333

G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic 
Tendencies 

Valeriya Zharkova, Oleksandr Zharkov, Olena Antonova, Tetiana Filatova, 
Ganna Rizaieva

Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, Ukraine

Submitted: 2023-07-14. Revised: 2023-08-05. Accepted: 2023-10-05

Abstract

The relevance of this study is conditioned upon the need to highlight the internal content of the 
modern academic musical language and, specifically, the features of the late work of G. Ligeti. 
This paper aimed to conduct an in-depth study, comprehensively covering, analyzing, and gen-
eralizing the panoramic display of the creative traditions of G. Ligeti in the context of world 
musical art. The materials of this paper are sources that illuminate the path of stylistic search and 
the evolution of the musician’s composition, as well as information about the leading directions 
of the modern world academic musical environment. The research methods included a search 
and collection of information base dedicated to the Hamburg Concerto by G. Ligeti; analysis and 
compilation of available materials; determination of the leading categories of the phenomenon 
presented in the late period of the composer’s work; showing his stylistic and compositional prin-
ciples as a single multifaceted system. The result of the study was the individual author’s concept 
of vision of the role, significance, and content of G. Ligeti’s work in the history of academic musi-
cal art. The practical significance of this study was manifested in the demand for the results of 
this study among students of secondary and higher musical educational institutions, as well as 
among specialists investigating the processes of transformation and expansion of the boundaries 
of the melodic, compositional, and technical arsenal of professional musical creativity.

Keywords: modern academic tradition; sonoristic layer; micropolyphony; timbre dramaturgy; 
thematic mode  

How to Cite: Zharkova, V., Zharkov, O., Antonova, O., Filatova, T. & Rizaieva, G. (2023). G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto 
as a Summary of Late Artistic Tendencies. Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education, 23(2), 333-345

Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023), 333-345
Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/harmonia
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v23i2.45933

which the composer’s work evolved. The 
second factor is conditioned upon the uni-
queness of the Hamburg Concerto, which 
embodies the leading trends and techni-
ques of compositional techniques, styles, 
and creative philosophy of modern times 
(Berehova, 2022).

The Hamburg Concerto deeply ref-
lected his later work’s stylistic, intonatio-
nal, rhythmic, timbre, compositional, and 
technical tendencies. However, all the 

INTRODUCTION

The problem of summarizing the 
late tendencies of G. Ligeti’s work on the 
example of his Hamburg Concerto requi-
res its study due to several factors. One of 
them is the need to reveal the voluminous, 
modernized, and complicated musical lan-
guage of academic music, which was for-
med by the end of the 20th - and beginning 
of the 21st centuries, and the context in 

Corresponding author: 
 E-mail: valeriya.zharkova@ukr.net 

p-ISSN 2541-1683|e-ISSN 2541-2426



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345334

listed components have not yet been ana-
lyzed as elements of a single composite 
system.

Scientists from different countries fo-
cused their attention on its various aspects. 
Thus, A. Bauer (2020) notes that the legacy 
of the composer combines intellectual so-
phistication with respect for the sensual at-
tributes of his musical themes. Much of the 
research related to the music of the Hunga-
rian composer revolves around categories 
such as musical technique, theoretical wri-
tings, and lectures. Specialist (Bauer, 2020) 
states that for six decades, the musician 
has been creating solo chamber works, 
choral compositions, experimental opu-
ses (Fluxus), electronic, orchestral works, 
and examples of various genres of musical 
theatre. His early orchestral compositions, 
Apparitions (1958–1959) and Atmosphères 
(1961) cemented Ligeti’s reputation among 
the European avant-garde. The scope of 
his style expanded significantly during the 
1970s by turning to polar genres: intimate 
solo works for harpsichord and the gran-
diose opera The Great Death (1974–1977, 
a new edition appeared in 1996) (Bauer, 
2020). Elements of musical traditions outsi-
de of Europe and, specifically, African art, 
as well as the canonical Music of Conlon 
Nancarrow and fractal geometry, enriched 
in the 1980s the fund of his intonational 
language and stylistic system based on the 
native national language and the traditions 
of the academic atmosphere, in the field of 
which G. Ligeti was at the dawn of his cre-
ative career (Bauer, 2020; Voyvoda, 2022).

M. Chemillier (2020) plunges into 
the study of the updated interpretation of 
sound in the Music of G. Ligeti, as a weigh-
ty unit that includes many mobile compo-
nents. In his opinion (Chemillier, 2020), 
the transformation of sound is based on 
such methods as changing the pitch and 
its modification in time. In this case, the 
sound acts both separately, individually, 
and in the context of a harmonic complex 
or micropolyphonic construction (Chemil-
lier, 2020).

I. Pace explores the issues of the 
emergence of a renewed sound field both 

through the modernization of intonatio-
nal and technical (interpretative) aspects: 
meter and rhythm, as well as musical no-
tation, accentuation on the example of G. 
Ligeti’s Etudes for Piano. He thoroughly 
examines the principle of touching the pia-
no keyboard, special techniques for using 
the pedal, and the effects of discontinuity 
and continuity in the sound of a horizontal 
musical-thematic line (Pace, 2012).

A. Bauer (2019) is absorbed in the 
study of ideological content, which is 
contained in the images of the musician’s 
works. According to his concept (Bauer, 
2019), the Hungarian composer manifests 
himself in his own works (“Etudes for Pia-
no”) as an ideological architect, a symbol 
of the era of late modernism, where virtu-
osity in performance is interpreted broad-
ly and polarly: from rejecting its necessi-
ty and prevailing, to doubling the effects 
from the use of its resources.

