The Covalence of Ligeti and Boulez: Relationships Through Analysis

Blake Taylor
MUS 609
1 March 2016

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A discussion of twentieth century music would be remiss without
mentioning Gyrgy Ligeti and Pierre Boulez. Although they both found
great success in diverse musical fields Ligeti as a renowned analyst,
Boulez as an award-winning conductor their shared (and greatest)
success lay in the realm of composition. Despite some early
differences, Boulez became a great influence on Ligeti in later years.
Ligetis greatest testament to Boulez lies in his first three etudes,
published in 1985: Dsordre, Cordes vide, and Touches
bloques. Ligeti dedicated each of these to Boulez.
Through this paper, I am seeking to show Boulezs influence on
Ligeti as evidenced through these etudes. I will analyze sections of
each study, and then give similar analytic treatment to sections of
works by Boulez, including Marteau sans matre and Drive. The
resultant analyses will show compositional links between Boulezs
works and Ligetis etudes, demonstrating Boulezs influence on Ligeti.
To frame this influence, I will first give attention to Ligetis role as an
outsider to the collective at Darmstadt after his arrival in 1956.
Postwar Darmstadt became home to a summer festival for
avant-garde music, attracting a collection of serial composers including
Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Theodor Adorno.1 Boulezs
debut at Darmstadt included the premiere of his Second Piano

11. Martin Iddon, New Music at Darmstadt (Cambridge University

Press, 2013), 35.

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Concerto in 1952,2 though Ligeti wouldnt arrive in nearby Cologne
until late 1956.3
As a Hungarian immigrant, Ligeti found difficulty acclimating to
this compositional scene, and as biographer Paul Griffiths notes, the
serialists were nearly as restrictive as the Composers Union of the
Hungarian Peoples Republic.4 This early period shows little production
from Ligeti, who instead became greatly influenced by Karlheinz
Stockhausens electronic works. Ligeti emulated (and later disavowed)
these methods in his composition Glissandi for one-track tape.5
Instead of composing, Ligeti directed his energies toward
analysis. Boulez had recently completed Le marteau sans matre; Ligeti
considered analyzing it, yet this was ultimately unfulfilled due to the
complex nature of the piece. He would instead analyze Boulezs earlier
Structure Ia with great critical care, creating what Griffiths calls
perhaps the most widely-read and quoted analysis of any twentieth
century piece,6 even pointing out some of Boulezs compositional
errors.
Ligetis criticism and skepticism of the hyper-serial Structures Ia
embodies his perceived problem with the postwar serial trend: The

22.
33.
44.
55.
66.

Iddon, Darmstadt, 68.

Iddon, Darmstadt, 228.
Paul Griffiths, Gyrgy Ligeti (London: Robson Books, 1983), 30.
Ibid.
Ibid.

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choice of durations, though in itself logical is all the same arbitrary.7
Ligeti also cautioned against aleatoric elements, specifically toward
Boulezs Third Piano Sonata, saying, It seems to me it would be much
more worthwhile to try and achieve a process of change.8 Indeed,
Ligetis perception of the avant-garde as a musical movement lead to
his famous cloud analogy of 1993:
When I think of the avant-garde I have this image in my head: I
am sitting in an airplane, the sky is blue and I see a landscape.
And then the plane flies into a cloud: everything is grey-white. At
first the grey seems interesting if you compare it to the earlier
landscape, but it soon becomes monotonous. I then fly out of the
cloud and again see the landscape, which has completely
changed in the meantime.9
Despite this attitude toward the avant-garde scene applicable
here to Darmstadt Ligeti stated that by 1959 he owed insights into
structural cohesion and a sensitization of musical thinking towards the
finest ramifications to his Darmstadt colleagues10 in other words,
serialism, particularly Stockhausens work on the frontier of

77. Lynden Deyoung, Pitch Order and Duration Order in Boulez

Structure Ia, Perspectives of New Music 16 No. 2 (1978) 28.
88. Griffiths, Ligeti, 37.
99. Manfred Stahnke, The Harvard Composition Class, in Gyrgy
Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, ed. Louise Duchesneau
and Wolfgang Marx (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2011), 231.
1010. Paul Griffiths, Gyrgy Ligeti (London: Robson Books, 1983), 34.

