The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano by
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 ...
was completed in 1982. The piece was a turning point in Ligeti’s career. Ligeti had composed little since he completed his opera, ''
Le Grand Macabre
''Le Grand Macabre'' (completed 1977, revised 1996) is the third stage production by Hungarian composer György Ligeti, and his only major stage-work. Previously, he had created two absurdist sung "mimodramas" ''Aventures'' (compl. 1962) and ' ...
,'' in 1977, having only finished a few smaller pieces, like ''Hungarian Rock (chaconne)'' and ''Passacaglia ungherese'' for harpsichord.
Influenced by sources as diverse as
sub-Saharan African drumming, the music of
Conlon Nancarrow
Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was an American-Mexican composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his ''Studies for Player Piano'', being one of the first ...
, and the piano music of
Chopin and
Schumann
Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...
,
the Trio is considered to be the watershed moment that opened up his "third way," a style that Ligeti claimed to be neither modern nor postmodern.
Ligeti wrote the Trio at the suggestion of pianist Eckart Besch as a companion to
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...
'
Horn Trio Horn trio can mean a work written for three horns or horns as well as one for horn and two other instruments. In the latter category, an important genre is the trio for horn, violin and piano. Although there are a few earlier examples, the traditi ...
, one of the few other examples in the genre, which is why the Ligeti Trio is marked ''Hommage à Brahms''. Ligeti recalled his reaction to the suggestion: "
soon as he pronounced the word 'horn' somewhere inside my head I heard the sound of a horn as if coming from a distant forest in a fairy tale, just as in a poem by
Eichendorff."
Analysis
The Trio is in four movements:
A performance of the piece lasts about 21 minutes.
The composition explores the use of
major and minor harmonies as free sonorities without following established patterns of
common practice
In Western classical music, the common practice period (CPP) was the period of about 250 years during which the tonal system was regarded as the only basis for composition. It began when composers' use of the tonal system had clearly superseded ...
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitch (music), pitches and / or chord (music), chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived ''relations'', ''stabilities'', ''attractions'', and ''directionality''.
In this hierarchy, the single pitch or ...
. In addition, it explores the natural
just intonation
In music, just intonation or pure intonation is a musical tuning, tuning system in which the space between notes' frequency, frequencies (called interval (music), intervals) is a natural number, whole number ratio, ratio. Intervals spaced in thi ...
of the upper
partials available on the horn, asymmetric
Bulgarian rhythms in the second movement, and the Ligeti ''
lament
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...
o'' motif in the fourth movement. The first three movements are each in a
ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples inclu ...
– a notable look back towards traditional forms. The final movement is an example of a
passacaglia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is typically based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre.
Origin
Th ...
using as its ground bass a similar theme as that of the opening movement. It has been pointed out that the opening theme of the first movement is reminiscent of the opening theme of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
's
Piano Sonata No. 26, "Les Adieux".
[Richard Steinitz, ''György Ligeti: Music of the Imagination'' (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003): 255–56. .]
References
Further reading
* Bae, Jae-hyi (배재희). 2009. "리게티의 후기음악에서의 리듬구조 연구"
hythmic Structure in the Late Music of György Ligeti ''Ihwa eum'ag nonjib/Ewha Music Journal'' 13, no. 2:113–37.
* Delaplace, Joseph. 2004. "Le jeu de la mémoire et de l'invention dans le Trio pour cor, violon et piano de György Ligeti". ''Musurgia: Analyse et pratique musicales'' 11, no. 3 (Musique et pouvoir): 73–99.
* Dibelius, Ulrich. 1984. "Ligetis Horntrio". ''Melos'' 46, no. 1:44–61.
* Diederichs-Lafite, Marion (ed.). 1993. "Tag des Musikgesprächs". ''Österreichische Musikzeitschrift'' 48, no. 12 (December): 621–39.
* Josel, Seth F. 2006. "Vertikaler und horizontaler Raum: Tonhöhen- und Intervallbeziehungen im dritten Satz ''Alla marcia'' von György Ligetis Horntrio". ''MusikTexte: Zeitschrift für Neue Musik'', no. 111:61–63.
* Taylor, Stephen A. 2004. "Passacaglia and Lament in Ligeti's Recent Music". ''Tijdschrift voor muziektheorie'' 9, no. 1 (February): 1–11.
* Thelander, Kristin. 1999. "György Ligeti's Trio". ''The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn Society'' 30, no. 1 (November): 43–46.
External links
Listening
RecordingHorn Trio: Andantino con tenerezza – Helen Kim, violin; Robert Patterson, horn; Adam Bowles, pian
Luna Nova New Music EnsembleRecordingHorn Trio: Vivacissimo molto ritmico – Helen Kim, violin; Robert Patterson, horn; Adam Bowles, pian
Luna Nova New Music EnsembleRecordingHorn Trio: Alla Marcia – Helen Kim, violin; Robert Patterson, horn; Adam Bowles, pian
Luna Nova New Music EnsembleRecordingHorn Trio: Lamento Adagio – Helen Kim, violin; Robert Patterson, horn; Adam Bowles, pian
Luna Nova New Music Ensemble
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Chamber music by György Ligeti
Ligeti
Ligeti
1982 compositions