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Ligeti's Harmonies

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 Cláudio Miguel Andrade Fonseca de Pina
GIMC/CESEM – FCSH
klaudiopina@gmail.com
2019
Ligeti’s Harmonies

Abstract
This work concerns the analysis of the pipe organ work Harmonies (1967) composed by the composer
György Ligeti (1923-2006). Ligeti composed only three works for the pipe organ; Volumina (1961-62,
rev. 1966), Harmonies (1967) and Coulée (1969). To fully understand Harmonies, one should acquaint
himself with the other pipe organ works, albeit everyone of them has a different approach, the purpose
of Ligeti is clear. Sound is the ultimate goal from the composition and notation perspective. So in this
vein, one need to use unusual tools to analyze his work, like spectrographic analysis and outside of the
box formalization. Even the fingering can bring some logical sense to the way Harmonies was created.
Harmonies revolves around a momentum of ten note chords, which a single note of the chord is
changed throughout the piece. All ten fingers operate the keyboard, but between the chords, only one
note is changed. The notation reflects that intention, alas, the result is not correlated to the pitch written.
The sound is an imperceptible continuous transition, achieved through reducing the air pressure of the
pipes. The way to achieve this operation is documented by the author and several performers on the
notes of the piece and performances. This operation ‘starves’ the wind supply to the pipes and shifts the
spectrum toward a “pale, oddly unfamiliar, ‘wilted’ sound colours” (Ligeti, 1969).
How can one start to analyze such piece of work? Applying conventional analytical tools to the
score (in contrast to the graphical score of Volumina) doesn’t shed much light on the subject. Since the
sound was so important to the author a sound analysis would be valuable asset. The philosophical issue
is also important. Why create a composition with written notes, with no relationship with the sound.

KEYWORDS: Pipe Organ, Extended techniques, Ligeti, Analysis, Harmonies, Acoustics.

Harmonies
When Ligeti composed for the pipe organ in the 60’s it did not exist a continuously variable air valve to
control the pressure of the pipes, like in more modern pipe organs (i.e.: St. Peter’s pipe organ in Köln

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or Orgel Park in Amsterdam). Although Ligeti studied the instrument, the technology to change the
sound the way he wanted, was not available at the time. These ideas of sound manipulation are a
consequence of the electronic works Ligeti achieved at the WDR (Westdeutscher RundFunk, Köln) 1.
With Artikulation (1958) and Glissandi (1957) Ligeti tried to explore paradigms relating to sound that
where impossible to do with acoustic instruments at the time, but has he approached the limit of the
electronic systems in Cologne, he started to treat the instruments in another way.
Mimicking the techniques he learned in the Cologne Studio with instruments, regarding the pipe
organ pieces, is a pertinent remark of changing the way of thinking and operating a machine like the
pipe organ. So in this vein, one could explain the clusters of Volumina, the long chords of Harmonies
and the speed of Coulée has tape and electronic manipulations, couched in an acoustical instrument has
the pipe organ. In this regard, special techniques where used to attain the desired sound palette. Clever
manipulation of stop registers, engine and key depression obtain the sounds that Ligeti was looking for.
During the time Ligeti lived in Vienna, from 1959 to 1969, but in 1961 he served as an invited
professor of composition at the Musical High School in Stockholm, where he met the Swedish
organists Karl-Erik Welin (1934-1992) and Bengt Hambraeus (1928-2000) (special note on the cycle of
organ pieces with electronics, Konstellationen, 1959-1962). Together with the German organist Gerd
Zacher (1929-2014), Ligeti had some connections and privileged access to the instrument. Zacher
would be the organist that would play the studies for organ, Harmonies in 14 October 1967 at Hamburg
and Coulée in 19 October 1969 at Seckau/Steiermark, both times assisted by Juan Allende-Blin.
In the case of Harmonies, the author and several performers quote a few ideas to ‘starve’ the
wind supply to achieve the sounds needed. Also special advises are added regarding the registration,
dynamics, tempo and even practicality considerations like octave transpositions and specific
registration needed.
Regarding the execution,“play legatissimo throughout; all ten fingers stay down at all times”.
This is a reminiscent of the french articulation style in pipe organ music common a few decades before.
The use of ten note chords also create a mass of sound, albeit different than the clusters of Volumina,
since specific notes are written on the score.
Regarding notation:

1 Studio for Electronic Music of the West German Radio in Cologne.

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 the white and black note heads do not indicate note values; their purpose is to make reading easier. A
white note head indicates a change of pitch, i.e. a move from one key to another (the finger
concerned slides from a key to the nearest adjacent key, since pitch changes are always a minor second
up or down). The black note heads indicate the unchanged pitches. (Ligeti, 1967)

This style of notation, very different from Volumina whit its graphical notation, tries to achieve a
similar sound palette, but this time with fixed notation on a score. The use of black or white note heads
are just a marker for performance issue. Since the tempo value of the notes and bars are not fixed, the
change of note heads aids the performer to follow the score. A special note to the use of several fermata
to emphasize the duration (fig.1).

Regarding tempo:

the individual ‘bars’ can differ in length as the player wishes; certain chords can be held longer, and
others can be treated as passing chords of shorter duration. Nowhere in the piece should the chord
successions create an impression of meter or periodicity. (Ligeti, 1967)

The notion of passing chords and the value that they can represent is left to the performer. Since the
changes are always in minor seconds, one could assume a contra-punctual resolution of leading voices
or passing notes. But Harmonies does not follow any tonal counterpoint rules. These changes are only
to create fluctuations on the sound. All changes are made to have a direct consequence on resulting
sound.
Regarding dynamics and ‘tone colour’:

The whole piece is soft to very soft. Pale strange, ‘vitiated’ tone colours must predominate.
Denaturing the soud is achieved by ‘greatly reduced wind pressure’ (‘artificial consumptiveness’).
Wind pressure can be reduced in a number of ways... (Ligeti, 1967)

Several ways are notated by the author and several organists who performed Harmonies2:

2 These are some of the notes on the Schott edition of the Zwei Etüden for Orgel, p.4.

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 a) by using a weaker motor like that of a vacuum sweeper, inserting the hose in to the [air]
reservoir. (Gerd Zacher)
b) by adjusting the valve in the chied wind-reciever between the fan and the reservoir. (Detaching
the rope holding the valve or reducing the play of the valve so that the flow of air from the fan to the
reservoir is impeded). (Gábor Lehotka)
c) by opening the wind chest. (Gerd Zacher)
d) by reducing the rotation speed of the fan by loading the circuit (installing an adjustable resistance in t
he circuit, for instance). (Zsigmond Szathmáry)
e) by removing some low pipes from a pedal reed register; the relevant stop is drawn and the relevant
pedals are held down throughout the piece, so that some of the wind escapes (other notes of this register
cannot be used during this piece!). (Zsigmond Szathmáry)
Depending on the construction of the organ and the inventiveness of the player, other ways of reducing
wind pressure will be found, The effectiveness of these methods also depends on the registration…
(Ligeti, 1967)

The most important piece of information is the last one. The result depends on the construction of the
organ and knowledge of the performer. A certain inventiveness is needed and asked for in the piece.
This could lead to a false assumption that the piece will sound drastically different, each time is played,
specially with different pipe organs and organist. But this is not the case. The constriction of the ‘rules’
to play the piece, even on very different pipe organs (even from opposite construction periods) creates
an axiom that always produces Harmonies. Allied to the fact that the notes are always the same, only
the time values could change, albeit Ligeti advises the duration will be 6’ to 9’.
Other methods are more akin to an empirical knowledge and known limitations of the
instruments. For instance, one should take special care in altering these instruments, that usually reside
in churches. Other organs are impossible to alter in any of the ways described, specially historical ones
with regular bellows. Szathmáry and his use of a register stop to cleverly starve the wind supply is a
safe method, without altering too much the instrument. A remark is needed in this case since in the
spectrogram of Szathmáry’s performance, one can clearly see the straight lines on the low frequency
zone.
A simpler method would be to use half-drawn registers, but with attention to the registration
changes needed throughout the piece.

