Lux Aeterna (Ligeti)

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Lux Aeterna is a setting of the Lux aeterna by György Ligeti from 1966 for sixteen-part mixed a cappella choir .

History of origin

Edition Peters from 2002.

The atheist Ligeti, who came from a Jewish family, wrote Lux Aeterna in 1966. The piece was commissioned by the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart , to which it is dedicated together with its founder Clytus Gottwald and who premiered and recorded it in 1966. It was published by Edition Peters .

In terms of content, the work, in which the last part of the Latin funeral mass is set to music, relates to Ligeti's Requiem from 1965, which only contains the first parts of the funeral mass.

construction

The mixed choir is divided into 16 independent voices - four per vocal group . The tempo is specified with 56 beats per minute . For the performance, the score contains the instructions “ Sostenuto , molto calmo [very calm], ' As if from a distance '” and “Always sing with no accent: the bar lines mean no accent.” Most inserts should be “inaudible” or “very soft " be; Consonants before a pause are left out (for example “lucea” instead of “luceat”). A performance lasts about nine minutes.

The structure of the work is based on a tonal score; it is more precisely about microtonality , because the tones merge into clusters with the high number of individual voices and the listener only perceives timbres . On closer inspection, however, the piece is based on detailed micropolyphony : for each of the 16 voices there is a precisely defined sequence of notes with precisely noted inserts. The voices set in according to a complex scheme, and - so that the listener cannot perceive any rhythm - some voices always sing the “usual” 1: 4 divisions, while others sing triplet divisions and still other rhythms divided into quintoles. The result is a static and at the same time fluctuating, intangible sound with constantly re-mixing overtones. The piece also contains tonal chords in harmony .

The text follows the Latin model, but the listener cannot recognize any words because of the accentless, unstressed singing.

The piece can be divided into four parts: In the first part, only the eight female voices sing a cluster like in the Kyrie from Ligeti's previously composed Requiem , starting from the f ′ to “lux aeterna”. After about half of this part the text changes to “luceat eis” and the female voices are supported by the tenors . Finally, the sounds dissolve into the two tones a ′ / a ″.

At the beginning of the second part, according to detailed instructions from the score, “several bassists whose falsetto is particularly good” start the falsetto on the word “domine” with a cluster and the female voices are cut off. The male voices sing “cum sanctis tuis in aeternum quia pius es” according to the canon-like rhythmic pattern described above.

In the third part, the women's choir begins again with the text “Requiem aeternam” and the sound stretches into a cluster with a wide ambitus . The male voices stay with the text “qua pius es”. One after the other, the complex rhythms merge into sustained notes. The score instruction “morendo” (dying) leads to a pause - first in the soprano , then also in the alto , in the bass and finally in the tenor.

Finally, first the basses and then the alto voices and finally the sopranos come in again. A last, widely spread cluster sets in surprisingly, disappears as well, leaving only one last sound of the bass and alto voices. The piece ends with the word “lucea (t)”, which disappears into nothing with a “morendo” , whereby the last “t” should not be pronounced. The last note is followed by seven bars of silence (“ chor tacet ”).

reception

The piece is Ligeti's most famous choral work. From a musical history point of view, it is important for the development of choral music, because instead of audible polyphony and a recognizable rhythm, it only consists of "floating sound fields".

Ulrich Dibelius wrote about the work: “The mysticism that is inherent in the Catholic liturgy has been transferred here into a clear stance of existential awareness, raised into the shine of existence, actually transcended in a contrary direction to the worldly. Both works ask, just like every religion, about the puzzles and inscrutabilities of life, but do not seek to accept the irrational as an incomprehensible, God-willed order, even to be worshiped as fate, but to penetrate with an open eye, with premonition and free, receptive sensitivity. "

Particularly noteworthy is the use of the piece in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick during Floyd's trip over the moon. In the film from 1968, Ligeti's compositions also include Atmosphères (during the narrative opening credits) and the Kyrie from the Requiem (when the monolith appears) and Aventures (in the room at the end of the film). The use of Ligeti's works constituted a copyright infringement because Kubrick, as the producer for the synchronization rights , had initially not obtained a license from Ligeti.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Julia Heimerdinger: "I have been compronized. I am now fighting against it": Ligeti vs. Kubrick and the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey . In: Journal of Film Music . tape 3 , no. 2 , 2011, p. 127-143 , doi : 10.1558 / jfm.v3i2.127 .
  2. ^ A b c Valerio Benz: György Ligeti's “Lux Aeterna” - choral music on a space odyssey. SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, April 1, 2014, accessed on March 29, 2018 .
  3. a b Michael D. Searby: Ligeti's Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974-1985 . Rowman & Littlefield ,, 2010, ISBN 0-8108-7250-1 , pp. 8 .
  4. ^ A b Frank Halbach: György Ligeti - The future of music . In: Bayern2 radioWissen . August 29, 2017 ( manuscript [PDF]).
  5. ^ A b Anonymous: Ligeti, György: "Requiem" (1963-65) and "Lux aeterna" (1966). In: Capriccio Culture Forum. November 16, 2013, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  6. Reinhard Schulz : The clarity of blurring: György Ligeti died at the age of 83 . In: Neue Musikzeitung . tape 55 , no. 7 , 2006.
  7. ^ Louise Duchesneau, Wolfgang Marx: György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds . Boydell & Brewer, 2011, ISBN 1-84383-550-9 , pp. 246 .