György Ligeti

“I cannot return to tonality or modality, because all of that has already been done; and we do not live in the 19th century. (…) On the other hand, I cannot continue with cluster composition, nor with ametric, arhythmic, amelodic, or aharmonic music. And so, between Scylla and Charybdis, I found this little strait between Sicily and Calabria.

These are my Piano Etudes, the Piano Concerto, and the Violin Concerto. And I am becoming increasingly less interested in equal temperament (…). It is a search for alternative ways to create new music that does not revert to the 19th century, but no longer conforms to the norms of the avant-garde.”

What does Ligeti mean to me? The sense that there is something higher, more perfect than I could ever imagine; that there are connections in art, in the sciences, in the cosmos, which he understands…