THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

namely, “harmonic versus inharmonic spectrum” and “synchronous versus asynchronous
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timing of partials.” He then discusses the roles of the instruments in these oppositions,
and indeed, the process of the piece, clarifying the discussion through the use of
spectrographs taken from the composition itself. While his analytical method is “bottom-
up,” proceeding from the local details to the larger form, I find that Di Scipio’s comments
on both how Risset’s instruments were developed, and how they are used in the piece, to
be particularly informative, and I will emulate this in my analyses which also rely on sketch
material from the composer, which is held by the in the György Ligeti Collection of the
Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.
Thus the analyses that follow in Chapters 2 and 3 will work towards a better
understanding of Ligeti’s electronic works, using sketch material to represent the
composer’s vision of each piece’s structure, and using Cogan’s system of oppositions to
connect these to audible categories which form the basis of a listener’s perception
structure. In most cases these overlap substantially–a fact that points towards Ligeti’s
awareness of the potential disparity between compositional design and perception and his
concern with both. Ligeti refined his understanding of perception in the electronic music
studios, and after a thorough investigation of the ways Ligeti applies this understanding to
the construction of Glissandi and Artikulation, the final chapter will illustrate how many
of the same concerns emerge in the compositional techniques and resulting musical
textures and gestures used in Apparitions and in the works which followed.
42Di
Scipio, “Emergence and Dissolution,” 173.
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