Le compositeur théoricien et les esquisses des autres. Essai sur les "Wandlungen der musikalischen Form" de György Ligeti

paolo dal molin

2022-01-01

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Abstract

Published in 1960 in the journal die Reihe, the “Wandlungen der musikalischen Form” quickly became a sort of manifesto for post-serial composition. However, for several years now, this major text by György Ligeti has been viewed from a historical perspective. In this way, it regains the true significance it had at the time – that of an act of positioning in the field of musical composition, based on a partial critique of the serial experience. This article revisits the first part of the Wandlungen, especially the section concerning the dissolution or disintegration [Zersetzung] of the "serial arrangement of pitches" [Reihenanordnung der Tonhöhen], which, according to Ligeti, was illustrated in different ways by the works of five composers of his generation: Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, and Gottfried Michael Koenig. The study first focuses on the entire passage, its explicit references, and its latent foundations, particularly the section related to “Gruppen”. Then, it returns to the paragraph dedicated to Nono, first examining it in light of its elaboration and reception in musicological literature, and then comparing it with the sketches of the work commented on by Ligeti, namely “Cori di Didone”. The preliminary sketches of this work and of Stockhausen’s become especially valuable here in understanding the distance between theory and its objects. Moreover, Ligeti’s knowledge of these very objects – as we shall see – was mediated by their creators, and the preliminary sketches allow us to measure the gap between the techniques as they are documented (and as they can be read), the authorial paratext that describes them, and their resonance in the Wandlungen. The case examined thus takes on a more general significance.