Title: A Review of Michael D. Searby's Ligeti’s Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974–1985
Abstract:Ligeti’s Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974–1985, by Michael D. Searby. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2010. [xviii, 201 p., ISBN 9780810872509. $40.] Music examples, illust...Ligeti’s Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974–1985, by Michael D. Searby. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2010. [xviii, 201 p., ISBN 9780810872509. $40.] Music examples, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. Abstract It has been well documented that Gyorgy Ligeti experienced a significant creative block following the composition of his opera Le Grand Macabre (1974-77, revised 1996). The subsequent transformation of his compositional style has fascinated musicologists interested in unraveling the circumstances that caused Ligeti to re-embrace some traditional compositional techniques after spending a decade associated with the avant-garde. In his book, Michael Searby proposes that composing his opera launched the development of Ligeti’s mature style, allowing him to preserve polyphonic techniques central to his earlier texture-based pieces while facilitating more diverse harmonic palettes and formal structures. Central to the argument is an analysis of the opera that examines the changing treatment of triadic harmonies and overtly melodic material in the works composed between 1974 and 1978. Searby also points to the use of pastiche, collage, and quotation in the opera as evidence of Ligeti’s changing relationship with the musical past. The book spans 201 pages and comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 offers a brief biographical sketch of Ligeti and discusses his music in relation to the elusive concept of ‘tonality’. Chapter 2 and 3 focus on Le Grand Macabre, presenting analyses of phrase structure, harmony and the use of quotation and pastiche. The musical processes revealed in the opera are traced through Ligeti’s later work in Chapter 4, and the book closes with a discussion of Ligeti’s work in the context of postmodernism in Chapter 5. Searby’s sophisticated musical analyses of the various pieces prove to be the most valuable contributions of this volume, rendering it most suitable for music students and scholars who possess at least a rudimentary understanding of atonal analysis and who already somewhat familiar with Ligeti’s work.Read More
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-05-07
Language: en
Type: review
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