An analysis of transformation procedures in Gyorgy Ligeti's String Quartet No. 2
Power, Richard Scott
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/23467
Description
Title
An analysis of transformation procedures in Gyorgy Ligeti's String Quartet No. 2
Author(s)
Power, Richard Scott
Issue Date
1995
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Lund, Erik R.
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
D.M.A.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Biography
Music
Language
eng
Abstract
Gyorgy Ligeti's emigration from Hungary to Austria in 1957 gave him his first chance to study serial music firsthand. After a brief period of reflection he decided that serialism was not for him, but the insights gained from his examination of it, as well as his new experiences in electronic music, enabled him to develop a uniquely individual style based upon the transformation of musical parameters from one state to another. These transformation procedures are one of Ligeti's primary means of articulating form within his works.
Although a great deal has been written about Ligeti's music, the importance of transformation procedures as a formal determinant has been largely neglected. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze those procedures within the context of his Spring Quartet No. 2 (1968). This work is the first since his emigration to the West in which Ligeti explored the structural implications of a composition with more than two movements, and he has revealed in program notes and interviews that each of the Quartet's five movements follows the same formal plan, although on the surface they display widely different characteristics of expression and technique. After analyzing the movements individually in detail, it is shown that a series of fourteen stages occurs in each one.
Following a brief biographical portrait of Ligeti both before and after his emigration, the second chapter examines the general features of his musical syntax. Special attention is paid to two of his articles, Metamorphoses of Musical Form, and States, Events, Transformations, in which he discusses some of the influential factors upon his style, as well as its main characteristics. The third chapter discusses the general harmonic and rhythmic considerations within the Second String Quartet, as well as the various methods used to analyze the harmonic and rhythmic transformations. The fourth chapter proceeds with a detailed, objective analysis of each movement. Chapter five is more subjective in character, describing the fourteen-stage formal plan and how it is manifested within each movement.
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