melody, which had previously can be seen in the solo horn, trombone, and been obscured in Ligeti's complex textural oboe d'amore parts of the Chamber Concerto's surfaces. This rediscovery can be considered as second movement. They function in analogous a significant shift in a broader context of the fashion to a magnifying glass, highlighting the music of the 1970s. Stockhausen has also shown complex, weaving pattern in the accompanying this change, and enunciates the need for melody instruments, rhythmically augmenting and (as a distillation of the preceding music) in a clarifying their material (see Example 6). This manner which is not devalued by overuse. In development is taken a step further in Melodien conversation with MyaTannenbaum he has said: (1971) in which the Mikropolyphonie becomes 'macro' - allowing much greater melodic clarity. The hours that pass from dawn to dusk don't contain Ligeti himself states: more than a moment in which one has a wish to sing. In this sense there is in every one of my compositions One might say that the micropolyphony of these the moment in which I sing my song too. And it's the pieces [Chamber Concerto and the Second String most beautiful, the most concentrated song possible. Quartet] has become less 'micro', the musical texture All the rest is just preparation for that moment.' being balanced on the threshold between imperceptible musical factors and others which are perceptible as Ligeti displays a similar attitude in the Chamber shapes." Concerto's last movement, where the 12-note The Chamber Concerto, therefore, can be "Metamorphoses of Musical Form', p. 19. 'MyaTannenbaum, Conversations with Stockhausen, trans. D. 101'aul Griffiths, Gyorgy Ligeti (Robson: London, 1983) p.31. Butchart (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1987), p.73. " Ligeti in Conversation, p.137.

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Ex.0 2nd movement bar 16

(solo! 3 PPPP

(accomp.l > non dotce)

viewed from two standpoints: it is either a has a dual function within Ligeti's oeuvre. It culmination of various trends in Ligeti's music, appears Ligeti has reached a limit of sophisti- or it shows a considerable departure from his cation in the first movement that perhaps highly developed compositional process. motivates him to explore new procedures in the However, neither approach gives a complete other movements. His attitude toward ex- and accurate picture of the work. The more perimentation in music is clearly indicated in a straightforward first and third movements can conversation with Josef Hausler: be related directly to earlier and contempor- ... creating something that already exists is not aneous works, but they show a greater interesting for me. If something new has been tried sophistication in the use of the Mikropolyphonic out and a result has emerged from it, it is not worth compositional process. In that sense, the making the same'experiment agains.13 Chamber Concerto is culminative, as it takes an idea to a pinnacle of complexity and subtlety. What is less clear is how this significant change The second and fourth movements do not directly affects his subequent work, as there is support this conclusion, as they indicate a little evidence up to the composition of Le Grand distinctly different and radical change to the Macabre of these new ideas being explored accepted processes that Ligeti had been using up further to any depth. Perhaps a possible to that point. The second movement is con- explanation is that in the Chamber Concerto structed out of background chromatic lines Ligeti had experimented to a degree which was which are spun by the canonic foreground some distance from his mature language of the threads, and the last movement moves into a 1960s, especially in the last movement, and it new, more varied, and apparently freer mode.l2 was some time before the changes in comp- Thus the work can be seen to contain an ositional process inherent in this work could be evolution of a compositional methodology. absorbed into a more complete language. The A comparison of the two possible orientations fruits of this greater control can perhaps be seen of the work suggests that the Chamber Concerto in the Horn Trio and the Piano Concerto.

12 It is very difficult to sec a pattern in the pitch generation of 13 Ligeti in Conversation, p.94. the last movement - it may have been generated in a similar way to aspects of Birtwistle's music which uses random Musical examples by kind permission of number tables. Schott&Co. Ltd.

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