OBITUARIO:
GYORGY SANDOR LIGETI (1923 - 2006)
********************************************
De:
http://www.schott-music.com/news/komponistennews/show,3336.html
SCHOTT
MUSIC MOURNS FOR GYORGY LIGETI
On
Monday morning, the Austrian-Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti died
in Vienna at the age of 83 after suffering from a serious illness.
With
him, we have lost one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
Gyorgy Ligeti was an adventurer in form and expression and a great
visionary of contemporary music. His richly varied output takes a
special
position in
its musical quality and uncompromising individuality. Ligeti moved
far
away from aesthetic trends and methods all his life. He was characterized
by
fresh and unorthodox ideas, any form of dogmatism was foreign to his
nature, his entire oeuvre is marked by radical turning points. Admired
and
hugely influential in the profession, the sensual accessibility of
his music
has won the hearts of audiences everywhere.
Atmospheres,
the orchestral work he created in 1961, made Ligeti
instantly well-known. In this piece, he worked almost completely without
traditional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic parameters and concentrated
on sounds
with constantly changing textures. 'Micropolyphony', he once described,
'means such a dense tissue that the individual parts become inaudible
and only
the resulting intermingling harmonies are effective as a form'. For
him,
however, techniques were never an end in themselves. Ligeti did not
keep long to iridescent tonal surfaces, but always looked for new
paths.
His
father and brother both died in concentration camps; he himself
managed to escape the labour service of the Hungarian army in 1941
and had to
flee to Austria after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Deeply affected
by
these events, he developed a strong dislike of any dictatorship and
any form
of intellectual restriction: 'I am an enemy of ideologies in the arts.
Totalitarian regimes do not like dissonances.' Biochemistry, chaos
research, fractal geometry - Ligeti, who initially intended to study
physics,
found inspiration in the natural world for new compositional principles.
During his long years as a teacher of international repute, he encouraged
the
independence, originality and uncompromising self-criticism of his
pupils: 'There is only one tradition. Our music either stands up to
it or not.'
After
his intensive work at the Studio fur elektronische Musik of the
WDR in Cologne in the 1950s and the development of micropolyphony
in the
1960s, his personal style became simpler and more transparent in the
1970s. And as
if wanting to withdraw from the predominating musical tendencies,
he began
to use tonal sounds again. Ligeti said: 'I no longer listen to rules
on
what is to be regarded as modern and what as old-fashioned.' His only
full-length stage work Le Grand Macabre was inspired by the theatre
of the absurd
and is teeming with operetta-like wit and black humour. The composer
wanted to
communicate more directly with audiences: 'Stage action and music
should be dangerous and bizarre, absolutely exaggerated, absolutely
crazy.'
In
the 1980s and 1990s, Ligeti expanded his musical horizons again,
incorporating structural principles of African drumming music into
his
works: the fanatic of the intricate developed new complex polyrhythmic
techniques. They form the basis of the 3 collections of his Etudes
pour
piano which are considered to be the most important piano music of
the
end of the 20th century.
Gyorgy
Ligeti travelled a long road: from Romanian folk music and the
tonal language of his fellow countryman Bela Bartok to his own cosmos
of
sounds.
The mentor of a whole generation of composers, he wanted to 'fuse
the
fear of death with laughter'.
De:
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-782969,0.html
LE
MONDE (FRANCA)
Pierre-Laurent
Aimard, pianiste
'En depit de son humour, il etait un grand tragique'
LE
MONDE - 13.06.06 - 16h10 Mis a jour le 13.06.06 - 16h10
Le pianiste francais Pierre-Laurent Aimard a ete le createur des
'Etudes' de Ligeti et un proche du compositeur.
'J'ai
rencontre Ligeti a l'Ircam pendant l'hiver 1984, au moment du 60e
anniversaire de Pierre Boulez. Notre relation est devenue tres forte,
mais avec lui, il n'y avait jamais rien d'acquis, surtout pas sur
le plan
artistique, qu'il a toujours fait passer en premier, dut notre relation
amicale en souffrir parfois.
C'etait
la periode ou il est devenu un personnage tres officiel, barde
de distinctions, mais il avait un mepris souverain de l'institution
au
point qu'il a toujours refuse d'aller chercher un prix s'il ne pouvait
faire
entendre sa musique.
Je
recevais les Etudes au fur et a mesure qu'il les ecrivait. Je les
apprenais puis les jouais chez lui a Hambourg ou ailleurs. Il a
toujours eu une vision tres achevee de ce qu'il voulait obtenir. C'est
pourquoi
l'enregistrement chez Sony constitue une 'reference', dans le sens
ou
c'est le temoignage d'une interpretation pour laquelle un compositeur
vivant
a donne son assentiment. Notre collaboration a dure huit ans. Jusqu'au
bout, il y a eu des remises en question. Ligeti n'a jamais abdique
une once
de son absolu artistique pour quelque contingence politique ou
institutionnelle que ce soit. Je crois pouvoir dire que c'est le seul.