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electroacoustic, provided Ligeti with an improved sense of formal
framework and musical aesthetic.
One can immediately see the distinction between Ligeti and
Boulezs compositional styles in in the late 1950s and early 1960s:
Boulez as the serialist in the tradition of his teacher Olivier Messiaen,
creator of Le marteau sans matre and other sonically dense and busy
works; Ligeti as the up-and-coming migr, painting various tonal
landscapes using his process of micropolyphony, producing pieces such
as Artikulation and Apparitions. As Ligetis interest in Darmstadt
waned, his 1959 move to Vienna marked his initial divergence from
Boulez.
Ligetis move to Vienna stemmed from a perceived role as an
outsider in the Darmstadt crowd. By the time Ligeti left, individual
members of the collective had become obsessed with their own
method of composition, the overarching unity of postwar serialism
diminishing as the 1950s waned. Stockhausen and his electroacoustic
adventures butted heads primarily with Boulezs Messiaenic hyperserial technique. The catalyst amidst it all was John Cage, who arrived
in 1958 and gave a series of controversial lectures that further split the
.11 Ligeti wanted none of this, and his compositional process was
stunted as a result. By the time of Ligetis move to Vienna, he had
abandoned his earlier serial style found in Chromatic Fantasy,
1111. Martin Iddon, New Music at Darmstadt (Cambridge University
Press, 2013), 213-216.

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composed at Darmstadt in the twelve-tone tradition. Instead, Ligeti
drew primarily from Stockhausen, finding in the electroacoustic idiom
interesting ideas for non-electroacoustic compositions, which prompted
a much richer production of work including the seminal Atmosphres.12
With few divergences, Ligeti would continue composing in this style of
micropolyphony until the 1980s.
To understand how Boulez influenced Ligetis composition of the
etudes, I must first define hallmarks of Ligetis style. Present in Ligetis
early works is the fastidiously Hungarian character, imbued by his
teacher Sndor Varess. Duchesneau posits that Ligetis early exposure
to Romanian music Ligetis birthplace switched Soviet, Hungarian and
Romanian hands multiple times before he left for Cologne and Roma
street music along with his study with Varess including a interest in
Bartok led to this characteristic style.13
The genesis of Ligetis style is best exemplified in his early works
Morning and Night, two eclectic pieces for a capella choir that escape
the shadows of serialism and Bartok. These two pieces are tonal, yet
they introduce a germ of Ligetis overarching concept of
micropolyphony in murmuring crescendi, peppered with raucous
cockerel-like interjections.
1212. Paul Griffiths, Gyrgy Ligeti (London: Robson Books, 1983), 3132.
1313. Louise Duchesneau, Gyrgy Ligeti and Recorded Music, in
Gyrgy Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, ed. Louise
Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2011), 127129.

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Ligetis work from the early 1960s shows another clear
delineation between Ligeti and Boulezs compositional character.
According to Griffiths, Ligeti displayed a penchant for self-mockery,
having composed a series of pieces that satirize his own
pretentiousness in the early 1960s. As an example, Griffiths notes the
idiotic extremes of Ligetis 1961 work Fragment for chamber
orchestra14. A tone cluster is held for two to four minutes, after which a
sfffff bass drum strike occurs. Ligetis capacity for self-deprecatory
humor, parodying everything achieved in Atmosphres,15 can be
greatly contrasted to that of Boulez, whose serialist and quasi-serialist
output of the late 1950s do not lend themselves to much perceived
humor.
[Expand on Ligetis work in the 1970s?]
To begin to examine the influence of Boulez upon Ligeti as
exemplified in Ligetis etudes, extramusical factors must be taken into
account. Most tellingly, the dedication to Boulez stems from the two
men exchanging birthday gifts. Boulez conducted a great concert for
Ligetis sixtieth birthday in 1983, so Ligeti in turn dedicated his first
three etudes to Boulez for his sixtieth birthday in 1985.16 The titles of
the three etudes are in French, yet Ligeti is a Hungarian composer
1414. Paul Griffiths, Gyrgy Ligeti (London: Robson Books, 1983), 41.
1515. Ibid.
1616. Richard Steinetz, Genesis of the Piano Concert and Horn Trio,
in Gyrgy Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, ed. Louise
Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2011), 204205.

