Ligeti's 'Volumina'

[keithlard]

Imagine taking a full-scale cathedral organ, the kind with three million pipes and a basement full of machinery, turning all the blowers right up to 'hearing damage' mode, and then leaning on all the keys and pedals at once. That's the opening chord of VoluminaYou feel as though, in settling down to write this piece, Ligeti carefully collected

Comments

[felinebird]

I think I want to hear that. I'm not 100% sure I want to hear that, but I think that it would be an experience.

[keithlard]

It certainly is :D

Well remind me when we meet up and I'll do you a copy.

[felinebird]

Okie dokie. You still up for a photographic mission then?

[keithlard]

Naturellement! I am a camera, as the saying goes, although I'd like to point out I'm also a lamb vindaloo and a pint of Leffe.

And a packet of nuts.

[florencisalesas]

I love that music so as you and the way you describe your feelings nearly made me cry because I feel the same! As so other people i discovered Lygeti hearing the Lux aetherna compositions for the Kubrick film when i was 14 years old and I fell in love with it. I love it!!! a
All that choir music, the organ one, the orchestra and even the piano one. I´m not an expert in Lygety but i love it.
There are some very powerful bits of Lygety piano music in the alst Kubrick mocie Eyes Wide Shut. A total pleasur e for insane brains as the mine one :D
Thanks for that post :)

[keithlard]

Yeah he's the Man all right. Ligeti's great because he's so out there. I particularly like the Continuum for harpsichord. It sounds like there's a wasp trapped inside the damn instrument, thrashing and buzzing around getting faster and faster and faster until it becomes a high-speed staccato stream like machine Morse, and getting faster still until it just all blends into one high-pitched machine-gun shriek of sound. You kind of picture the harpsichordist getting up and taking a bow with smoke billowing from the overloaded instrument.

[sleekuk]

Sounds really cool. My ex loved a really atonal piece of organ music but I can't for the life of me remember what it is called. It started with tons of dischordant chords (you know what I mean) which, although not the easiest piece to listen to, sort of grew on me as the musical equivalent of modern art.

:)

[keithlard]

It wasn't Alain's Litanies, I suppose.

I'm a big fan of that, although I'd say it's more minimalist than avant garde.

[sleekuk]

Dunno. It went DAH DAH-DAH DAH DAH DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH (not in tune).

[keithlard]

That's amazing, I didn't know you had perfect pitch! :D

I have no idea what that is.

Off Topic Comment

[lursa_esk]

Was thinking about you and all the books you're buying and suddenly thought that you might like to be pointed in the direction of a cheap site to buy books from.

http://www.greenmetropolis.com

It's an online book swap thing where people adveritse their old books and other people can buy them. Each book costs £3 and the buyer pays a bit on top of that for postage. For every book that is bought money is given to plant a tree or some such good cause (you'd need to look into it yourself).

Re: Off Topic Comment

[keithlard]

Ooh, that's a wizzo idea! Thanks!

I'll check that out right now.

[anonymous]

I don't think serialism was in any way involved in the composition of this piece, just because its not tonal does not render it serialist. Since there are no precise pitches in the score (only pitch areas are notated), it cannot possibly be based on a twelve tone row, a prerequisite for dodecaphonic composition

[keithlard]

Well, fuck you very much for that :D