A deep philosophical study of G. 
Ligeti’s work is carried out by E. Schrei-
ber (2019). The scientist (Schreiber, 2019) 
analyses the comments of the Hungarian 
composer on his own works of different 
periods, which helps reveal the creati-
ve evolution of the musician more subtly 
and clearly. Specifically, it is noted that 
in the early stages, Ligeti purposefully 
emphasized the analytical and interpreti-
ve aspects of his works, to which he con-
sistently returned later (Schreiber, 2019). 
The musician’s appearance as an original 
artist was clearly manifested in his retros-
pectives at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. 
(Schreiber, 2019; Hromchenko, 2022).

Since the problem of an individual 
creative style and the use of a wide range 
of compositional techniques of a musician 
is voluminous and multi-vector, it requires 
its study, illumination, and conceptualiza-
tion, where it will be presented as an in-
tegral complex system. To accomplish this 
task, this publication turns to the materials 
available in musicology that address this 
issue; new sources are discovered, and the 
collected information is analysed; the pro-
cesses of interpretation of the Hamburg 
Concerto are monitored.



Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 335

METHOD

The materials of this study included 
sources investigating several large-scale 
blocks. The first of them analyses the in-
tonational and compositional-technical 
fund of academic music of the late 20th 
and early 21st centuries. The second block 
covers the characteristics of the work of the 
Hungarian composer. The third block is 
devoted to extensive coverage of the con-
tent, significance, and role of the Hamburg 
Concerto both in the context of G. Ligeti’s 
life and professional path and in the world 
of composer practice.

Thus, the information provided by 
the spheres of musicology, orchestration, 
and performance practice was used. The 
data of scientific analysis of the methods 
of creating music were studied. Among 
them, it is necessary to name such elements 
as melody and rhythm, thematic mode, 
timbre, dramaturgy, and genre structure. 
They were applied when correlating G. 
Ligeti’s style and the objective processes of 
complicating the musical language, expan-
ding the forms of its current presentation.

The study analyzed the sources co-
vering the transformation of the Hungari-
an musician’s work, which is reflected in 
the updated, individualized interpretation 
of several components of composer prac-
tice. These include instruments that have 
both tempered and untampered tunings 
semitone divided into microparticles. The 
aforementioned information was put into 
practice when compiling a panorama of 
the Hungarian composer’s artistic labora-
tory, within which the Hamburg Concerto 
arose.

The publication covered materials 
directly analyzing the Hamburg Concerto. 
They were taken from studies in musico-
logy, history, music theory, and musical 
pedagogy, specifically, the methodology 
for performing works by contemporary 
composers. They highlight the list of com-
posers’ writing techniques used in this stu-
dy: transformation of folk-national origins 
and genres (folklore, academic). They were 
used in defining and deriving the leading 

categories of the Hungarian composer’s 
musical thinking.

Among the research methods for the 
problem of summarizing the late trends in 
G. Ligeti’s work, using the example of the 
Hamburg Concerto, it is necessary to name 
scientific and exploratory, analytical, sys-
temic, ideological, and thesis. The first of 
them is based on the search and collecti-
on of sources on the subject under study. 
The second aims to study and complete 
the received base of materials. The third 
method aims to identify and deduce the 
categories that form the basis of the crea-
tive style in the Hamburg Concerto. The 
fourth is responsible for creating an indi-
vidual author’s concept of a phenomenon 
that embodies the problem under study in 
the form of a complex, multifaceted, and 
holistic system.

The first stage in the development of 
a topic dedicated to modern academic mu-
sic, the work of G. Ligeti and his Hamburg 
Concerto was carried out using a scienti-
fic exploratory method, the foundation of 
which is the search and collection of infor-
mation. On its basis, a database of sources 
on the research topic was created.

The second stage of investigating 
the problem was the use of the analytical 
method of its scientific development. It in-
cluded analysis and compilation of materi-
als of the obtained information base. This 
stage became a prerequisite for the disco-
very of significant elements of the system 
of creative approach to the creation of the 
Hamburg Concerto.

The third stage summarized the 
tendencies of G. Ligeti’s late work on the 
example of the Hamburg Concerto using 
the systematic method, the essence of 
which is to find and outline the leading ca-
tegories of style in general and the compo-
sitional features inherent in the Hamburg 
Concerto.

The fourth (final) stage of the study 
was based on the implementation of the 
ideological and thesis method, which be-
came the basis for the formation of an in-
dividual author’s concept regarding the 
vision of the discoveries of the Hamburg 



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345336

Concerto as a single complex system. This 
method of creating an original concept 
contributed to the implementation of no-
velty and prospects, which are contained 
in the content of the publication. 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

When summarizing the tendencies of 
G. Ligeti’s late works on the example of the 
Hamburg Concerto, a complex, volumino-
us, and integral system of compositional-
technical, stylistic, rhythmic, intonational, 
and timbre components of his writing was 
identified and outlined. Each of them, as 
evidenced by the data of the present study, 
differs in a certain scale and function.

Table 1 lists the categories, as well as 
their characteristics, which are inherent in 
the composer’s style of writing.

Table 1. The main creative principles of G. 
Ligeti and their description

Focus-
ing 

on the 
instru-
mental 

concerto 
genre

Attraction to a large concert form, 
which provides unlimited opportuni-
ties for compositional experiments in 

the field of the formation of thematics; 
intonation and rhythmic structure; 
timbre and textural dramaturgy, as 

well as the structural aspect
Mod-

erniza-
tion 

of the 
instru-
mental 

concerto

Implementation of artistic compo-
sitional and technical means that 

provide a new vision of musical mate-
rial, its main themes and episodes of 

development, dynamics, as well as an 
individual, unprecedented interpreta-
tion of expressive techniques that exist 

in the practice of creating music
Synthe-

sis of 
academ-

ic and 
folklore 
tradi-
tions

The principle of referring to com-
positional structures and writing 

techniques developed by the academic 
practice of creating music over several 

centuries, including ultramodern 
techniques for designing and devel-
oping material in a harmonious and 
direct combination with elements of 
folk genres (specifically, interval and 
metro-rhythmic micromodes, natural 

tunings)
Appli-

cation of 
avant-
garde 
style

The introduction into the genre of in-
strumental concerto of such categories 

as microtonality, sonorous vertical, 
micropolyphony

Com-
bina-

tion of 
modern 
complex 
writing 

tech-
niques 

and 
neo-ro-
mantic 
style el-
ements

The desire for a natural and profound 
combination of the latest composi-
tional and technical fund of the late 
20th – early 21st centuries and the 

integral components of the style of the 
Romantic era in music (specifically, 

solo instruments, the national folklore-
genre basis in the form of imitation of 

certain rhythms and timbres, as well as 
a characteristic genre and the structur-
al aspect of the major concerto form)

Source: created by the authors of this study.

