The analysis of György Ligeti's orchestral lontano according to compositional techniques and musical language belonging to the late 20th century

Considered one of the most important composers in late twentieth century, György Ligeti gained renown for his "sound mass" style, exemplified in works such as Apparitions, Atmospheres and Lontano. These works minimize the "traditional" musical parameters such as melody, harmony and rhythm instead foregrounding orchestral clusters and thus suggesting that timbre is the central compositional issue. The initial aim of this thesis is to explain the structure of Lontano's sound mass style as the composer himself has said, the central paradox of the work is that "Polyphony is written harmony is heard." In this context, resource books and academic research materials about Lontano and Ligeti's music were tried to be achieved. However due to deficiency of resources and academic research materials on the subject in Turkish written sources, research materials and articles in other languages were used to support this study. In terms of study and assessment, this thesis divides Lontano in to three sections. Each section includes the analysis of vertical and horizontal compositional parameters and constructional means of Lontano. Through analyzing all the material of resource and the work itself the main ascertainment of this thesis is the term of "sound mass" style in Lontano as a compositional process which Ligeti achieved by the polyphonic structures. The resultant perception is "Timbral Modulation" with "Sound Mass". Keywords: Ligeti, sound-mass, timbral-modulation, analyze