2001 Kyoto Prize Laureates

Arts and Philosophy

Music

György Ligeti

/  Composer

1923 - 2006

Commemorative Lectures

Between Science, Music and Politics

2001

11 /11 Sun

Place:Kyoto International Conference Center

Workshop

Ligeti in Kyoto

2001

11 /12 Mon

13:20 - 17:30

Place:Kyoto International Conference Hall

Achievement Digest

A Composer with Superb Originality and Firm Commitment to Innovation who Continues to Present New Challenges

Mr. Ligeti is a master of modern music who saw through the limitations of serialism, which was the mainstream avant-garde music after World War II. While building on the achievements of the serialists, he has established his own unique musical style that fascinates people with its rich sound and fullness of human feeling.

Citation

Mr. György Ligeti is a master of modern music who saw through the limitations of serialism, the mainstream avant – garde school of music after World War II. Building on the achievements of the serialists, he established his own unique musical style.

Mr. Ligeti made it to the international stage after the Hungarian uprising forced him to flee to Austria in 1956. Having previously known only a closed political regime, he was greatly surprised by the movements he saw in Western Europe. He was also thrown into contact with the avant – garde music of his generation, which helped him to establish his own personal style and mode of expression. The unique “tone cluster” method he first used in his composition “Apparitions” (1959) brought a fresh breeze to European music circles even as it exerted a profound impact on them. That masterpiece was followed by “Atmospheres,” which was first performed at the ISCM Festival in Donaueschingen, where it earned an honored place in the annals of contemporary music. In “Atmospheres,” Mr. Ligeti applied the most precise, complicated movement to each individual note of every grouping. This technique, “Micropolyphony” as he himself dubbed it, creates a great mass of sound that leaves in the listener an overall sensation of the color variation created by the movement of the carefully annotated individual notes, rather than a clearly outlined shape.

During the 1960s, Mr. Ligeti achieved indisputable fame as one of the most prominent composers in contemporary music, creating such works as “Aventures” (1962), a dramatic piece for three voices and seven instruments, and “Lontano” (1967), which highlights the composer’s singular lyricism.

Between 1974 and 1977, Mr. Ligeti applied his unique, highly individual techniques to the composition of an opera. The resulting “Le Grand Macabre” was hailed as the most significant opera of the latter half of the 20th century in pointing towards new operatic directions. The 1980s saw the creative background to Mr. Ligeti’s work assume even broader dimensions. Some of his work took on a more distinctively Hungarian color, and other pieces revealed his strong interest in African and other non – European music, or the influence of concepts such as fractals (a branch of mathematics concerned with a property called self – similarity, irregular patterns made up of parts that are in some way similar to the whole). Along with his unique interpretations of polyrhythm and automatism, his creativity has spawned a number of other fruits.

Whether by way of serialism, aleatory music, or some other modern musical technique or style, Mr. Ligeti has striven to transcend all limitations and restrictions in search of creative possibilities, and continues his vital activities with a consistently strong devotion, while maintaining both his originality and his spirit of sharp criticism for the harsh political circumstances he has experienced. In this manner, Mr. Ligeti has enchanted people the world over with his humane, rich sound.

For these reasons, the Inamori Foundation is pleased to bestow upon Mr. György Ligeti the 2001 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.

Profile

Biography
1923
Born in the region of Transylvania (now Romania)
1941
Studied musical composition at the Cluj Conservatoire
1949
Graduated, Budapest Academy of Music
1950
Lecturer, the same academy
1956
Freed to Vienna following the Hungarian uprising
1957
Worked at West German Electronic Studios for electronic music in Cologne
1961
Guest Professor, Stockholm Academy of Music
1967
Became a citizen of Austria
1972
Composer in residence, Stanford University
1973
Professor, The Hamburg UniversityTaught at centers around the globe
Selected Awards and Honors
1964
Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Music
1968
Member, The West Berlin Academy of Arts
1972
Berliner Kunstpreis, Berlin
1975
Bach Prize awarded by the City of Hamburg
1984
Member, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
1984
Prix Ravel, Paris
1985
Prix Honegger, Paris
1987
Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst of the Republic of Austria
1988
Order des Arts et des Lettres, France
1991
Praemium Imperiale, Japan
Major Works
1958-1959
Apparitions
1961
Atomospères
1963-1965
Requiem
1966
Aventures
1967
Lux aeterna
1967
Lontano
1974, 1977, 1996
Le Grand Macabre
1978
Hungarian Rock
1983
Hungarian Studies

Profile is at the time of the award.