Composition 3

Ligeti

Indicative works: String Quartet No 2, Double Concerto, Chamber Concerto

for sixteen voices

1966

1966

1967-8

for thirteen instrumentalists

1969-70

for flute and oboe

1972

Typical Ligeti compositional techniques include:

The use of dense, crowded, chromatic textures often through the use of polyphony and canonic methods.
Extremes of texture - often the music is either very fast or slow, for instance, or very quiet for some time and then suddenly very loud (or vice versa).
Intensely colourful orchestration.
Use of microtones.
Very precise notation
Occasional use of graphic notation.