György Ligeti - Life and work

1923
György Sándor Ligeti was born on 28 May in Diciosânmartin (Dicsőszentmárton, now Târnăveni), Romania. His father Sándor Ligeti holds a doctorate in economics, his mother Ilona (née Somogyi) is a practising ophthalmologist.


1928
Birth of his brother Gábor.


1929
The family moves to Klausenburg (now Cluj-Napoca), where his father publishes books, including a utopian novel, alongside his work as a bank employee.


1936
Ligeti receives private piano lessons and begins to write down his first compositions.


1940
Following the Second Vienna Arbitration Award, Cluj-Napoca is annexed by Hungary on 30 August together with the northern part of Transylvania.


1941
Graduates from high school in Cluj-Napoca. The Second Jewish Law of 1939 prevents him from studying physics and maths. Ligeti receives composition lessons from Ferenc Farkas at the conservatory in Cluj-Napoca and at the same time privately from Pál Kadosa in Budapest.


1944
Ligeti is drafted into labour service on the Hungarian-Romanian border.


1945
His father dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; his brother Gábor is murdered in the Mauthausen concentration camp. His mother survives her deportation to Auschwitz and returns to Cluj-Napoca.


1945-1949
Studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas (composition), Pál Járdányi (Hungarian folk music) and Bence Szabolcsi (music history). Encounter with György Kurtág (born 1926).
During these years he composes Három Weöres dal (Three Weöres Songs) and Régi magyar társas táncok (Old Hungarian Social Dances) for chamber orchestra as well as numerous choral works and piano pieces.


1948
Ligeti receives Hungarian citizenship.


1949
Music ethnological research trip to Romania. Marriage to Brigitte Löw (1926-2023); the marriage lasts until 1952.


1950-1956
Teacher of music theory at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. Publication of a classical theory of harmony in two volumes and a collection of examples. Concert românesc for orchestra and Six Bagatelles for wind quintet, numerous folk music arrangements as well as "for the drawer" - Musica ricercata and the 1st string quartet are written under increasingly repressive cultural-political circumstances.


1952
Marriage to Veronika (Vera) Spitz (born 1930).


1956
After the Hungarian uprising in autumn, Ligeti flees to Austria with his wife Vera at the beginning of December. The couple settle in Vienna.


1957
Ligeti arrives in Cologne on a scholarship from the Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). He meets Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, Mauricio Kagel and Pierre Boulez and becomes a freelancer at WDR.


1958
The tape piece Artikulation is created in the WDR's electronic studio. The world premiere of the 1st String Quartet with the Ramor Quartet takes place in Vienna.


1959-1969
Ligeti gives extensive lectures and gives composition courses at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, at the Gaudeamus Foundation in Bilthoven and, from 1961, as a visiting professor in Stockholm.


1960
International breakthrough with the world premiere of Apparitions at the World Music Festival of the International Society for New Music in Cologne.


1961
The world premiere of Atmosphères under Hans Rosbaud causes a sensation at the Donaueschingen Music Festival; the piece is performed a second time at the same concert.


1962
World premiere of the organ piece Volumina in Bremen.


1963
World première of Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes in Hilversum and of Aventures in Hamburg. From then on, Ligeti continuously receives commissions from internationally renowned institutions, performers and patrons.


1965
First performance of the Requiem in Stockholm. Birth of his son Lukas.


1967
Ligeti receives Austrian citizenship and concludes an exclusive contract with the Schott publishing house in Mainz. Lontano for large orchestra is premièred at the Donaueschingen Music Festival.


1968
Several central instrumental works are created: the harpsichord piece Continuum, the Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet and the 2nd String Quartet.


1969
At the invitation of harpsichordist Antoinette Vischer, Ligeti gives a lecture in Basel for the first time; he talks about his own works at the Progressive Museum.


1969- 1970
Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin.


1970
Ligeti returns to Hungary for the first time since his emigration. He is officially invited to join the jury for the 11th International Music Competition in Budapest.


1972
Ligeti spends the first half of the year as "composer in residence" at Stanford University in California. He familiarises himself with the latest trends in American music (Steve Reich, Terry Riley) and gets to know Harry Partch personally.


1973
Ligeti accepts the professorship for composition at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Hamburg, which he holds until 1989. From then on, he lives half time in Hamburg and half time in Vienna. First performance of Clocks and Clouds in Graz.


1975
Awarded the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.


1978
World première of the opera Le Grand Macabre in Stockholm. In the course of postmodern liberation, Ligeti writes Hungarian Rock and Passacaglia ungherese for harpsichord.


1979
First representative concert in Hungary during the Budapest Music Weeks. In the presence of Ligeti, Requiem, Double Concerto and San Francisco Polyphony are performed in the large hall of the Academy of Music.


1982
With the Trio for violin, horn and piano, Ligeti finds his late style after an artistic break. Death of his mother in Vienna.
1985
Ligeti's encounter with Conlon Nancarrow and his interest in non-European musical traditions inspire him to experiment with etudes for piano. By 2001, three volumes with a total of 18 etudes had been written.


1986
First performance of the 1st version of the Piano Concerto in Graz.


1988
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris. First performance of the definitive version of the piano concerto in Vienna.


1990
Ligeti and György Kurtág take part in the Bartók Festival and the seminar in Szombathely, Hungary. Kurtág teaches chamber music, Ligeti gives lectures, some of his works are performed in the now free and democratic Hungary. World premiere of the original version of the Violin Concerto in Cologne


1991
Music Prize of the Balzan Foundation, Berne-Milan.


1992
Honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, London; member of the Széchenyi Academy for Literature and Art. World première of the new version of the Violin Concerto in Cologne.


1993
Ligeti receives the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and becomes a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts. The Salzburg Festival dedicates a special focus to him and György Kurtág.


1995
Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


1996-2003
The complete works are recorded and released on CD with Ligeti's participation (György Ligeti Edition 1-8 and The Ligeti Project I-V).


1997
World première of the revised version of Le Grand Macabre at the Salzburg Festival. Honorary member of the Romanian Academy.


2000
With his last work Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel (With pipes, drums, reed violins), Ligeti returns to poems by Sándor Weöres (première in Metz). He spends a year as a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, meets the zoologist Gerhard Neuweiler and works on the project "Alice in Wonderland".


2001
First performance of the Hamburg Concerto in Hamburg (movements I-VI); first performance of the definitive version (with movement VII) in Utrecht in 2002.


2006
Ligeti dies in Vienna on 12 June after a long illness.