''Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin'' () is a 1982 collection of pieces for 16 voices 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 premiered in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

on September 23, 1983, by the Swedish Radio Choir, under the baton of Eric Ericson, to whom it was dedicated. It was 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 ...

Analysis

The composition consists of three

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

and a typical performance takes approximately 11 minutes. The movement list is as follows: # (Halfway through Life). Lento # (If from a Distance). Andante con tenerezza # (Evening Reverie). Maestoso – Più mosso, agitato The piece is a

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

four-part work for 16 voices (that is, four each 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 ...

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

s, and

basses Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the b ...

). Its compositional style is strongly influenced by Ligeti's word-painting techniques from the 60s. Here, lyrics are almost indistinguishable, so the listener is encouraged to listen to the labyrinthic ramifications of the music instead of trying to understand the content of the original poems. Ligeti commented on this work: "My three fantasies are emotional, '

onomatopoetic Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

', overwrought, 16-voiced pieces (not micropolyphonic!)".

References

External links

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Score provided by Schott through Sheet Music Plus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Fantasies after Friedrich Holderlin Compositions by György Ligeti 1982 compositions Choral compositions Musical settings of poems by Friedrich Hölderlin