My Weeks With Ligeti | Heteim Ligetivel

“Music should not be normal, it should not be well mannered, it should not wear a neatly tied tie.”

“I have always been fascinated by faulty machines, in general by the world of technology, automatization that gives birth to bureaucracy, and exposes us to different bureaucracies.
/…/ Unruly machines and automata like that have always captured my attention.”

“When an exalted movement is so overly exalted, then you don’t even look at it like exalted any more.

“…there has to be some kind of order, but it should not be too dogmatic. /…/
Like you are entering a room and you can see that every object has its place, they were just slightly displaced by a not so reliable cleaning lady.”

“So in music there are also things that can be and cannot be called a parody at the same time. There is the entrance on Nekrotzar: there is a bass-ostinato all the way through it. It is like the bass melody of the last movement of the Eroica Symphony, it is just in 12 tones. Well, not really a 12 tone melody, there is a mistake, because it only consists 11 pitches. This is parody, but what it develops into is very serious, one could say, majestic music. This is true for the entire opera. I have worked the elements of parody into the tapestry.”

“Looking at fear with a telescope.This might be the most important characteristic – not message – of this music. Then it is not only a mixture of comedy and fear, buffa and seria, but the total concurrence of them. What is serious is also comical, and comical is serious. Now if I look at my own work from very far: this might be it, this might be the truly new in my music, something that did not exist before.”

The quotes above are from an interview book with composer György Ligeti done in 1979 by Péter Várnai. There is something in every one of these quotes that made it into my newest composition. this is my second piece already that was commissioned by the French Ensemble Ars Nova. It is entitled ‘Bagatelles canoniques’ (Canon Bagatelles) and it will be premiered in 2022. I composed the piece as an homage to György Ligeti. In the past 3 weeks, between two Moderna shots, I could finish this 12 minute long piece. Composing it gave me more pleasure than usual. Order, disorder (or to stay true to Ligeti’s art: Clocks and Clouds), determined and free: I wanted to create a balance, and I believe I succeeded. It is too bad that now I have to wait about a year to hear it played by live musicians. Well, indeed, a pandemic situation can bring unexpected gifts, like free time not planned.

„A zene ne legyen normális, ne legyen jólnevelt, ne legyen szépen megkötött nyakkendője.”

„Mindig faszcináltak a rosszul működő gépek, egyáltalán a technikai külvilág, az automatizálás, amely bürokráciát szül, és amely kiszolgáltatja az embert különböző bürokráciáknak.”
/…/ Az effajta makrancos gépezetek és automaták mindig nagyon lekötöttek.

„Ha egy patetikus mozdulat annyira patetikus, akkor már nem is tartod patetikusnak.”

„…valamilyen rendnek kell lennie, de a rend ne legyen túlságos, ne legyen dogmatikus. /…/
Mintha belépve egy szobába, látnám, hogy minden tárgynak meglenne a saját helye, de egy nem egészen megbízható takarítónő kicsit arrébb tolta a tárgyakat.”

„Tehát a zenében is vannak olyan dolgok, amiket lehet is paródiának nevezni, meg nem is. Itt van Nekrotzar bevonulása: végighúzódik rajta basszus-ostinatóként az Eroica utolsó tételének basszus-dallama, de Zwölftonban. Nem egészen Zwölfton, hibás, mert a sor csak tizenegy hangból áll. Ez persze paródia, de ami kialakul belőle, az nagyon is komoly, mondhatnám, méltóságteljes zene, s ez az egész operára vonatkozik. A paródiaelemeket is beledolgoztam a szőnyegbe.”

„A félelmet fordított gukkerrel nézni. Ez talán egy lényeges jellemvonása – nem üzenete – ennek a zenének. Aztán a komikumnak és a félelemnek, a buffának és a seriának nem csak keveredése, hanem teljes egybeesése. A komoly egyben komikus és a komikus egyben félelmetes is. Ha most tényleg nagyon messziről nézem eddigi életművemet: talán ez az, ami az én zenémben valóban új, ami ebben a formában eddig még nem volt.”

A fenti idézetek mind Várnai Péter: Beszélgetések Ligeti Györggyel (1979) című könyvéből valók, és mindegyikben van valami, ami valahogy belekerült legújabb darabomba. Az Ars Nova együttes felkérésére már második művemet írom. A ‘Bagatelles canoniques’ (Bagatell-kánonok) 2022 kerül majd bemutatásra, és Ligeti György emlékére íródott. AZ elmúlt 3 hétben, két Moderna vakcina adag között, a végére értem ennek a kb. 12 perces ensemble darabnak, amelynek megkomponálása a megszokottnál is több élvezetett okozott nekem. Rend, rendetlenség (avagy, hogy Ligeti művészeténél maradjunk: Órák és Felhők), kötöttség és szabadság egyensúlyát akartam létrehozni, és azt hiszem sikerült is. Kár, hogy majdnem egy évet kell várjak arra, hogy élő zenészekkel is hallhassam. Na igen, a pandémiás kiszámíthatatlanság egyik jó oldala éppen az, hogy váratlan szabad idők hullanak az ember ölébe.”

Escape from LAX (Notes From Before Christmas)

My preparation for the Holidays included a couple of piano-stage rehearsals for “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss. I am conducting 9 performances of this production, two of them on December 31, at the Budapest Opera. The New Year’s Eve performance, traditionally is going to be a big party with surprise musical guests appearing in the ball scene in Act 2. (Sorry, but I am not allowed to reveal who they actually are.)
Read about the Budapest “Die Fledermaus” performances here:
http://www.opera.hu

I have had my own Nightmare Before Christmas. I believe it is enough to say that the route of my European flight looked like this: LAX-CDG-BUD. The layout of the Los Angeles Airport reminds me of the 1996 sci-fi action movie “Escape from L.A.” You need serious survival skills to get from one terminal to the other, and you need all the help of the internet to figure out which lounge to use at the the international terminal if you are a Sky Team frequent flier. LAX is still stuck in the last century. They are yet to figure out how useful automatic light rails are let alone simple but clear signs to point you to the direction you are going. At Charles de Gaulle International Airport there is now at least a new automated light rail running between terminals. Make no mistake, there is still plenty of room left there to make for a nice jogging exercise if one wants to catch a connection while one’s suitcase is not being transferred despite a nice, bright yellow “Priority” tag.

Since concluding my Resident Conductor tenure with the Oregon Symphony (2012) I have not had the opportunity to conduct Christmas music or any other Holiday favorites. To be completely honest I get just enough of this type of music by spending a few hours shopping at department stores. I remember a French department store staff going on strike a few years back saying that nobody should be exposed to the same 7 songs for 8-12 hours a day. What can I say, I am totally with those guys! At the same time however, having the Oregon Symphony play some of the Christmas music arrangements I made for them definitely puts me in the right Holiday spirit. Thanks for my friends and former colleagues for sharing this info with me every December! 🙂

I wish You All a successful, low stress few days leading up to Christmas and a Blessed, Wonderful Holiday Season!