Thus, Ligeti’s creative heritage inclu-
des seven instrumental concertos, and this 
is more than he has written in any other 
musical genre. The method of end-to-end 
development of motive groups (cells), in-
herent in this large-scale form, is being 
implemented.

Each of the seven concertos has a 
unique stylistic, structural (a departure 
from the traditional three-part form), and 
timbre-instrumental appearance, reflec-
ting the author’s tortuous trajectory of the 
author’s creative searches. Specifically, 
he created double (Concerto for flute and 
oboe with orchestra), ensemble (Chamber 
concerto for 13 instruments), and orchest-
ral (Concert românesc) concertos.

The first Concert românesc (1951) 
chronologically records the impressions 
of studying folk music at the Institute of 
Folklore in Bucharest. Three concertos, cre-
ated in the 1960s and early 1970s, capture 
avant-garde experiments associated with 
the ideas of sound-colourfulness, micro-
polyphony, and static composition. The 
last three instrumental concertos, dated 
1988 and 1999, demonstrate the interaction 
of the full range of previously developed 
writing techniques with neo-romantic ten-
dencies, indicative of the late period of the 
musician’s work. The ways of formation 
and development of the composer’s works 
are presented in Table 2.



Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 337

Table 2. Categories and methods of forma-
tion, as well as development of material by the 

composer G. Ligeti
Micro-
themed 
elements

This category acts as the intonational 
basis of themes in the genre sections 
of the work and acquires inde-
pendent significance in sonorous 
episodes.

Expand-
ing, fro-
zen and 
narrowing 
cluster, 
sonorous 
vertical

The method of creating a timbre 
space, the formation of its dramatur-
gy (episodes of the First Movement 
of the Hamburg Concerto, comple-
tion of its Second Movement)

Polypho-
ny (micro 
poly-
phonic 
imitation; 
combina-
tion of 
different 
themes)

The method of developing and forc-
ing dynamics in the process of de-
ploying the thematic material of the 
Hamburg Concerto (the last section 
of the First Movement; the second 
section of the Second Movement; 
the completion of the second section 
of the Third Movement; the third 
section of the Third Movement; the 
fourth section of the Fourth Move-
ment)

Timbre 
echo (res-
onance)

The method of deepening expres-
siveness in showing the image 
(beginning of the Second Movement 
of the Hamburg Concerto)

Transpo-
sition of 
thematic 
source

The method of colouring the main 
material by comparing the different 
pitches of the scale that makes up 
the carcass of the theme

Thematic 
transfor-
mation

A method of musical narration 
based on a change (sometimes radi-
cal) in the nature of the material that 
sounded earlier (completion of the 
second section of the Second Move-
ment of the Hamburg Concerto)

Variability A method for developing thematic 
material based on preserving its core 
and revealing its various facets (first 
section of the Third Movement of 
the Hamburg Concerto)

Genre 
rhythm

A category associated with the 
implementation of the rhythmic 
basis of folk melodies in modern 
academic Music, specifically the 
“Aksak” dance with its unique relief 
combination of durations: 4 + 3 + 2 
(second section of the Third Move-
ment of the Hamburg Concerto)

Combina-
tion of 
scales

The technique of creating a complex 
sound environment by combining 
different sound series or modes at 
the same time (second section of the 
Fourth Movement of the Hamburg 
Concerto)

Cross-
cutting 
thematic 
develop-
ment

The method of using the intona-
tional-rhythmic basis of the mate-
rial of one of the movements of 
the Hamburg Concerto in its other 
movements (re-intonation in the 
Fifth Movement of the intonations of 
the First Movements)

Group 
technique

Method for organizing and develop-
ing textured cells

Source: created by the authors of this study.

The nature of the images and themes 
of the Hamburg Concerto, its genre, and 
structural foundations, as well as a set of 
compositional and technical means, form 
an integral system. It includes such blocks 
as the thematic modus (sonoristic field; me-
lody in the form of an individual horizontal 
line; intonational, timbre, and rhythmic re-
sonation); dynamic principles (variability; 
comparison of modal elements and scales 
in different pitch contexts; micropolypho-
ny); timbre architecture; interpretation of 
national traditions combined with modern 
writing techniques. Figure 1 illustrates the 
structure of G. Ligeti’s musical language 
used in the Hamburg Concerto. Blocks are 
given that form its basis and at the same 
time realize the composer’s creative sear-
ches, his experiments in the field of app-
lying various techniques and their combi-
nations.

Figure 1. G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as 
an indicator of the modern musical language 

system

Thematic material (mode), in combi-
nation with dynamic principles, features of 
timbre design, and rhythmic schemes, con-
centrates a certain type of presentation of 
musical thought. When analysing each of 
the parts of the Hamburg Concerto, their 



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345338

different variants were identified.
Thus, the First Movement – Praelu-

dium – opens with the composer’s classic, 
textbook technique: a microcluster of E-
flat - F for natural horns, which then ex-
pands to a fifth of D-flat - A-flat. Against 
its background, the soloist sets out a rat-
her lengthy “frozen” melody. In measure 
10, the middle section begins, built on the 
soloist’s wide expressive leaps, with the 
support and doubling of the French horns 
and the sonorous clusters of other instru-
ments. In sharp contrast in measure 15, 
the last section breaks in, built on a unison 
and cluster line for the strings, which are 
chanted by all instruments, and the effect 
of declamation is enhanced by micropo-
lyphonic imitations on woodwinds and 
brass instruments.

