An analysis of Gyorgy Ligeti's "Atmospheres"

51 p.Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980.Atmospheres, a work for large orchestra composed in 1961 by Gyorgy Ligeti, is a strikingly attractive display of novel sonorities and dramatic effects. Evidence of aesthetic significance is sought, particularly in structural relationships readily perceptible by the listener. To facilitate illustration and analysis a graphic transcription was made. The historical context of the work is examined, specifically the post-war development of serialism and the transition to "sound-mass" forms. An explanatory description of each section of Atmospheres is followed by a structural analysis. The author concludes that the music reveals a structural coherence and functional logic in which organic processes of directional change may be heard to serve as expressive metaphors of changes found more generally in the physical world and which lend themselves to a meaningfully dramatic dialogue between continuity and discontinuity.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD