Atmosphères — György Ligeti
EN | FR
Atmosphères – Györgi Ligeti
Amazing Moments in Timbre | Timbre and Orchestration Writings
by Jason Noble
Published: November 23rd, 2018
We’re beginning our “amazing moments in timbre” series with a true classic, György Ligeti’s paralyzingly beautiful orchestral masterpiece Atmosphères (1961). This is one of the relatively few avant-garde compositions from the second half of the 20th century to gain popular recognition, due in part to its inclusion in the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It takes Schoenberg’s idea of Klangfarbenmelodie, in which sound-colour or timbre assumes the focal role traditionally held by melody, to a whole new level. The opening chord has become one of the go-to examples of sound mass, complex combinations of many sounds that tend to fuse together into a perceptual totality. Listen to a recording, with a graphical diagram of the music’s organization in pitch space, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWlwCRlVh7M