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 The explanation for this phenomenon relies on the physical behaviour of the pipes themselves.
Starving the wind pressure, the pipes cannot ‘sing’ properly the notes. With a normal operation of the
pipe, one could listen to the timbrical differences between a reed, flue, open, closed and all the myriad
of pipe shapes and sizes. Since they are not behaving in a normal way, some of the characteristics are
lost. The acoustics behaviour of a pipe, basically a cylinder that can be open or closed and have a reed
or a lip, already has a great amount of non-linearity behaviour during the transient part 3(Olson). The
pipe starts to acquire a modal shape when that turbulence is balanced with the normalization of
pressure, and that give us a note4(Henriques).
Regarding registration:

Since the organist uses both hands at all times, an assistant will be needed to change the registration;
frequent changes are desirable, and must occur in such way that the timbre alterations always take place
imperceptibly and apparently continuously. On mechanical organs, half-drawn stops are welcome as
half-depressed keys […] sudden entrances of starkly contrasting registers should be avoided.
The choice of registers will have a great influence on the denaturing of the sound. Pipes requiring a lot
of wind are specially good at producing the desired ‘comsumptive’ sound [...] (Karl-Erik Welin, Gerd
Zacher)

The continuous change of registers, at the same time with the way it is notated, gives a mass of sound.
That mass of sound is the final result and it is not related to the pitches on the score. One could assume
that is a concrete way of achieving certain sounds. On the other hand, one could also assume that
Harmonies is a good example of physical modeling synthesis with ten oscillators (plus several times
for each register) and various variables for each oscillator. Even if one could program such an endeavor
(i.e. MaxMSP or SuperCollider5) the randomness and behaviour of each pipe would be cumbersome to
enact. The same assumption could be made about Volumina introduction. In fact, denaturing the sound
is only a simple explanation for what is really happening. The real phenomenon is more related to the
field of hydrodynamics and fluid physics, than with acoustics or organology. A certain degree of chaos

3 In Olson’s book, several chapters are dedicated to the behaviour of several types of pipes. It refers that
when the pipe starts to vibrate, in the beginning of the sound, there isn’t a periodic behaviour, when the
systems stabilizes, the tone arises.
4 Henriques specifies the amount of turbulence that is needed at the beginning of the vibrating of the pipe.
This turbulence is related to the transient of the pipe and also with intonation and tuning properties.
5 Computer programming languages for producing sound.

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are implemented into the pipe’s system. One could see the similarities between Harmonies and Starry
Night by Vincent Van Gogh6, both are a clear examples of an artistic representation of turbulence.
The knowledge of the way the pipe organs work from Ligeti is so deep, that he states that one
should use crescendo and decrescendo by simply changing the registers. Since the wind supply is
starved, for each pipe that is drawn, the same wind pressure is used for all the pipes in action, so a
decrease and volume and ‘denaturation’ of sound is heard. The same happens at the end of the piece,
where there is a decrease of keys depressed, that would lead to a crescendo, but countered by the pedal
note we listen to a diminuendo.
A remark is needed that, even if in the end, the number of notes are decreased, to the amount of
three notes, the crescendo or ‘natural’ sounds are not heard. There is an extra low note on the pedals
with a 32’ register (the deepest note and register possible, C7), but since the wind pressure is starved,
this note is not percieved. The larger the pipe, lower the note, higher the wind pressure needed to
properly produce a note. In fact, Szathmáry had the idea of ‘denaturating’ the sound using a continuous
pedal without a pipe, to let the wind escape, but he was aware of the needed note for the end of
Harmonies. An attention mark is made for, on no account to be used an 8’ on the pedals, albeit a soft
16’ could be used, Ligeti states: “very soft, almost only ‘wind’”.

6 Starry Nights one interpretation of the painting his that it represents turbulence, affecting the stars at
night. It’s been the target of studies in the field of physics.
7 The same note used at the beginning of Also sprach Zarathustra, op.30 (1896) R. Strauss.

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 fig 1: Harmonies ending

Regarding manuals and octave transposition, a common practice in organ repertoire 8, the piece
can be played ad lib. Ligeti recommends an octave lower, since it not affects the lower note on the
pedals9 at the end, but if a performer chooses to do so, he needs to prioritize the 4’ registers in place of
8’ so that the sound matches the notation. In this case, it favours the ‘denaturing’ of the sound, since all
the other registers will be played on octave lower, so they will need the double amount of wind
pressure, behaving more erratically.
Another assumption is that, the more registers the pipe organ has, the more intricacy can be
made. So the complexity of the sound is directly proportionate to the number of registers of the pipe
organ.

