THE ELECTRONIC WORKS OF GYÖRGY LIGETI AND THEIR ...

material, that in itself contains both repetitions and retrogrades of all the previous
instances of B and C Section material.
2
Event 4 comes from Section F , and like Event 3, it preserves (in retrograde) a
R
segment from Section F , earlier in the second half. While it contains many of the
invariant gestures, what is more remarkable is that the highly directional material which
began the climactic arch of Section F, is now clipped short, and has a very different effect.
Here the clipped version of these low register sine glissandi emphasizes only the
intersections of individual strands–in themselves quite similar to the invariant gestures–and
not the global direction. Ligeti further downplays the global rising of the original F
Section by following this event with an extensive rest, which also prepares the beginning
R
of Section A and the conclusion of the piece.
Retrograde of Section A
R
Section A , shown in Figure 2.22, returns to a sense of directionality, where the
retrograde becomes clear again, and thus brings the piece to its close. This sense of
directionality, however, recurs only at the very end of the passage. The range-expanding
glissando which was the last event of Section A is filtered out in the retrograde, so the first
one hears of this material is the cross-hatched pattern of intersecting glissandi–an invariant
gesture. At 7'20.5" the final invariant axis occurs in this material and is emphasized by the
2
fact that this coincides with the window in Section F material. This final section is quite
different from the previous coincidence of material from Sections A and F; here Section
2 R
F 's material is largely filtered out to allow Section A to guide the piece to a close,
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