''Bujdosó'', commonly known in English as ''The Fugitive'' or ''Song of Exile'', is an early vocal composition by Hungarian composer

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

. It was finished in 1946 and is strongly influenced by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

Composition

This composition was written in 1946. At that time, Ligeti was living in Hungary and was very interested in Hungarian folk music, as other Hungarian composers such as

. As most of Ligeti's juvenilia, this piece never received a formal premiere, but it has been recorded together with other early vocal compositions. It was later published by

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second-oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were foun ...

in 1999.

Analysis

This work takes approximately two minutes to perform. It is scored for a mixed choir which should consist of

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

s, and

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

s. The text is extracted from a Hungarian traditional poem, which is as follows: Fölkelt már a csillag Lengyelország felé
Magam is elmegyek, babám, arra felé
Megvetették nekem a megfogó hálót
Megfogtak engemet mint egy utonállót Lám, megmondtam, rózsám, ne szeress engemet
mert Somogy vármegye hajszoltat engemet
A tömlöc feneke az én vetett ágyam
annak a teteje takaró vánkosom. The piece is marked ''Nyugodtan (♩ = 108)'', which can be translated as "calmly".

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

changes to ''Adagio'' towards the end of the piece, and time signature changes are present throughout the whole composition. The lyrics have been translated into German by Hilgen Schallehn and into English by Desmond Clayton.

References

External links

A preview of the score
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bujdoso Compositions by György Ligeti 1946 compositions Contemporary classical compositions Choral compositions

Composition

Analysis

See also

References

External links