andrew infanti 

Ligeti’s Etudes

Ligeti began writing his series of piano studies in 1985 as a birthday gift for Pierre Boulez. He received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award (music’s “Nobel Prize”) in 1986 for the Premier Livre (Etudes 1-6). Etudes Deuxième Livre (Etudes 7-14) were composed between 1988-1994. A third volume (containing Etudes 15-18) was published in 2001.

His chief inspiration for the studies arose from his respect for Conlon Nancarrow’s music for player piano, whose polyrhythmic complexities Ligeti wanted to make possible for human performers. Other admitted influences included sub-Saharan African drumming, patterns in fractal geometry, and the great tradition of pianistic studies from Scarlatti to Chopin and Debussy.

Etude no. 1: Désordre

Etude no. 1 Désordre displays human fascination with mechanical processes. Ligeti’s plan is severe: the right hand plays on only white keys, the left hand on only black keys. From this harmonically saturated situation, each hand develops a separate musical object more like a vector than a melody. These similar, but non-identical shapes derail rhythmically, creating a perceptually intense disorder. Ironically, this fake confusion is the result of an extreme control exercized by the composer, who carefully steers the automatic processes in the work to reach timed crises and renewal points to heighten the musical drama. For Ligeti, these crises are often purely physical limitations - the extremities of the instrument are reached. Ligeti has given us a finite and symmetrical object out of a process which is, in concept, infinite and chaotic. Also paradoxical is the way such a stern construction attains a nearly ecstatically joyful expressivity.

Etude no. 2: Cordes à Vide

In Etude no. 2, “Cordes à Vide,” Ligeti uses the piano as an orchestra of real and imaginary stringed instruments tuning up on their open strings. A constant stream of perfect fifths are played in various speeds and registers. The unusual sonic encounters in the piece inspire the composer to create subtle poetry.

Etude no. 12: Entrelacs

Ligeti hesitated about the title of the enigmatic Etude no. 12, finally choosing Entrelacs, translated as “Loops.” The pianist’s hands are given mutually exclusive sets of pitches in a manner similar to Désordre, creating an iridescent harmonic ambiguity. Rhythmically, this etude is constructed upon a scaffold polyrhythm of 13:17, upon which which five more(!) layers are added with metric values 11, 7, 5, 4, and 3. The complexity of these metric loops creates a web of sound which stretches the limits of aural perception. Intertwined with the loops themselves are passionate melodies, themselves the products of the precomposed polyrhythmic web. The tension between an abstract structure and the resonant arcs which attempt to pull away from it provides the fascination of this elaborate study.

Etude no. 13: L’Escalier du diable

The flamboyant Etude no. 13, L’Escalier du diable, is based on a simple, obvious progression, which progressively becomes extremely complicated. The basic motive of the piece is a rising chromatic figure locked into a palindromic rhythm which recalls Balkan folk music. The sinister music which results from this combination attempts a number of frustrated attempts to reach the highest register of the piano. Yet each upward climb inevitably stagnates at a plateau or falls back to join another voice in a collective assault on the summit. Eventually, as many as six voices struggle upward at different rates. Ligeti’s signature registral crises attain harrowing extremes in this etude. The composer unites mathematical notions like fractal graphs (the perplexing "Devil’s staircase") with a Romantic concept of sound and drama.

Etude no. 5: Arc-en-ciel

The Fifth Etude, Arc-en-ciel (Rainbow), is a tender, intimate piece, exploring the subtle rhythmic tension inherent in the rhythmic figure called hemiola (the simultaneous division into duple and triple meters). The mellow harmonies achieve some acerbic edges as the hands slightly diverge in the middle of the bar. The piece develops freely, and its effect is jazzy and crystalline. Off the record, Ligeti mentioned that he conceived this étude imagining “Bill Evans playing a Chopin Nocturne at 4 a.m.”

Etude no. 6: Automne à Varsovie

Automne à Varsovie, Etude no. 6, dedicated to Ligeti’s Polish friends, evokes weeping and defiance. The basic melodic motive is a descending line, reminiscent of Magyar-Romanian professional mourners who weep and sing at funerals. The music progresses through gasps and sighs intensified by a legion effect. An ever-growing number of voices enter the piece, all advancing at different metronomic speeds. The mathematical ratios of 3:5 and 5:7, unusual for European music, organize the rhythmic interactions, creating a strain for the listener who might try to perceive individual lines. The collective grief expressed becomes too much for the music to bear, and everything literally collapses at the end of the study.