THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

Coda:
This silence prepares the final stage of the piece which is marked by the lack of
concurrent or polyphonic events. While there is slight overlap initially, the coda soon
returns to a clear-cut alternation between the channels and between sound types, though
this now occurs at the level of events, rather than regions. The most notable difference
between this and the previous material is that what came before was characterized by the
alternation of longer monologues and simple dialogues, the coda is much more fragmented
– single events lasting, on average, less than a second. The coda can be divided into two
parts, the first from 3'21" to 3'33" and the final from 3'33.3" to the end. This division
follows Ligeti’s sketches which identified these as sections F and G, and corresponds,
perceptually to an increase in the amount of rest between events, and the exit of compact
material.
This change in material is less dramatic than the changes that divided previous
regions, as the coda is fundamentally different from the body of the piece; the regions here
reflect starting and ending states of similar collections of material. Here the individual
events are short and separated and do not form consistent patters within each region. The
first region presents a great variety of oppositional states, as can be seen in the table
below. This initial region is predominantly clipped and dry–features which help isolate the
events, and presents material that is a mixture of level and oblique, and compact and
diffuse. The second region moves towards more consistently diffuse and level events, and
across both regions the texture becomes sparser, softer, and slightly higher in register.
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