D'une
nature forte et genereuse, il etait d'une lucidite extreme sur
son travail et portait une noirceur et une desesperance paroxystiques,
avec
un gout pour la vie incroyable. Je crois qu'en depit de son humour,
son
sens de la derision, de l'absurde, il etait l'un des grands tragiques
de ce
siecle. Il faut ramener toute sa creation aux deux grandes tyrannies
qu'il a
connues, le nazisme et le communisme. En temoignent la dimension
hyper-expressive de son oeuvre et la facon qu'il avait d'y reintegrer
ses racines hongroises, mais il y a aussi des moments ou sa musique
se
voulait monstrueuse et intraitable. Sa plus grande admiration en matiere
de
creation, c'etait Pierre Boulez. Pas seulement a cause des services
rendus a sa musique, mais pour le createur qu'il est.
Article
paru dans l'edition du 14.06.06
De:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/292812.stm
BBC
NEWS (GRA BRETANHA)
Obituary:
Gyorgy Ligeti
Gyorgy
Ligeti: Pioneer of avante-garde music
Gyorgy
Ligeti was, along with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and
Pierre Boulez, one of a group of composers which revolutionised postwar
music.
Rejecting
classical musical forms and creating often sparse and atonal
works, they continually withstood the derision heaped upon them by
generations of critics.
Born
in Transylvania in 1923 - though he later became an Austrian
citizen -
Gyorgy Ligeti studied at the conservatoire in Cluj (or Kolozsvar in
Hungarian) and the Budapest Academy of Music.
Like
Bela Bartok, Ligeti was fascinated by folk music and initially
produced a number of arrangements in that idiom.
Appointed
Professor of Harmony, Counterpoint and Formal Analysis at the
Budapest Conservatory in 1950, he fled the country in the wake of
the
Soviet invasion six years later.
Idiosyncratic
sounds
By
the late 1950s, Ligeti's musical tastes had moved on. He now
embraced the radical vision of a new music which was sweeping much
of Europe.
Smashing:
Nouvelles aventures
Smashing: Nouvelles aventures
Perhaps his most notable, certainly his most famous, piece was
Atmospheres from 1960.
This
work featured, along with Ligeti's Requiem and Lux Aeterna, on the
soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Other
pieces were more idiosyncratic, like the aptly-titled Poeme
Symphonique for 100 metronomes, in which the machines were set running
at different speeds.
Critics
damned some of Ligeti's work as crass and simplistic, but there
is no doubting the strength of his only opera, La Grande Macabre,
which
enjoyed success at the English National Opera in 1982.
With
its dark meditations on death and sexual excess, the work created
quite a stir on its London outing. Ligeti's impish sense of humour
was, no
doubt, tickled.
Eclectic
influences
Then
there was his absurdist diptych, Aventures and Nouvelles
Aventures, the latter including the smashing of a tea service.
According
to taste, it put Ligeti at either the cutting edge or the
outside left field of popular culture.
Poeme
Symphonique for 100 Metronomes
Ligeti himself admitted to his eclectic influences, ranging from
cartoons and comics to the philosophical differences between the rigid
order of
clocks and the natural chaos of clouds.
Dogged
in recent years by ill health, Ligeti's output was markedly
reduced. In many ways the world had moved on, too.
But
there is no doubting the huge importance of Ligeti's work, not just
within the rarified atmosphere of the concert hall but in the wider
popular cultural landscape of the 20th century.
De:
http://jn.sapo.pt/2006/06/13/cultura/ultima_partitura_compositor_gyorgy_l.html
Jornal
de Noticias (PORTUGAL)
Ultima
partitura do compositor Gyorgy Ligeti
(...)
O
compositor Antonio Pinho Vargas, que conheceu pessoalmente Gyorgi
Ligeti
num curso de Verao na Hungria, em 1991, considerou-o 'o grande
compositor da segunda metade do seculo XX'. 'Ligeti era brilhante,
inteligente e
muito culto (...) Era um homem muito atento ao mundo, para alem do
que
habitualmente sao os compositores da sua geracao', disse Pinho Vargas
.
Pinho Vargas reconheceu que o compositor austro-hungaro influenciou
a
sua musica, afirmando que 'Ligeti deixa um legado muito rico' e 'foi
um
homem que inventou sucessivamente o modo de fazer musica'. 'Tinha
uma
inquietacao constante e e notavel que aos 70 anos tenha muda do o
seu estilo, pois
repensava-o constante', acrescentou. Entre as pecas de Ligeti Pinho
Vargas
destacou a opera 'Le grand Macabre', o 'Segundo quarteto para cordas'
e
as tres pecas de 'Estudos para Piano'.
De:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/06/12/obituarios/1150123127.html
EL
MUNDO (ESPANHA) Obituario
EFEVIENA.-
El compositor austriaco de origen hungaro Gyorgy Ligeti,
fallecidoel 12 de junio en Viena a los 83 anos, fue uno de los autores
y
teoricos mas importantes de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, conocido
por el gran
publico por la inclusion de dos de sus composiciones en la banda sonora
de la
pelicula '2001, una odisea del espacio'.
Ligeti,
un clasico de la musica contemporanea y heredero del
dodecafonismo, es considerado el maximo exponente de la musica experimental
electroacustica de la decada de los anos 60.
La
plasticidad y capacidad evocadora de su musica sedujo al realizador
estadounidense Stanley Kubrick, que utilizo su 'Requiem' (1965) y
'Lux
eterna' (1966) para crear el salto temporal mas conocido y magistral
de
la historia del cine, el que al principio de '2001, una odisea del
espacio' (1968) anuda el pasado de los grandes simios a la era espacial.
Nacido
en Transilvania en 1923, en el seno de una familia judia de
habla alemana, Ligeti se intereso muy joven por la musica y empezo
a tomar
clases de piano.
La
llegada de los nazis al poder en Alemania y el estallido de la
Segunda Guerra Mundial desbarataron su familia: su padre murio en
el campo de
concentracion nazi de Bergen-Belsen (Alemania) y su hermano en Mauthausen
(Austria).
Ligeti
tuvo que realizar trabajos para el ejercito hungaro en el ultimo
tramo de la contienda, despues de la guerra y hasta 1956 impartio
clases de musica en el conservatorio de Budapest.
'Mi
vida durante la epoca nazi y el comunismo estuvo llena de riesgos.
Creo que eso se refleja, ese sentimiento permanece' en la musica,
aseguro el
compositor con posterioridad.
Las
restricciones de la dictadura comunista en Hungria a la creacion
hizo que huyese en 1956 a Austria 'con un portafolios, un par de partituras
y un cepillo de dientes', segun relataria mas adelante.
Ligeti
se incorporo al estudio de musica electronica experimental de la
Radio de Colonia, que lo convertiria en una figura senera por explorar
nuevos territorios y donde hasta 1959 trabajo de forma estrecha con
otras figuras de la vanguardia como Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen
y
Luigi Nono.
Demando a Kubrick
Ligeti
recibio su primer reconocimiento internacional en 1961 con su
obra 'Atmospheres', de la que Kubrick tomo algunos elementos para
la banda
sonora de '2001, una odisea en el espacio'.
El
director neoyorquino introdujo la musica en la banda sonora sin
consultar previamente al compositor ni pagarle derechos de autor,
por lo que
Ligeti acudio a los tribunales que le compensaron con 3.000 dolares
por el uso
de su partitura en el filme.
Aparte
de las dos piezas incluidas en la banda sonora de la pelicula de
Kubrick, entre sus mas famosas composiciones se encuentran 'Nouvelles
aventures' (1962-65) y la opera 'Le grand macabre' (1978), entre muchos
otros trabajos.
Ligeti
desarrollo en sus obras estructuras ritmicas que se sobreponen y
reproducen una gran cantidad de sonidos homogeneos, lo que se ha
denominado como el principio de la composicion de areas de sonido.
El
autor paso de la vanguardia a un regreso paulatino a las fuentes de
la tradicion musical, por lo que algunos disconformes con su evolucion
le
calificaron de 'traidor a la vanguardia'.
En
las dos ultimas decadas Ligeti recibio un amplio reconocimiento por
su obra, que ha sido editada de forma integral.
En
Austria su muerte ha causado el reconocimiento a su trabajo desde
las mas altas esferas del Gobierno.
En
un comunicado conjunto, el canciller federal de Austria, Wolfgang
Schussel, y el secretario de Estado para el Arte, Franz Morak,
recordaron la gran influencia que ha tenido el fallecido musico en
las generaciones jovenes.
Fue
un 'gran austriaco en el mundo de la musica del siglo XX',
considerado'desde hace decadas uno los mas destacados representantes
de la nueva
musica en Europa, que ha enriquecido el arte de la composicion con
incomparables tonalidades', senala la nota.
De:http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2478138
DER
STANDARD (AUSTRIA)
Reaktionen:
'In einer Reihe mit Bartok, Stockhausen und Boulez'
Mailath-Pokorny
will Ehrengrab zur Verfugung stellen - Schussel und Morak:
'Grosser Osterreicher' - Young: Seine Klangfantasie bewundert Trennlinie
Hamburg/Wien
- Als 'grossen Osterreicher in der Welt der Musik des 20.