The Second Movement consists of 
three sections – Signale, Tanz, Choral. Its 
beginning is a spectacular dialogue bet-
ween the soloist and the horn ensemble, 
built on a fanfare takeoff along two minor 
and two major thirds. The horns echo the 
solo instrument. The middle section is a 
dance representing a three-part, with the 
soloist’s stepwise movement of the melody 
doubled within the interval of a quart of 
one of the horns (fourth), which creates a 
special sound effect. At the same time, the 
second and third horns, in a Cancrizans 
imitation, set out the intonations of the ini-
tial fanfare, thanks to which both sections 
are combined. Such a vertical alignment is 
indicative of Ligeti. Doubling to a fourth 
creates a sonoristic effect, on which comp-
lex imitation is superimposed by counter-
point. The beginning of the third (lyrical in 
figurative structure) section – the Choral 
– sounds muffled by four horns, and the 
abundance of natural overtones gives it a 
specific sound. Like the First Movement, 
the Second Movement ends with an exten-
ded sonorous layer for wood and stringed 
instruments.

The Third Movement has three small 
sections: Aria, Aksak, Hoketus. The first of 
them is a soulful Aria, the melody of which 
is heard by the soloist. It is supported by 
soft string chords, built as a combination 

of two fifths: B-flat - F and C - G, in combi-
nation with which the interval of a second 
B-flat - C is observed. The colorful effect 
is enhanced by the individual phrases of 
the four bongs. If we talk about the melo-
dy in the soloist’s part, then it first builds 
up as a varied movement along the scale 
of E-flat - F - A-flat - A - B - C, which also 
hearkens back to the First Movement. In 
monophony, the sonorous effect is created 
by the fact that the sounds of E-flat - A-flat 
- A should be played by the performer as 
natural, untampered.

The second section is Aksak, a me-
dieval dance performed in the countries of 
the Balkan Peninsula, in Hungary. In this 
case, Ligeti takes his rhythmic basis and 
organization of durations: 4 + 3 + 2. The 
composer builds the horizontal line in pa-
rallel fifths, colorfully, from the perspective 
of timbres, embodying it in the orchestral 
fabric. The beginning of the second section 
is distinguished by its relief: the G-D fifth 
is played, where the lower sound is per-
formed by the bassoon and the upper one 
– by two flutes. This figure is doubled by a 
marimba, which is joined by a fifth for bas-
set horns and a fifth pizzicato for strings. 
The counterpoint to this melodic line is 
played by separate phrases- echoes from 
the horns, creating continuity with the first 
and second sections of the cycle.

The third section – Hoketus (measu-
re 24) – synthesizes the intonations of Ak-
sak, melodic turns from the Aria and some 
linear moves that refer the listeners to the 
material of the end of the Prelude. In this 
case, Hoketus is a natural continuation of 
the dance, but with maximum polyphonic 
complication and the combination of va-
rious layers that do not coincide in metric 
terms, creating the illusion of aleatorics. In 
this case, the composer interprets Hoketus 
as a technique in the context of a complex 
orchestral texture.

The Fourth Movement consists of 
four sections: Solo, Intermezzo, Mixtur, 
Kanon. The first section – the horn solo – 
creates an intonation and genre arc to the 
first section of the third movement (Aria). 
The melody is built as a free movement of 



Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 339

material, with an abundance of expressive 
jumps and soft progressive moves. As in 
the previous movements, the soloist’s part 
retains the imitation of natural horns and 
implements the techniques of micro dyna-
mics. The sound of a horn with a mute cre-
ates the updated timbre colouration. Here, 
the echo effect appears when the same me-
lodic interval is presented first on ff, then 
on pp. Ligeti instructs the soloist to play it 
at different overtones, adding a timbre-re-
gister contrast to the dynamic tone. In figu-
rative terms, this solo is a continuation of 
the lyrical line from the Prelude, the third 
section of the Second and the first section 
of the concerto’s Third movement.

Intermezzo enters as a striking cont-
rast: fast tempo, variable meter, distinctly 
accentuated rhythm and ostinato sound 
of a tambourine combined with a polyr-
hythmic complex. The opening phrase 
of Intermezzo develops the idea of open 
strings in bowed instruments. It is echoed 
by a contrasting phrase in the woodwinds 
and double bass, which, due to the simul-
taneous combination of several scales, cre-
ates the feeling of using the technique of 
groups.

The third section – Mixtur – conti-
nues the development of the sections In-
termezzo, Solo, and is built on a new melo-
dic line of a pronounced impulsive nature. 
The composer creates the note “quasi jazz, 
parlando” (measure 42). The percussion 
group is amplified by the bass drum. There 
is also an expressive timbre development 
in the form of a comparison of various 
doublings and mixes.

The final section – Kanon – is a vi-
vid example of the technique of micropo-
lyphony. Starting at the second violins, 
due to the orchestral crescendo, it grows to 
tutti (without horns) and then, through the 
orchestral diminuendo, “calms down” in 
the parts of the basset horn, bassoon, trom-
bone, and strings. This material is very in-
dicative from the standpoint of using the 
technique of micropolyphony, first of all, 
in terms of tempo – prestissimo, which en-
hances the effect of ostinato sound and ir-
regularity when repeating its elements.

The Fifth Movement is Spectra. Like 
the Prelude, it represents a single phase of 
development. The chorale of the ensemble 
of horns and the soloist is an intonationally 
updated initial phrase of the soloist in the 
Prelude. The development is built on tim-
bre contrast – a comparison of the sound 
of horns and other instruments of the or-
chestra.