7
living abroad. The foreign titling may seem odd, but it follows a
tradition of Ligeti giving his works French titles see for example
Atmosphres, Aventures, and Le grand macabre. Besides the historical
precedent, its clear why Ligeti chose to title these in French due to
their Boulez dedication. As Ligeti was fond of wordplay, the titles are
also reminiscent of Boulezs works compare Dsordre with Boulezs
Drives, for example.
The setting of these piano pieces as etudes is also significant. Why
didnt Ligeti dedicate a piano sonata or other, more established form
to Boulez? I believe the answer lies in Boulezs perceived role in the
avant-garde community: Ligeti wanted to recognize Boulez as a great
teacher and propagator of the movement. In this way, Ligetis setting
of these works as etudes honors the precedent set by Boulez
Beyond the extramusical, the actual music merits analysis. I will
now give an analytical treatment to sections of each of Ligetis etudes,
beginning with the first, Dsordre. Ligeti eschews serialist or
micropolyphonal approaches in favor of one geared more toward
through-composition with offset repeating elements. Note the grand
staff with conflicting key signatures: right hand is in the key of no
accidentals, left hand is in the key of five sharps. This creates
discordant dyads on nearly every note. However, there is a serial
influence here what Ligeti called the arbitrary nature of the
technique emerges in the fourth, eighth and ninth bars. This technique,

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which Ligeti had earlier dismissed as a sort of arithmetic in his early
analysis of Structure Ia, uses an additive function to delay the
downbeat of the two hands by an eighth note in each instance of the
operation. Figure 1 shows this operation in effect.
Fig. 1, Dsordre mm. 1-7

Although not completely beholden to Boulez, this operation

displays a similar compositional lineage to Boulezs constructs in
serialism. In that regard, set analysis doesnt reveal much about this
piece; due to the half-step relation of left and right hand key
signatures, Ligeti uses all 12 tones in the first three measures the left
hand on the pentatonic black keys and the right hand on the white
keys of the piano. This results in a set devoid of any relevant
information: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12). Notable, however, is how
Ligeti completes the aggregate in the third bar each of the first two
measures compounds on the pitch collection, reflecting the later

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additive rhythm operation, until the left-out D-natural is used as an
arrival point in the third bar. This aggregate completion serves as a
structural link, relating the pitch aspect to the formal aspect of the
etude.
Beyond Boulez, the serialist idiom in a general sense is solely
based on divisions of aggregates again, what Ligeti earlier called
arithmetic. In this wider-ranging serial definition, the aggregate can
be understood as any predetermined collection of musical values the
twelve tones, dynamics, articulations, and so on. Ligeti utilizes this
sense of aggregate arithmetic in Dsordre though not in an
outright serialist fashion.
Ultimately, Ligetis embrace of quasi-serial techniques in
Dsordre mirrors Boulezs similar compositional treatment in Drive,
his 1984 work for small ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello,
vibraphone, and piano.
In Drive, completion of the twelve-tone aggregate signifies a
structural focal point. It appears within the first three bars, as shown in
Figure 2:

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Fig. 2, Drive mm. 1-4

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In this example, Boulez writes sweeping, chromatic piano lines

that lead into the flutes flutter-tongued F. This F completes only a
piece of the aggregate puzzle; the still-missing G and C-sharp arent
provided until the subsequent two bars. When the missing C-sharp
does arrive, however, its made part of a chord embellished by the

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pieces characteristic trill, which becomes a major textural element of
the work.
While both Ligeti and Boulez used the point of aggregate
completion as structural indicators, the question arises: Was Ligeti
aware of this compositional technique when he wrote the etudes?
Considering Ligetis background as an analyst, his status as an awardwinning composer, and his early exposure to multiserialism in
Darmstadt, I believe so.
The second of Ligetis etudes, Cordes vide, presents a much
different harmonic and textural character. Descending and ascending
perfect fifths with heavy pedal usage give the piece a dreamlike
quality. Although the harmonic content cant be traced to Boulez, the
melodic formula can. According to Ligeti, in the piano etudes, we hear
melodies that have not been played, which are created out of the
interaction of different intersecting lines an acoustical illusion. 17
What Ligeti is describing can be understood as compound
melodic elements, which Boulez uses extensively in Le marteau sans
matre. As a matter of principle, melody in pointillistic textures such as
this operates exclusively at the compound level. Consider the first
movement of Marteau, shown in Figure 3:

Insert Fig. 3, Marteau mm. 1-5

1717. Stephen Satory, An Interview with Gyrgy Ligeti in Hamburg,
Canadian University Music Review 10 No. 1 (1990), 112-113.

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Compare this, then, with Ligetis second etude, where
displacement of accents and registral shifts creates a similar cascading
effect, shown in Figure 4. The created compound melody is circled in
red.
Insert Fig. 4, Cordes mm. 1-4
Looking at the etude on a purely textural level, disregarding
melodic implication, the rolling effect of the piano in Cordes also
mirrors the overall shape and motion of the accompanimental piano
part in Drive. The graphic in Figure 5 shows the contour similarity.
Insert Fig. 5, Cordes and Drive graphic
The final etude to analyze includes the most unfamiliar notation
practice. True to Boulez and Messiaen before him, Ligeti includes a
table explaining the meaning of the different-sized noteheads and
symbols in Touches bloques. This sort of notation appears in Drive
as well; compare the openings of the piano part in Drive versus the
etude in Figure 6:
Insert Fig. 6, Touches and Drive graphic
Notable also are the almost exclusively chromatic runs in the
etude; however, the larger (stressed) noteheads form a discrete
melody, another example of compounding. There are again some
quasi-serial elements at play, as the left hand forms a white-key
aggregate that isnt completed with the final white key (A) until the
section change at m. 24. In this regard, this etude can be viewed as an

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inversion of the first etude Dsordre the black-key pentachord and
white key heptachord have just been switched from left to right hand
and vice versa. This is a gradual transformation within the piece,
though, and isnt fully realized until mm. 18-22. Gradual
transformation, coincidentally, is a hallmark of Boulez. Compare the
transformation from bar 1 to bar 22 in Figure 6:
Insert Fig. 6
This same type of transformation, in which elements are
compounded and augmented, occurs repeatedly in Boulezs 1971 work
explosante-fixe. For example, the flute melody in mm. 24-28 is
subsequently compounded across the staves of the supporting voices
as the tone clusters gradually increase in dissonance, shown in Figure
7:
Insert Fig. 7
[Revise?]In conclusion, although the compositional legacies of
Ligeti and Boulez are great in their own regard, Ligetis dedication of
three etudes to Boulez demonstrates how influential Boulezs serial
style and orchestration technique were over Ligeti. Ligeti takes
significant stylistic and musical ideas from across Boulezs oeuvre
when constructing these etudes, a testament to each composer.

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Bibliography
Deyoung, Lynden. Pitch Order and Duration Order in Boulez Structure
Ia. Perspectives of New Music 16 No. 2 (1978): 27-34.

Duchesneau, Louise. Gyrgy Ligeti and Recorded Music. In Gyrgy

Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds, edited by Louise
Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx, 125-147. Suffolk: Boydell Press,
2011.

Griffiths, Paul. Gyrgy Ligeti. London: Robson Books, 1983.

Iddon, Martin. New Music at Darmstadt. Cambridge University Press,

2013.

16
Satory, Stephen. An Interview with Gyrgy Ligeti in Hamburg.
Canadian University Music Review 10 No. 1 (1990): 112-113.

Steinetz, Richard. Genesis of the Piano Concert and Horn Trio. In

Gyrgy Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds. Edited by
Louise Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx, 169-212. Suffolk: Boydell
Press, 2011.