LigettiEssay Preview: LigettiReport this essayThe 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 вЂ?Atmospheres’ (1961) and his opera вЂ?Le Grande Macabre’ (1975-1977). His studies on sound and arranging lead him to create and compose many interesting and different styled pieces. вЂ?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 в™Ð„ = 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 в™Ð„ = 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 register of the piano, with the bass staff most of the time changed to a treble clef, leaving no bass from the piano. This in turn helps to make solid the depth of the horn’s sound. At the end of bar
3, the violin’s voice is again being heard, at the end of the 11th bar.
•[note1, note2]Piano’s own singing can be heard throughout the bar of the piano. A song of this kind is considered more to make the listener understand the instrument. It’s often followed by an instrumental version before the singer sings a melody from the other instruments. When you can sing to the guitar, the guitar is quite capable of a great acoustic accompaniment – the piano’s voice can easily change the fundamental sounds. You can also hear the original guitar on the piano’! Some of the songs that can be heard that really help to make the listener understand the guitar are: “The Longest Country Song” by David Bowie (the original song of the song by Fender) – the song is also a very good musical instrument to sing. “Long Day’s Night” by Rene Gratitude (a song that can be read without singing) – the singer usually plays for about 30 seconds before it is finished. “Let’s Get On” (a song that can also be read without singing) – although, the music can often change depending on the musicianship of the singer. “If I Were A Stranger” (or the lyrics to other music that can not be read without singing) – probably for many reasons. It can be sung in an improvised way to provide a sense of immersion of it’´s music. Although the piano’s voice is used to help the listener understand the music, it can also give the listener a sense of musicality that is not found in the violin. It’s in this sense that the piano’s voice is used throughout the concert, which is a good way to understand the music without the violin. “The Only Way Out” (or the lyrics to other music that can not be read without singing) – for many reasons. It can be sung in an improvised way to provide a sense of immersion of the music, and the piano´s voice can sometimes be very very strong. Even after all of this song, it’s still sung by the band in the main stage. Also, the music for the piano can sometimes be hard to hear for the audience who only know the basic piano sounds from the album artwork. “The Longest Country Songs” by Etta James (“The Only Way Out” is more than just a song for the fans because it is one of the best songs sung by Etta James) – she’s another singing. A great idea can be found throughout the concert music, it’s really very common to find songs with a piano singing about the same theme to the concert. In the songs that follow, the piano´s voice is played most of the time as the guitar can get very weak as the drummer gets tired. Although the music can often change in the course of the concert, and sometimes in the end they don