The Sixth Movement – Capriccio – 
includes three sections. The first of them is 
a bright and dynamic dance. The compo-
ser builds it as a timbre-textural complex, 
combining the melodic line of the soloist 
(occasionally supported by horns) and the 
accompaniment of the strings (pizzicato), 
designated by the composer as “quasi gui-
tar”. The second section of this movement, 
having something in common with the 
first, is marked by a new melodic figure, 
which the composer develops polypho-
nically and through timbre. The beginning 
of the third section of this movement is a 
sharp contrast to the earlier material. Be-
ginning with a G-flat-D-flat fifth on the 
basset horns, it revives the material of 
the Third Movement of the concerto, and 
Capriccio “melts” in the soft downward 
stepping motion of the horns’ fifths, which 
connect with the trembling layer of fifths, 
and then their upward movement at the 
trembling strings.

The concerto’s Seventh Movement 
– Hymnus – is interpreted as a postlude, 
a gradually fading procession, a chorale. 
Not being sonorous in technique, it is rep-
lete with special sound effects, thanks to 
the technique of playing frulato on horns, 
which, combined with a noticeably quiet 
sonority, creates a mysterious, enigmatic 
image. The violins play the sul ponticello 
tremolo, which reinforces this impressi-
on. The internal contrast of thematism is 
exacerbated by a second interval in C-D 
for viola and cello, with mute and harmo-
nics. The material in the double bass part 
has a different genre nature, the stroke of 
which (pizzicato vibrato) vaguely resemb-
les Aksak from the Third Movement and 
the dance from the Second. Such an unex-
pected artistic turn in the concert finale ret-



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345340

rospectively changes the ideological and 
semantic interpretation of the dramaturgy 
of the work as a whole and each of its mo-
vements separately, introducing elements 
of elegy and sadness.

As for the interaction of composi-
tional techniques, in this concerto, Ligeti 
uses almost the entire range of composing 
techniques he developed earlier: sonorous 
layers; intonation, rhythmic, and timbre 
imitations; and in terms of organizing tex-
tured micro-complexes – the technique of 
cells. All this is united by an original sense 
of texture (horizontal and vertical). Unlike 
other concertos, there is no aleatoric in its 
pure form in the Hamburg concerto, and 
only some effects arise in the sphere of 
rhythm and are perceived primarily by ear 
(Figure 2).

Figure 2. The system of techniques of G. Ligeti 
in the late period of creativity (on the example 

of the Hamburg concert)

It is this synthesis of proven elements 
and techniques, characteristic of the Ham-
burg Concerto, with new timbre-harmonic 
discoveries (including the use of a natural, 
non-tempered system) that determines the 
final role of this work in the composer’s 
work, reflecting the tendencies inherent in 
his late style.

Scientists from various countries 
turned to certain aspects and facets of G. 
Ligeti’s work. Thus, the final role of the 
Hamburg Concerto allows, according to 
M. Searby (2010), to reveal in the course 
of analytical procedures the features of the 
late style of the Hungarian musician, no-
ted, according to most researchers, on the 
one hand, by the synthesis of trends that 
determined the evolution of the composer 
at the previous stages of his creative path, 
and on the other hand, the incessant search 
for something new, namely harmonic and 

microtonal ideas. M. Searby (2010) points 
out that the composer used natural overto-
nes in the horn part of the Trio for violin, 
horn, and piano (1982) and even earlier in 
the Third Movement of the Romanian Con-
certo (1951), but they represented more of 
a horizontal line than a vertical one.

Research has been carried out on the 
conception, creation, and performing fate 
of the Hamburg Concerto. It was ordered 
to Ligeti, according to Müller, by the Ger-
man charitable foundation “Zeit-Stiftung,” 
established in 1971 by Ebelin und Gerd Buce-
rius. The customer expressed the wish that 
the work requested by him be associated 
with Hamburg – the place of registration 
of the foundation – and for the first time 
performed there. Such a wish, according 
to the creator himself, gave him the idea 
to call his concert “Hamburg Concerto” – 
by analogy with the “Brandenburg Con-
certos” by J. S. Bach (Muller, 2003). Desc-
ribing the Hamburg Concerto, researchers 
first of all emphasize the specific nature of 
its sound due to the choice of instrumen-
tal composition: a chamber orchestra with 
four natural horns, two basset horns, and 
a large number of percussion instruments. 
In the comments to the score, the composer 
indicates that the soloist must also episo-
dically imitate the sound of a natural horn 
and prescribes a special sound production 
on individual overtones in the indicated 
places. Explaining his idea, Ligeti empha-
sizes that he sought to build a musical nar-
rative with the help of a spectrum of tones 
beyond the traditional temperamental sys-
tem, formed into a harmonic layer of his 
composition (Muller, 2003).

Ch. Chapman (2012), a member of 
the Ensemble Musikfabrik, a contempora-
ry classical music ensemble in Cologne, 
sharing her experience of performing the 
Hamburg Concerto at the opening of the 
International Festival of Contemporary 
Music “Warsaw Autumn” in 2014, descri-
bed this work as a compact necklace of se-
ven pieces, performed for fifteen minutes 
and distinguished by beauty, mystery, pe-
netration into another world, captivating 
by the sound of a French horn.



Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 341

As the analysis of the Hamburg Con-
certo testifies, the “natural” intonation of 
the horns is combined with the tempe-
ramental tuning of the rest of the instru-
ments of the orchestra, generating not only 
special timbre colours, but also marking, 
according to G. Kurtág (András, 2009), a 
rapid movement towards a new world of 
harmony (vertical). The Hamburg Con-
certo is perceived as the result of Ligeti’s 
steady movement while searching for a 
new sonosphere, in which temperamental 
sounds coexist with natural sounds and 
the composer himself called “mistuned mu-
sic” (Antonova, 2017). The multipartness 
of the concerto, based on the contrast of la-
conic sections (seven parts), evokes vario-
us associations among researchers: A. Mi-
nich (2020) reminds of cyclic instrumental 
compositions of the seventeenth century.

E. Schreiber (2019) aims to identify 
and characterize the key thematic trends 
in the works of G. Ligeti and demonstra-
te their role in shaping and expanding the 
understanding of the composer and his 
works. Thus, the attention of the scientist 
(Schreiber, 2019) focuses on visual spatial 
metaphors, especially those that resemble 
fabric, web, labyrinth, and mirror surfaces. 
Attention is also drawn to the composer’s 
desire to describe his own creative proces-
ses, which largely contributes to his artistic 
self-identification (Schreiber, 2019).

B. Levy (2017) explores the evolution 
of the author’s style from the perspective 
of the composition techniques he uses, 
marking the path from the continuity of 
the traditions of B. Bartók, through the 
experimental sphere associated with elec-
tronic music to a unique synthesis of the 
leading trends in academic music of the 
20th and early 21st centuries.

The cosmopolitan orientation of G. 
Ligeti’s work is noted by E.-P. Salonen, 
whose words are quoted in his article by A. 
Bauer (2012). Therewith, the fact is empha-
sized that each of the works of the Hunga-
rian composer, who survived the Second 
World War, is a theatre of the absurd with 
a pronounced comic tinge, which connects 
them with large-scale modernist themes 

and searches (Bauer, 2012; Meleshchenko, 
2023).

C. Wilson (2004) concludes that com-
posers’ ideas about themselves – in articles, 
program notes, and interviews – had a sig-
nificant impact on the music science of the 
20th century, shaping not only the percep-
tion of particular works but also broader 
historiographic concepts of the recent past. 
Specialist (Wilson, 2004) traces one parti-
cular way of discourse through the publis-
hed statements of G. Ligeti: his “rhetoric of 
autonomy” seeks to renounce allegiance 
to “schools” or institutions and downplay 
stylistic or aesthetic commonality with the 
work of other composers. It naturally clas-
hes with the already familiar pluralistic 
cultural paradigm of the late 20th century, a 
paradigm that many postmodern theories, 
despite its deconstruction of the “unique 
self” ideology, did not perceive as antago-
nistic (Wilson, 2004; Kim, 2017; Nurtazina 
& Toktushakov, 2017). In a cultural sphere 
increasingly engulfed by commerce, the 
image of the radical, autonomous creator, 
once symbolic of the rejection of the mass 
market, inevitably finds itself captured by 
its mechanisms as an obvious advertising 
tool (Wilson, 2004; Chung, 1987).

The purpose of K. Īvāne’s study 
(2015) was to investigate the microtonal 
intonation in György Ligeti’s “Hora lungă” 
for viola solo. It is considered from three 
perspectives: composing, performing, 
and audience (Īvāne, 2015). Its special ef-
fect, capable of immersing the listener in 
a strange, magical, nostalgic world, was 
most clearly manifested in the author’s 
performance (Īvāne, 2015).

The researcher of G. Ligeti’s work – 
P. Edwards (2015), using the example of 
the final Passacaglia from his opera “The 
Great Death”, notes the period of stylistic 
crisis, which marks the return of the artist 
to more conventional compositional me-
ans. Consonances and tonal allusions in 
music are indicative of a similar retrospec-
tive trend (Yeboah et al., 2022). However, 
notions of functional hierarchy or centres 
of pitch do not fully explain the underlying 
processes that contribute to Passacaglia’s 



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345342

sense of constant unfolding. The resistan-
ce of tonal teleology contains the process 
of differentiation of pitch material. In this 
regard, Passacaglia can be considered a 
further development of Ligeti’s efforts to 
introduce an individual authorial process 
into musical material, albeit with an inc-
rease in the level of interval transparency 
(Edwards, 2015).

P. Laki (2013) analyses two major 
works dedicated to G. Ligeti as one of the 
leading representatives of the European 
academic composer school of the second 
half of the 20th – early 21st centuries. Spe-
cifically, the specialist (Laki, 2013) offers 
readers an edited volume of the essay “On 
Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds.” His 
training brought together scientists and 
composers from different countries, many 
of whom were strongly associated with 
the composer as co-authors or students. 
The book provides access to crucial source 
material and sheds light on many questi-
ons about the Hungarian composer’s biog-
raphy, analysis of creativity and musical 
aesthetics (Koniukhov, 2022). The most 
significant revelation comes at the end of 
the publication, where the author draws 
a fascinating parallel between Ligeti and 
fellow Holocaust survivor I. Kertész, win-
ner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature. 
Beginning in the 1980s, the composer’s 
entire musical universe received vital new 
impulses from his meetings with two emi-
nent scientists from two vastly different 
fields. Mathematician H.-O. Peitgen intro-
duced the composer to fractals and chaos 
theory, and the ethnomusicologist S. Arom 
introduced the incredibly complex rhyth-
mic polyphony of Central Africa (Laki, 
2013).

D. Chua (2008) considers the impor-
tance of complex compositional and in-
terpretation techniques that arose in the 
twentieth century on the example of the 
public and musicological science, in par-
ticular, music criticism, the perception of 
I. Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring”. 
The scientist seeks to reveal the significan-
ce of the individual beginning, sometimes 
expressed in an unprecedented form and 

manner, causing the public a shock that is 
opposed to the universal and generally ac-
cepted in the world of Music (Chua, 2008). 
It was in their context that the original, 
universal, from the standpoint of the synt-
hesis of the latest means of expression, the 
work of G. Ligeti was formed (Chua, 2008).