Form and Analysis

8 The best example would be Concerto in D minor, BWV 596 (1713-14) from J. S. Bach (1685-1750),
adaptation of the Concerto Grosso in D minor, RV 565 (1711) of A.Vivaldi (1678-1741), where the
octaves of the registers (4’ and 8’) are needed to play the piece without crossing hands on the manuals.
9 Although Harmonies doesn’t have a score for the pedals, a passage is added in the last bars, like an
ossia, with the C note and registration comments.

7
 Regarding form, a monistic, static, clear and continuous mass, is the audible result. Even if one
relates the sound mass to a chord, the wind starvation negates the possible recognition of a long chord
where certain notes are changed. Audibly, one recognizes the slow changes and transformation of
sound, and the most easily recognized are the volume and timbre. Even with the assistance of the score,
one can not see a direct correlation between the notes themselves. An idea of a ten voice contrapuntal
choir is reminiscent and can be analyzed has such, but the atonality of each voice don’t represent any
following of rules. The use of seconds and close intervals resembles the micropolyphony used by Ligeti
in his other works. Even if the relation between note and sound is lost, one can hear the same
micropolyphony of Ligeti in effect. Taking in to account that each register as a certain number of pipes,
even if the wind supply would not be so ‘starved’, the result would be more than the ten note chord.
The result would be a ten note chord, multiplied by every rank and intervals of the registers, creating a
massive amount of lines. In this regard, one could say that Harmonies is not a work for pipe organ, but
for several pipes, indeed, a full orchestra of pipes. This idea is reminiscent to the same idea of
Atmosphères (1961) where Ligeti suspends harmony in favor of sustained sounds. This superimposition
of blocks of sound produces tensions and climaxes of the same order of magnitude has tonal music. At
the time, rhythmic patterns, harmonies and intervals bored Ligeti, so he abandoned them and hasted the
inevitable end of serialism, as he saw it (Jack, p,25).
Other stylistic features of Ligeti’s music, that can also be found in Volumina and Harmonies,
that include an introduction and an ending, with long sustained tones, with a lack of caesura to give the
impression that what is heard is only an excerpt from a larger whole that continues to flow and ebb.
While Volumina begins and ends in this manner, Harmonies illustrates this kind of behaviour but
‘fanning out and in’ the central pitches of the ten note chord. It also takes advantage of the infinite
sustain ability of the pipe organ. Changing gradually the registers play to the fact that this can be done
easily in this instrument, changing the timbral character while sustaining sounds.
An imaginary tonal center can be shown by the left hand lowest note in the first measure and
also the last note in the pedals, which are the same, C (fig.2 and fig.1 respectively).
By excluding the stationary notes in Harmonies, and only paying attention to the ‘passing notes’
one can see oblique movements, where one part moves upwards and another moves downwards. These
kind of ‘wedge’ movements of the contour of the notes, are akin to a representation of leading tones, or
mimicking sound waves in oscilloscope. One could make a squared stair line representation of the
moving pitches. What is clear is the separation of the white notes moving further apart, and then

8
moving closer to the end, making a big arc, like two sinusoidal waves out of phase. If one should find a
form, regarding notation, one should take heed to these minute movements. In this manner, one can
find four sections:
1. measures 1-41; expansion (A)
2. measures 42-113; contraction (A’), then stationary (B)
3. measures 114-186; expansion (A), stationary (B), contraction (A’), stationary (B)
4. measures 187-237; final contraction (B)

Ergo:

A / (A’ / B) / ( A / B / A’ / B) / B
In this manner we can see a mirror effect in the middle section, A’ B A B A’. One can also see a kind of
rondeau or permutation between contraction/expansion (A and A’) and stationary (B). In both ways of
trying to analyze it, A and B are respectively at the beginning and ending. With only such minute
movements, and expansion being the inverse of contraction, one could not delve in to naming each
section has a theme or exploration of other kind of sonata form. Never the less, the macroform and
overall shape is the contraction and expansion of slowly moving lines, more akin to gravitation pull of
two bodies.
In the following page there is scheme with the number of the voices reduced. Only the outer
voices of each hand are taken into account. Clearly can be seen the contrary motion shape between
stationary and moving parts. The measures do not represent any regular rhythm. The arrows represent
movement, upwards or downwards. A remark can be made by the use of enarmonic note values, for
preserving a movement. Also note that each note has a certain number of ‘measures’, and that reflects
an imaginary tonal center of C. Although some pedal points seem to resolve, we must not forget that
there are six more voices, and the resolution is lost, besides the sound being ‘starved’ and not
correlating to the implied pitch. Also note that the amount if movements used, that is proportional to
the expansions and contractions.
One could assume several interpretations for this, regarding performance issues. That is one of
the main reasons that Szathmáry’s performance climaxes in the middle, while Sustek’s slowly rises and
thins out near the end. With so many voices, and specially with the notes and comments of the author,
both realizations are true to Ligeti’s intention. The following analysis of these organists performance
will be studied in more detail at the end.

9
10
Notation and composition
Musical notation can be defined in very different ways, like for example Cornelius Cardew and
his definition that which determines what you can say and what you want to say, determines your
language (Cardew, p,24). In Volumina, it’s easier to read, write and perform with a graphical notation. A
simple representation of stationary and moving clusters. In constrast, Harmonies uses two treble clef
staves to indicate specific pitches contained in each cluster. At the end a single note is added by the
pedal. There is no meter signature and no time value is given to the notes. Only a mark: Rubato,
sempre legatissimo.

fig 2: Harmonies introduction.

Never the less the bar lines are shown. The moving pitch is notated with a white head. The
black notes slurred continuously overlapping bars. Both note heads are stemless and beamless,
indicating no rhythm what so ever. The ten note chord decreases in number towards the end, remaining
a three note cluster. Even if Ligeti warns that the ‘passing notes’ are always a second away, it is not
always the case. The final thirteen bars use fermata on top of each other to the number of four (fig.1),
while the texture is being thinned by the number of notes and pedal note. It can also be said, that the
last thirteen bars are a filtering techniques, like an electronic filter would cut the sound in few parcels.
There is no indication of registration or assistance needed. Dynamics are also absent.

11
Registration and performance
Two assistants are required to assist the organist in the addition or subtraction of register stops to
achieve the crescendo and diminuendo effect. Not remarks are made for swell boxes or swell pedals.
The chord is played with both hands in the same manual, with no registration contrast between them.
For some organists the wide stretch of the hands required to play the ten note chord, could be
troublesome. One could use another manual with another register to decrease the gap between the arms.
It is possible to ‘move’ some notes of the chord to the pedals to facilitate the fingering. In this case one
should use a register that represents that octave, or the better solution, to use a coupler to the manual
that is being used, never the less one should prepare for the ending with the 32’ stop.
In more modern pipe organs, one could program variable wind pressure, and/or program
register changes to be made with swell pedals, but the main character of the piece is always there. In
fact, Ligeti asks the performer for ingenious ways of achieving the desired effect. In that sense, the
piece is clearly a Étude. An interesting task would be trying to achieve this kind of performance with a
smaller organ or even an historical pipe organ.

Spectrograms
To generate the sound representation the software Acousmographe10 from InaGRM11 was used. Two
performances of Harmonies where chosen.
• Zsigmond Szathmáry on the organ at Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel church a 1969 recording released
by Wergo (1984/88) a division of Schott Music & Media GmbH, Mainz, Germany. Duration:
6’40’’.
• Dominik Sustek on the organ at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter church in Köln a 2012 recording
released by Wergo (2013) a division of Schott Music & Media GmbH, Mainz, Germany.
Duration: 9’15’’.
These performances where chosen, since they where recorded and edited by the same company, and
such, had similar mind set, recording and production techniques involved. Both of the organs are quite
different and each organist adapts his techniques and ways of performing the piece. They are also
chosen because one is closest to the smallest amount of time required (6’) and the other the largest
amount of time (9’). This is also an example of how more registers can affect the development of the
piece, Susteck takes more time to expand than Szathmáry, but both respect the author. One should note

10 Software used for spectrograms and analysis and representation of electroacoustic music.
11 Groupe de Recherches Musicales of the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, in Paris.

