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Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" is WOW WOW WOWOWOWOWOW!

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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 07:46 PM
Original message
Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" is WOW WOW WOWOWOWOWOW!
Such beauty! So spooky!!

Must be a total bitch to sing - a capella with no tonal center and sliding notes? Pure hell, but SO GORGEOUS.

Just heard a live performance on the radio, in which they had the 16 vocalists scattered around the concert hall, with the lights off except for indicudal lights on their scores. Must have really heightened the effect of the music!

From 1966. Just realized it was used in 2001.

hear a bit of it here: http://www.wwnorton.com/classical/covers/62305.htm

The use of Ligeti is a nice preface to the more dramatic reprise of the Requiem, which appears again as the team later descends into the excavation site to view the monolith. The Lux Aeterna is purely atmospheric. In fuguelike fashion, Ligeti creates tonal clusters of closed and dissonant chords by sustaining single notes to the point that an actual melodic line is unrecognizable. The close harmonies with intervals oftentimes a second or minor second apart create an otherworldly feeling, especially sung as softly as they are. For instance, at the third beat of measure 24 the sopranos form a chord spelled (from the top voice down) A-B flat-E flat-A flat, while the altos spell a chord G-G flat-F-C. The melody is then repeated throughout all the voices. This music, which stands in counterpoint to the flamboyant "Blue Danube" of the previous segment, underscores the flight of the shuttle over the moonscape to TMA- 1. Kubrick drops the music out when the scene shifts to the interior of the shuttle. As opposed to the other flight sequences, there is more character dialogue here and less focus on the technology of travel. The dialogue is a mixture of small talk and discussion about the object awaiting the characters at TMA-1. The music is brought back in as we see the shuttle approach and land at the site. The music, replicating as it does the compositional feel of the Requiem, suggests that the men are on the threshold of a mystery and a challenge, but in their scientific complacency they are oblivious to the possibilities at hand - even though the music indicates it is there waiting for them, muted, whispering, and troubling.
From: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0412/n4_v25/20573310/p10/article.jhtml?term=film+music
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 07:57 PM
Response to Original message
1. If you read music
and get a chance, check out the score. A bitch to sing, but who's going to complain that you're flat?
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Just tried looking for the score on the web,
but could only find copies to buy.

But you know, even in dissonance, singing flat can still be dramatically noticable, though I'm sure you know that. :-)
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:08 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. And it ain't cheap
Edited on Sat Oct-25-03 08:09 PM by wtmusic
If you haven't already also check out music by Krystof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima or the opera The Devils of Loudun. Very powerful--similar textures but with orchestral instruments.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:11 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. ooh, the threnody gives me goosebumps!
Love it!

Not familiar with the opera.

Ligety I'm not bvery familiar with, though I see that I should become familiar with him. Reminded me very much of Penderecki, whom I love (his Polish Requiem is killer!).

I think I'd like Ligety - writes music in a way that I do.

Found a score for the lux aeterna for $7.50 on some sheet music website.
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:20 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. You write music like that?
Edited on Sat Oct-25-03 08:22 PM by wtmusic
How the hell do you get it performed?

$7.50 is a good deal. Is it a Dover score, or a miniature? If so I hope your eyes are good!
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Close to, but not quite, though I've been working on one
similar for 32 voices, a capella, full of dissonance (but harmonic, not cheap dissonance) - long notes, lots of half-steps against each other, moody, using a psalm of lamentation.

I've had a few church choirs peform my music, but for the most part, it doesn't get performed.

But I'm also not out there trying to get it performed. YET!
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #12
18. If you have an mp3 you want to share
I'd love to hear it--PM me
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-26-03 07:05 AM
Response to Reply #18
19. Sadly, no mp3s available.
I have a recording of only one piece. It has a couple Pendercki/Ligety like areas.

But I don't have anything that can make mp3s.

At least, I don't think I do. Do I? Hell, I've never tried.
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:14 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. Heard him
at the Royan Music Festival in 1969 or 70 in France.
Lukas Foss was there. One woman cellist with the French Radio Orchestra was doing a soldier-like performance, scowling all the way. This modern music didn't seem to be her cup of tea.
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:10 PM
Response to Original message
4. My real player
didn't work. Hope I don't have to download it again.
Sounds really neat from your description.
I love requiems, I was born on Nov 2 and in grade school sang them since priests on that day could say 3 masses for the poor souls in purgatory.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:12 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. Bummers about the real player.
Edited on Sat Oct-25-03 08:16 PM by Rabrrrrrr
Nov. 2 birthday would put you always at All Saint's Day, so lots of requiems, yes!

on edit: typo
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. All Saints Day is 1 Nov
Poor Souls 2 Nov, I always liked it when we were in Mexico for 2 Nov. Great day and fun.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:17 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Meant to say "Always close to all saint's Sunday"
Edited on Sat Oct-25-03 08:18 PM by Rabrrrrrr
We in the protestant church just shove the holy days over to the nearest Sunday, so I always think of All Saints as a floating day, but yes, it is of course always the day after Halloween (or more technically, Halloween is always the night before All Saint's Day!).

Didn't know there was a Poor Souls Day.
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:23 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. If Poor Souls day
falls on a Sunday, it is moved to Monday. I don't know about the new ordo. Haven't set foot in church in a long time.
In France, since they have All Saints Day off, they go to the cimentaries to decorate the graves, so all saints and poor souls sort of gets blended in.
Have you heard Gilles Requiem, French Renaissance, really neat.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:32 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. So then when's the mexican day of the dead?
Isn't that Nov. 5? Or am I confusing it with Cinco de Mayo? is Day of the Dead on All Saints? Or Poor Souls? Or some other time?
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:49 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Nov 2
It is a mixture of Roman Catholic and Indian. Like they put a feast out in the cimentaries, wait for the dead to get the substance and then eat up. They make candy skulls and skeletons and it is tons better than Halloween.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 08:50 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Ah, thanks!
I had a feeling I was pulling the fifth from Cinco de mayo.

I've heard that there's boatloads of candy and great stuff for the day of the dead!
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Fovea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 09:12 PM
Response to Original message
16. Yes
Legeti accomplishes with the human voice, things that even Verese does not with electronic instruments.

It does indeed give one the feeling of eternal light.
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burrowowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-25-03 09:18 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. Renaissance
Edited on Sat Oct-25-03 09:21 PM by burrowowl
polyphony is great. Voice counterpoint as opposed to instrumental counterpoint.
I love counterpoint, I'm just a counterpoint gal.
On edit: polyphonie in Sainte Chapelle in Paris is a lovely experience.
For Rabrrrrr: what do you think of Messian's Les Sept Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus (organ) (seven views (looks, takes) on the enfnt Jesus?).
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