Ligeti, Gyorgy Lux Aeterna

One of the new music?s best-known composers, György Ligeti is widely acknowledged as among the most influential and admired creative figures of the late twentieth century. His brilliantly conceived and challenging pieces, include the orchestral Apparition and Atmospheres, piano etudes, the opera Le Grand Macabre and the unaccompanied choral work Lux Aeterna, which was pirated by Stanley Kubrick for film soundtrack of 2001 : A Space Odyssey. Lux Aeterna audibly falls into three parts; that is, there are tree separate canons, the first for the eight female voices, the second for all sixteen voices (though beginning whiteight male voices) and the third for the four altos. The way in which these canons are linked and, to some degree, subdivided internally involves a new feature. In Lux Aeterna, the first soprano part moves only on triplet subdivision, thesecond soprano on quintuplet subdivisions, and the third on semiquaver (quarter) subdivisions. The scheme is repeated down the otherthirteen voice parts from fourth soprano to four bass, so that although barred in 4/4, the music sound always fluid. Not only are there no accents; to render imperceptible the transition between sound and silence. A curiosity of the texture is that the sequences of notes in each part is mostly punctuated by tiny rests, producing a delicate if irregular sense of pulsation. Lux Aeterna is far more than a spin-off from the Requiem: it could stake strong claims to be regarded as the most exquisitely `perfect?a capella work of the post-war era. Its `virtuosity? lies in the absolutely perfect intonation-hideously difficult to achieve and maintain that is required to project its extraordinary harmonic luminosity: in a good performance it reveals the same sort of cold yet burning harmonic radiance as the motets of Victoria. Lux Aeterna is the most unruffled piece Ligeti had yet written. The dynamic scarcely rises above soft, mostly very soft. In brief, the unaccompanied mixed choral work Lux Aeterna has taken its place among the most respectful compositions of the late twentieth century whit his briallanty conceiving and his technical innovations.