Ligeti, Tradition and the Endless Now: The Creative Process and Actuality in "Le Grand Macabre".

Stipendiat ved Institutt for musikkvitenskap (IMV)

Each of Ligeti’s works in some way demonstrates a level of historical reflection; the musical material he conceives directly engages with the Western art music tradition in persistently new ways. This is particularly apparent in the work studied in this dissertation, Le Grand Macabre (1974-77, revised 1996), with its overt use of parody and abundance of allusions, and most interestingly, its distillation of the musical past in ways that seemingly obviate signification, resulting in a heightened sense of actuality in the musical expression. Ligeti’s theoretical and practical dialogue with tradition and various musical genres provides a means to discuss the otherness of his music. In his own terms his music might be understood as the ‘flipside of previous music’ and musical expression. Ligeti’s approach to creating ‘new’ music never involved attempting to break with tradition, or the explicit development of innovative compositional techniques and a radically new musical language – a concern of several of his Darmstadt colleagues at one point or other. Instead the focus is always centred on entering into dialogue with tradition in new ways.

 

Ligeti’s understanding of tradition, as reflected in his texts and discourses, resembles that of Adorno. Ligeti engaged with Adorno both privately and in public, and also refers to Adorno’s ideas in his own writings. This understanding of tradition informs the study of Le Grand Macabre and its performance and reception; it provides a basis from which to discuss how the expectations, anticipations, and apperception of the recipient are challenged in continually new ways. The responses Ligeti provides to the historio-philosophical challenge of creating new music are explored in this dissertation through studies of the sketch material for Le Grand Macabre, analyses of the musical material and form, a study of the revisions made to the 1996 version of the work, and also aspects of the productions and performances of the opera.