Ende von Anfang an Wege zu György Ligetis San Francisco Polyphony

Luyken, Lorenz (2016) Ende von Anfang an Wege zu György Ligetis San Francisco Polyphony. Studia Musicologica, 57 (1-2). pp. 91-104. ISSN 1788-6244

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Abstract

György Ligeti’s comments on his last large orchestral piece San Francisco Polyphony show a remarkable understatement, if not neglect, of this work. This paper intends to find reasons for this attitude. It analyzes the correlation between title and substance, in particular the description of the work as being polyphonic, showing that the piece is less polyphonic than it is melodic or even thematic, resulting from coherent stylistic development as well as from an innate spatial conception rather than from a switchback to 19th-century procedures. At the end, San Francisco Polyphony proves to be a very personal comment on the state of the post-war musical avant-garde and the discussion about postmodernism in music.

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