THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

piece, which he describes as, “a gradual, irreversible progress from the heterogeneous
disposition at the beginning to the complete mixture and interpenetration of the contrasted
16
characters at the end.”
While Ligeti himself identified several sections of the composition, it is my belief
that these are not the most accurate way of reflecting the process of the piece as described
above. In his sketches he labels sections A through G. These he first developed from a
number series, and then modified, in a manner much like the one described above.
However, after their substantial modification (see below), I feel these labels are slightly
misleading. The sketches show an original arrangement calling for section A to be the
longest section, having 12 subsections. Sections C, E, and F were then to have 3, 3, and 2
subsections, respectively. This was, however, changed and sections C and F were later
reduced to one subsection each; sections B, D, and G also have one subsection each. In
the end, Ligeti ended up with a plan calling for 20 total subsections, which were assigned
lengths as follows:
Table 3.3a. Artikulation: Durations of Subsections
cm difference*unrounded* ratio*
1 450
2 500 50 500.00 10/9
3 550 50 550.00 11/10
4 610 60 610.00 12.2/11
5 670 60 671.00 12.1/11
6 740 70 737.00 12.1/11
7 820 80 820.73 12.2/11
8 910 90 909.45 12.2/11
9 1000 90 1000 10/9
10 1100 100 1100 11/10
11 1200 100 1200 12/11
12 1300 100 1300 13/12
13 1400 100 1400 14/13
16Ligeti,
“Metamorphosis,” 15.
102