Ligetti
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The time is the 1980’s and music composing has evolved into a series of different avenues of mathematically formulated sound to emotionally bound ballads. Gyorgy Ligeti, a composer from an early age, had established a name for himself with such works as �Atmospheres’ (1961) and his opera �Le Grande Macabre’ (1975-1977). His studies on sound and arranging lead him to create and compose many interesting and different styled pieces. �Trio for violin, horn and piano’ was released in 1982, comprising of four movements in all. His first movement is titled “Andantino con tenerezza’ and really highlights Ligeti’s composing strengths throughout its melodies. His uses of little piano and mostly horn is the key to this piece, giving it distance and substance at the same time, a trait that Ligeti was recognised for. He quotes Bach in his opening motive and works towards settling in the trio for the audience. The piece is colourful, imaginative and most importantly, one which shows Ligeti’s true composing nature.
The piece starts slowly with the introduction of the horn and violin. Its slow ♪ = 100 tempo is marked to be “by no means slower”. The violin and horn duet combine yet contrast each other throughout the first section of the piece. The violin’s long, drawn out chords create an atmosphere in which the horn is able to flow through notes underneath it. The piece is made up of a 4/4 time signature at the start of the movement. This though, changes at the 62nd bar where a series of time signature changes starts to occur. The time signature changes to 3/4 for 2 bars before return back to 4/4 then into a series of 1 bar transitions between 2/4, 5/8, 3/4, then back to 4/4 again. During this section the tempo speeds up to ♪ = 112, to create a more steady and smooth flow between the changing meters, before going back to the original tempo at the return of the 4/4 meter.
The change of meter occurs in bars further on through the movement yet doesn’t include the use of 5/8 time signature. Although there are changing time signatures through the piece, it seems to stay quite constant in pace, tending to sit in an average rate which to the ear sounds relaxing.
The melody of the movement can be said to be consistent with the violin and horn playing a general melody line for the entire piece. The range of the violins melody line is wide, spanning across the fret board of the violin and every string on it. The melody is played mostly on the D and A strings yet moves onto the G string and up to the E string of the violin. The horn’s section contains multiple uses of triplets throughout the movement adding depth and feel to the horns sound. This extended use of triplets for the horn, allows the horn to really become expressive in the piece and gives the horn more edge than if it were to be played regularly.
The violin’s melody takes both an upwards and downwards shape as it progresses through the movement. The violin melody is made of mostly 2 note chords, in which the interval between the two notes starts small and becomes larger before return back again. This notation gives the shape of a sine wave moving through the manuscript, giving the listener the sound of moving away from one certain point and returning back to it again. Due to this relationship of the violin’s notes, the movement of the melody is conjunct, moving naturally back and forwards. The horn however moves in a more disjunct way, given definition away from the violins chordal melody by having a more random sound for the horn’s melody. The horns range is narrower, tending to stay mostly within the staff, yet moving above and below it at certain points. This really keeps the horn sounding deep and subtle as it rolls through the chords of the violin. The horns relationship to the violin other than the sharing of the main melody can be seen in the sudden ascent of notes by the horn in bars 53 and 131 where the horns notes are followed in the one ascent by an ascent of notes on the violin. The horns ascent ends on a g and the violin starts on a g, Ligeti’s way of showing his relationship of the horn and violin.
The piano’s melody is different to the structural style of the horn and violin. The piano doesn’t enter until the end of the 10th bar where it plays a quick ornamentation of 3 chords as a point of interest and a marker for the horn and violin. The piano then plays again 10 bars later and it is not until the 40th bar that the piano really stands out. At this point the piano’s melody is now leading the other instruments as it begins to play more chords. Its chordal melody follows the same interval pattern as the violin was playing with the intervals growing larger then smaller again. The chords are mostly played in the higher