THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

demand further reflection. For instance, as you can see in Figure 4.1, his design
corresponds to the initial attacks of each cluster; some of the attacks do not fill up the
entire span, while others carry over past the next attack point.
In each stage of the realization of this portion of Apparitions, the composer allows
himself certain liberties. First, in the large scale distribution, Ligeti altered the strict
balance of his initial distribution to create large sections in certain proportions, as shown in
Table 4.3. Within these proportions, by leaving the specifics of ordering open, he allows
himself the flexibility to achieve a specific aesthetic goal. The composer noted that the
piece begins with a carefully balanced state, which is then disturbed by the more impulsive
events until, “the network is irrevocably changed; the stationary sounds heretofore only
weakly stirred by internal vibrations, are now crumpled. Trills and tremolos animate the
sounding masses, and a continually irregular fluctuation of the dynamics hinders the
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retrieval of any equilibrium.” The outer sections contain a mixture of longer and shorter
durations, while the inner sections contain mostly shorter ones; these are arranged in the
piece, first to effect a gradual acceleration through part A, then to create a more turbulent
area through parts B and C, and finally to bring about fierce juxtapositions in the final
section, where long sustained clusters are interrupted by chaotic passages, labeled “wild”
in the score.
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György Ligeti, “States, Events, Transformations,” trans. Jonathan Bernard, Perspectives of New Music,
Vol. 31, No. 1, 167.
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