Papagiannakopoulou (2001) writes 
about the significance of rhythm as one of 
the leading categories of the musical lan-
guage, the compositional technique of wri-
ting in the academic art of the 20th and 21st 
centuries. Specialist (Papagiannakopou-
lou, 2001) refers to the works of the out-
standing French composer O. Messiaen, 
stating the fact that rhythm appears in the 
academic music of the 20th century as one 
of the most original aspects of the work 
of the authors of this era, specifically the 
Hungarian composer (Papagiannakopou-
lou, 2001).

Research is being carried out on 
implementing and developing the tradi-
tions of G. Ligeti in the musical compo-
sition of the 21st century, accompanied 
by the use of soundscaping (Morandi & 
Schiavoni, 2022; 2019).

The problem of the formation and 
functioning of digital art is studied, as the 
implementation of creative searches and 
discoveries of unknown areas of music, 
essential for G. Ligeti, as well as the prin-
ciples of using computers, diverse types of 
software to create “new” Music (Schiavoni 
et al., 2019; Vieira & Schiavoni, 2020).

Scientists also investigate the evolu-
tion of the intonation fund and the means 
of recording it and transmitting it to liste-
ners, namely through audio applications, 
when a mobile portable device becomes 
a musical instrument, and the audience 
turns into a part of the soundscape (Go-
mes et al., 2019; Teixeira et al., 2019). The 
sphere of the modernized musical space 
its sociological and ecological nuances are 
being studied (Vieira et al., 2020a; 2020b). 
However, showing the musical language 
of G. Ligeti as a single, voluminous, and 
complex system requires research, covera-
ge, and implementation.



Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 343

CONCLUSIONS

The publication explored the prob-
lem of reflecting the later trends in G. 
Ligeti’s work in his Hamburg Concerto. 
The stylistic context and the environment 
of the intonational fund of academic music 
of the second half of the 20th – early 21st 
centuries, within which the individual sty-
le of the Hungarian composer was formed, 
were analysed.

As a result of investigating the sub-
ject under study, a set of writing techni-
ques became apparent, using which 
Ligeti’s works and, specifically, the Ham-
burg Concerto were created. These include 
sonorism, micropolyphony, group techni-
que, aleatoric elements.

The study of summarizing the late 
tendencies of the musician’s work on the 
example of the Hamburg Concerto helped 
cover the system of his musical language. It 
is based on such blocks as thematic mode, 
dynamic principles, timbre architecture, 
synthesis of folklore traditions, and mo-
dern compositional techniques.

In the context of this integral system, 
the categories and methods of formation 
and development of musical material by 
the composer G. Ligeti were identified. 
These categories and methods appear as 
micro-thematic elements: expanding, fro-
zen, and shrinking clusters; sonorous ver-
tical; polyphony (micropolyphonic imitati-
on; combination of diverse themes); timbre 
echo (resonation); transpositions of the 
thematic source; thematic transformation; 
variability; genre rhythm; combination 
of scales; through thematic development; 
group techniques.

During the study on the reflection of 
the tendencies of G. Ligeti’s late work in 
the Hamburg Concerto, his main creative 
principles were determined. Among them, 
the following are of leading importance: 
focusing on the genre of the instrumental 
concerto; modernization of the instrumen-
tal concerto; synthesis of academic and 
folklore traditions; the use of avant-garde 
style; a combination of modern complex 
composing techniques and neo-romantic 

style elements.
All of the above determines the sig-

nificance and relevance of this paper in va-
rious fields, such as musicology, history, 
methods of performance, and composition 
basics. This also emphasizes the prospects 
of the subject under study for researchers 
in the future since the intonational and 
stylistic fund of the compositional and 
technical arsenal are constantly updated 
and enriched with new discoveries, and, 
thanks to this, these areas are expanding 
their boundaries.

REFERENCES

András, V. (2009). György Kurtág: Three 
interviews and Ligeti homages. New 
York: University of Rochester Press.

Antonova, O.G. (2017). Concerto for violin 
and orchestra by Gyorgy Ligeti: a di-
alogue with the genre tradition. Jour-
nal of the Tchaikovsky National Music 
Academy of Ukraine, 1(34), 4-17.

Bauer, A. (2012). The cosmopolitan absur-
dity of Ligeti’s late works. Contempo-
rary Music Review, 31(2-3), 163-176.

Bauer, A. (2019). From pulsation to sensa-
tion: virtuosity and modernism in 
Ligeti’s first and ninth piano études. 
Contemporary Music Review, 38(8), 
1-22.

Bauer, А. (2020). György Ligeti. In: Music. 
https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780 
199757824-0271.

Berehova, O. (2022). Comparative poetics 
оf composers’ creativity іn the for-
mation of the European cultural par-
adigm. Interdisciplinary Cultural and 
Humanities Review, 1(1), 13-19.

Chapman, Ch. (2012). Warschauer herbst. 
https://www.musikfabrik.eu/en/
calendar/warschauer-herbst/.

Chemillier, М. (2020). György Ligeti and 
the logic of textures. School of Ad-
vanced Studies in Sciences. Analyse 
Musicale, 38, 75-85.

Chua, D. (2008). Rioting with Stravinsky: 
A particular analysis of the Rite of 
Spring. Music Analysis, 26(1‐2), 59-
109.



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 333-345344

Chung, J.K. (1987). Social Criticism of Non-
Church Christianity in Japan and Korea. 
Chicago: The University of Chicago. 
https://www.proquest.com/openvi
ew/2739d364bcf9969fae37a6e4a46fd
789/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18
750&diss=y

Edwards, P. (2015). Resisting closure: the 
Passacaglia finale from György Lige-
ti’s Le Grand Macabre. Music Analy-
sis, 35(2), 258-278.

Gomes, A., Gonçalves, L., Resende, F., & 
Schiavoni, F. (2019). Prototyping 
Web instruments with Mosaicode. 
Simpósio Brasileiro de Computação Mu-
sical, 17, 114-120.