12
that in the following images, both examples are rather different, but if you listen to the audio, they are
more similar. The spectrum of the sound of the pipe organ is so complex that several lines appear and
don’t match with each performance. For curiosity, another recording of Szathmáry was used, and the
movements are relatively the same.
One thing that could be said is the distance of the microphones (and type, although they are
usually omnidirectional microphones) and reverberation of the chosen church. Because a large church
blends more the direct sound of the pipe organ with the reverberation. So the same recording in
different locations on the church could yeld differente spectrograms and analysis.
The images are compared using the usual signal at the top with spectrogram, then a wavelet
spectrogram and then a timbrescope with spectrogram. In each case the length is truncated to fit the
window. With the spectrogram you can see the development of the moving and stationary lines, althou
‘denaturated’, offers a better guidance than the pitches in the score. When other registers are in use, one
can see small glissandi while the registers are being drawn. The aparent pitch rises in proportion to the
mutation of the register (octave, fiths and etc) but not match the frequency matemathicaly, since the
wind pressure is scarce, the behaviour of the mutation is not always correct. But one can visually see
the spectrum being covered, in Sustek example is quite remarkable since the pitch pierceved in the
recording attain really high values, since it is a more modern organ with more registers.
One can also visually see the low end of the spectrum where there is some lines that denote
some low harmonics or the use of pedals, albeit wind, in a spectrogram they appear stable
The expansion and contraction mentioned with the sections is more appearant on the
spectrogram of Zsathmáry’s performance, specially on the wavelet, where one can see all the moving
and stationary lines. In Sustek’s performance, he chooses to develop more the beginning of the piece,
while in the wavelet they are more similar in shape.

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 fig 3: Sustek, signal on top and spectrogram.

fig 4: Szathmáry, signal on top and spectrogram.

14
 fig 5: Sustek, wavelet spectrogram.

15
fig 6: Szathmáry, wavelet spectrogram.
 fig 7: Sustek, timbrescope with spectrogram.

16
fig 8: Szathmáry, timbrescope with spectrogram.
Conclusion
Even today, Harmonies constitutes an avant-garde approach that is still modern and contains enough
elements to be pertinent. In fact, it almost constitute a case study, if one should pursuit the enterprise of
performing it in several different pipe organs and document all the changes that are needed to be made.
Regarding analysis, one could go further and try to make some sense of the ten voice chords and
leading tones, but since it not correlates to what we are listening, that daunting task would be with no
avail to truly understand the piece. Since, any of the meaning on the notation, will not indicate any
hints for the performer, like regarding arsis/thesis in a tonal composition.
Ligeti opens, literally, the sound world of the pipe organ, giving the instrument, performer and
composer, new ways to express ideas.

Bibliography
Anderson, S. C. (ed) (2012) Twentieth-Century Organ Music. Routledge, New York.

Blackburn, A. (2011) The Pipe Organ and Real-time digital signal procesing. Doctoral diss. Griffith
University, Melbourne.

Cardew, C. Notation – Interpretation. Tempo LVIII, 1961.

Collins, G. (1980) Avant-garde Techniques in the organ works of György Ligeti, A lecture recital,
together with three recitals of selected works of J. Alain, J. S. Bach. W. A. Mozart, M. Reger,
and others. Doctoral diss. North Texas State University, Texas

Jack, A. Ligeti talks to Adrian Jack. Music and Musicians XXII, 1974.

Henriques, L. (2014) Acústica Musical. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa.

Ligeti, G. (1967) Vorwort zur Partitur Volumina, Frankfurt.

————. (1969) Vorwort zur Partitur Étude n.º 1 – Harmonies, Schott. Mainz.
————. (1969) Vorwort zur Partitur Étude n.º2 – Coulée, Schott. Mainz.

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 ————. (1968) Was erwartet der Komponist der Gegenwart von der Orgel?; in György Ligeti,
Gesammelte Schriften (2007), Winterthur/Mainz.

Olson, H. (1966) Music, Physics and Engineering. New York.

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