The Pitch Construction And Function In Ligeti's Middle-late Works

Gyorgy. Ligeti's emigration from Hungary to the West in 1957 gave him his first chance to study serial music and electronic music firsthand.The experience of learning electronic music enabled him to develop uniquely individual style based upon the technique which he himself called"micro-polyphony" .In the early 1960's ,The symphony works composed by this technique such as "Apparition" and "Atmosphere" brought him great honor.But it is for the reason that all the melody,ryhthm,and harmony were condensed in density,the character of the construction of pitch can not be hear at all in such kind of works.Though Ligeti wrote every note exactly, the sound was the only thing that he pursued. So most of the theorist who studied Ligeti's composing technique would pay more attention to his innovation in both texture and sound ,but the features of pitch in his work have been largely neglected.This dissertation mainly concerns the construction and function of pitch in Ligeti's middle-late work .The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the character of composing of Ligeti through analyzing the construction of pitch . The reason why I chose this time to be my study object is that Ligeti gave more attention to the pitch since the middle of 1960's than the sound which used to be the most important parameter in his earlier works. The articulation of harmony gradually crystallized from the arachnoid texture based on the technique of "micro-polyphony".By suming up the construction of the hamony and analyzing the transfomation of the pitch in the work ,this dissertation will study how the construction of pitch works in the motion of music.As the construction of pitch in Ligeti's work are easily affected by the other parameter of music ,so the study on pitch should be done in a wider field, being related to rhythm,texture,form,etc.This dissertation is composed of three chapters,in which the material of pitch construction, the way of pitch develops and the relationship between the pitch and music elements are discussed. In the first chapter,different construction of harmony and scale is concluded,the transformation ofhamony and the technique of scale is analyzed. The concept of "tonality" of Ligeti is discussed. In the first Chapter, different constructions of harmony and scale types that are commonly used in Ligeti's compositions are summarized. The characteristics of the transformation of harmony and the techniques of scale applications in his compositions are analyzed. The concept of "tonality" of Ligeti is further discussed based on the preceding analysis and conclusions.The main focus of the second Chapter is two-fold. Firstly, the way how the construction of pitch develops in Ligeti's music is introduced and analyzed. Secondly, Legeti's unique method to control the whole music via kernel harmony and scale is revealed. At the end of this chapter, the Ligeti's-style pitch development reasoning named "micro-transformation of pitch" is proposed.In the third Chapter, a more comprehensive understanding on Ligeti's pitch construction is acquired from other aspects such as the influences on the pitch construction by rhythm, structure and texture.The Conclusion summarizes the main content of this thesis and concludes with the characteristics of Ligeti's pitch construction.