THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

This is an extreme example and a rhythmic climax of this section of the piece,
which contains precisely measured tremolos to achieve an ebb and flow of internal speed,
without any melodic direction. Returning to the first movement, however, the tremolos in
Section B, which are to be played as quickly as possible contain a potential for internal
motion that is a starting point for the exploration of other gestures, which exploit the
effects of rhythm and dynamics on our perceptions of pitch.
New Approaches to Pitch
Before discussing the novel use of pitch in specific gestures which Ligeti transfers
from electronic medium to the acoustic, I will address the use of clusters more generally,
for it is this maximally dense articulation of an equal-tempered pitch-space which enables
many of these gestures to take form. The idea of using chromatic clusters–simultaneously
sounding stacks of semitones–was an idea simultaneously and independently developed by
Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Iannis Xenakis. Penderecki’s Anaklasis was premiered
in October of 1960, a mere four months after Ligeti’s Apparitions, and while Xenakis’s
Metastasis dates from earlier (1954), it is clear that Ligeti did not know the piece until the
summer courses at Darmstadt in 1960.
Apparitions uses chromatic clusters as its basic material, employing these as most
of the harmonically sounding entities of the first movement. These clusters make up the
network of the piece, which the duration scheme above helps articulate and which Ligeti
describes as undergoing a gradual and irrevocable development from stasis and balance to
animated motion. While these clusters have roots dating back before Ligeti’s flight from
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