Jahrhunderts' wurdigten Bundeskanzler Wolfgang Schussel (V) und
Kunststaatssekretar Franz Morak (V) den am Montag 83-jahrig
verstorbenen Komponisten Gyorgy Ligeti. Dieser war 'seit Jahrzehnten
einer der
Wortfuhrer der neuen Musik in Europa und hat die Tonkunst mit unverwechselbaren
Klangfarben bereichert', hiess es in einer gemeinsamen Aussendung.
Ligeti
habe 'Meilensteine in der Musikgeschichte' hervor gebracht und 'grossen
Einfluss auf die jungere Generation ausgeubt'.
Mailath:
'In einer Reihe mit Bartok, Stockhausen und Boulez'
Der Wiener Kulturstadtrat Andreas Mailath-Pokorny (S) meinte: 'Die
Musikwelt hat einen ihrer grossten zeitgenossischen Komponisten verloren'.
Ligeti
stehe 'in einer Reihe mit Bartok, Stockhausen und Boulez.' Die Stadt
Wien werde fur Ligeti ein Ehrengrab zur Verfugung stellen.
Young:
Seine Klangfantasie bewundert
Hamburgs
Opernintendantin Simone Young zeigte sich betroffen uber den
Tod des Komponisten. 'Ich habe es immer bewundert, mit welcher Klangfantasie
Gyorgy Ligeti seinen Weg abseits des Mainstream, abseits der Avantgarde
gesucht und gefunden hat', sagte die australische Dirigentin in Hamburg.
Bei
seiner kompositorischen Arbeit sei er immer offen fur Einflusse von
aussen, fur Musik anderer Kulturen, fur bildende Kunst, ja sogar fur
Computergrafik gewesen. 'Er zeigte uns, dass Musik, wenn sie sich
kreativ weiter entwickeln will, auch Einflusse von aussen aufnehmen
muss.'
(APA)
De:
Jorge Antunes [mailto:antunes@unb.br]
Enviada em: segunda-feira, 12 de junho de 2006 16:46
Assunto: Ligeti
Consternados, informamos o falecimento do compositor Gyorgy Ligeti.
Depois de longa doenca o maestro hungaro faleceu na madrugada desta
segunda-feira, 12 de junho, aos 83 anos de idade.
SBME
(Sociedade Brasileira de Musica Eletroacustica)
Jorge Antunes
Presidente
With great sadness we inform you of the death of Gyorgy Ligeti.
After a long illness, Gyorgy Ligeti has died this monday, 12th June,
at
the age of 83.
SBME
(Brazilian Society for Electroacoustic Music)
Jorge Antunes
President
From:
Henk Heuvelmans [mailto:henk.heuvelmans@iscm.org]
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 4:57 PM
Subject: Ligeti
Dear
friends,
With
great sadness I herewith have to inform you of the death of Gyorgy
Ligeti.
Today,
after a long illness, Gyorgy Ligeti has died at the age of 83.
Numerous prices, awards and distinctions are proofs of the high esteem
accorded to the work of Gyorgy Ligeti and to him as a teacher and
mentor of a whole generation of composers. He was also an honorary
member of the
ISCM.
Sincerely
yours,
ISCM
Henk Heuvelmans, secretary general
De:
[mailto:compositoresvenezolanos@gruposyahoo.com] Em nome de Emilio
Mendoza
Enviada em: segunda-feira, 12 de junho de 2006 13:09
Assunto: [compvenz] Lamentamos muerte de Gyorgy Ligeti
Hoy,
luego de una larga enfermedad, Gyorgy Ligeti muere a la edad de 83
anos. Numerosos premios y distinciones son prueba del alcance de su
obra y de su trabajo como maestro y mentor de una generacion de compositores.
Muere uno de los grandes de nuestra epoca.
Emilio
From:
'Trottier Danick' <danick.trottier@umontreal.ca>
Reply-To: cercledemusicologie@groupesyahoo.ca
Subject: [cercledemusicologie] Deces de G. Ligeti
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:19:26 -0400
Une
bien mauvaise nouvelle: G. Ligeti est mort tout a l'heure a l'age
de 83 ans. Puisse-t-il trouver 'l'escalier du Paradis'...
http://www.swissinfo.org/fre/culture/agences/detail/Musique_contemporaine_d
eces_de_Gyoergy_Ligeti.html?siteSect=203&sid=6804118&cKey=1150120578000
Jean-Claire Vancon
75, Avenue Jean Jaures
75019. Paris
01.42.00.27.18 / 06.03.12.33.74
jean_claire_vancon@yahoo.fr
jean_claire.vancon@multilaterale.org
The John Tusa Interviews Gyorgy Ligeti (transcription and audio)
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/ligeti_transcript.shtml
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