Hromchenko, V. (2022). The integration’s 
problem of specialized musical dis-
ciplines into the distance education. 
Interdisciplinary Cultural and Humani-
ties Review, 1(1), 6-12.

Īvāne, K. (2015). Microtonal intonation 
from composer’s, performer’s and 
concert-audience’s perspective: the 
case of György Ligeti’s Hora lungă 
for viola solo. Arts and Music in Cul-
tural Discourse Proceedings of the Inter-
national Scientific and Practical Confer-
ence, 4, 35-42.

Kim, K.H. (2017). A Study on the Role of Col-
porteurs in the Growth of Early Korean 
Church. Gwangju City: Kwangshin 
University. 

Koniukhov, S. (2022). Specific Features 
of the Process of Decolonisation of 
Modern Textbooks on the History 
of Ukraine. Foreign Affairs, 32(6), 39-
45. https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-
2675.32(6).2022.39-45

Laki, P. (2013). György Ligeti: of foreign 
lands and strange sounds ed. by Lou-
ise Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx, 
and: Ligeti’s laments: nostalgia, ex-
oticism, and the absolute by Amy 
Bauer (review). Notes, 69(4),767-770.

Levy, B. (2017). Metamorphosis in Music: 
The compositions of Gÿrgy Ligeti in the 
1950s and 1960s. New York: Oxford 
University Press.

Meleshchenko, T. (2023). The politi-
cal path of independent Ukraine 

from the national-state revival to 
its place in the modern historical 
process. Foreign Affairs, 33(2), 31-41. 
https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-
2675.33(2).2023.31-41

Minich, A. (2020). The work of Gyorgy 
Ligeti in the 1980s–2000s: structural, 
syntactic and semantic features of 
the theme of instrumental concerts. 
Scientific Herald of the Tchaikovsky Na-
tional Music Academy of Ukraine, 129, 
213-231.

Morandi, T., & Schiavoni, F. (2019). Cre-
ative Processes of foley, soundscape 
and ubiquitous Music in audiovisual 
productions. Jornada Interdisciplinar 
de Som e Música no Audiovisual, 4, 
366-380.

Morandi, T., & Schiavoni, F. (2022). Foley, 
soundscape and Ubiquitous Music 
in audiovisual creative processes. 
Revista Nava, 7(1), 1-159.

Muller, Ch. (2003). Gyorgy Ligeti on his 
works: Preface. The Ligeti project IV. 
Mainz: Scott Music International 
GmbH & Co.

Nurtazina, R., & Toktushakov, A. (2017). 
Internal migration in central Asia: 
Social risks (case studies of Kazakh-
stan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan). 
Central Asia and the Caucasus, 18(4), 
46-56.

Pace, I. (2012). Maintaining disorder: some 
technical and aesthetic issues in-
volved in the performance of Ligeti’s 
études for piano. Contemporary Music 
Review, 31(2), 177-201. 

Papagiannakopoulou, Е. (2001). Discuss 
approaches to the conception of time 
and rhythm in the Music of Mes-
siaen. https://doi.org/10.13140/
RG.2.1.1558.6002/1

Schiavoni, F., Gomes, A., Teixeira, J., & Re-
sende, F. (2019). Alice: Arts lab in in-
terfaces, computers, and everything 
else – Research report. ISimpósio 
Brasileiro de Computação Musical, 17, 
157-164.

Schreiber, E. (2019). Childhood memories 
and musical constructions. autobio-
graphical threads in György Ligeti’s 

https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-2675.32(6).2022.39-45
https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-2675.32(6).2022.39-45
https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-2675.33(2).2023.31-41
https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-2675.33(2).2023.31-41


Valeriya Zharkova et al., G. Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto as a Summary of Late Artistic Ten- 345

notes on his works. In: Musical Analy-
sis Historia – Theoria – Praxis (pp.169-
181). Wrocław: The Karol Lipiński 
Academy of Music.

Schreiber, E. (2019). The structure of 
thought. On the writings of György 
Ligeti. TRIO, 1-2, 18-43.

Searby, M. (2010). Ligeti’s stylistic crisis: 
transformation in his musical style. 
1974-1985. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.

Teixeira, J., Junior, I., Paulo, A., & Schiavo-
ni, F. (2019). A technical approach of 
the audience participation in the per-
formance ‘O Chaos das 5’. Simpósio 
Brasileiro de Computação Musical, 17, 
28-34.

Vieira, R., & Schiavoni, F. (2020). Can Pipe-
and-Filters architecture help creativ-
ity in music? Workshop on Ubiquitous 
Music (UBIMUS), 2020, 109-120.

Vieira, R., Barthe, M., & Schiavoni, F. 
(2020a). Everyday use of the internet 
of musical things: intersections with 
ubiquitous music. Workshop on Ubiq-

uitous Music (UBIMUS), 2020, 60-71.
Vieira, R., Schiavoni, F., & Goncalves, L. 

(2020b). The things of the Internet 
of Musical Things: defining the dif-
ficulties to standardize the behavior 
of these devices. 2020 X Brazilian 
Symposium on Computing Systems En-
gineering (SBESC), 2020, 1-7.

Voyvoda, E. (2022). Contextual analysis of 
European integration sentiments in 
post-communist countries: Trends, 
changing rhetoric, and sequence of 
practical steps (1991-2021). European 
Chronicle, 7(1), 23-29.

Wilson, C. (2004). Gyorgy Ligeti and the 
rhetoric of autonomy. Twentieth Cen-
tury Music, 1(01), 5-28.

Yeboah, A.S., Carol, S., & Fathi, A. (2022). 
Demographic Challenges for the 
Caucasian Race: What Can the As-
similation of Cultures on the Euro-
pean Continent Lead to? European 
Chronicle, 7(4), 5-13.