György Ligeti - Melodien for Orchestra (1971) [audio + score]

György Sándor Ligeti (May 28, 1923 - June 12, 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as “one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century“ and “one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time“. Melodien was a transitional piece for Ligeti, composed in 1971 on commission from the city of Nuremburg for its celebrations for the 500th anniversary of Albrecht Dürer’s birth. Ligeti was beginning to loosen his previously more sharply sequestered dichotomies of “clocks” (fast and highly energized musical machines) and “clouds” (slowly evolving – even static – soundscapes). His “micropolyphony” made use of motivic canons, but in such a way that the individual lines were seldom aurally identifiable. The titular melodies of Melodien are more “macro” in that sense: though the textures are still richly and intricately interlaced, unique lines emerge s