Ligeti and Varèse: Defining 20th-Century Soundscapes

Hearing 34: Atmosphères by György Ligeti

In the late 1950s, a new approach to the musical scene emerged, focusing on major textural displacements of sound rather than individual components or traditional groupings. The importance of this work lies not in pitch or rhythm, but in the relationships of voices arising from a complex network of thematic or melodic elements.

One observes the absence of traditional cells, motifs, melodic themes, rhythmic pulses, and conventional harmonic structures. It is more accurate to describe the composition in terms of densities and clusters of sound blocks. Ligeti eliminates the concept of silence, resulting in a listener experience where the music feels as though it has no beginning or end—a compact block of sound moving through time.

The title Atmosphères refers to the sense of vagueness the composer consciously transmitted. This orchestral work requires 89 players, each with a unique part (56 for strings), where the listener perceives only the overall result. Its sound exists on the border between noise and acoustic music.

Hearing 33: Ionisation by Edgard Varèse

Varèse intended the title to reflect the physical processes within the piece. In physics, an ion is an atom or group of atoms with an electric charge. Ionisation represents the continuous appearance and disappearance of particles, primarily through the alternation of ions with varying intensity and rhythmic character.

This is the first work in the Western canon written exclusively for percussion instruments, which act as contrasting masses of sound. The work helped bridge the gap between music and noise through:

• The contrast of rhythm, texture, timbre, and dynamics.
• The division of instruments into three distinct groups:
  • Tuned percussion instruments.
  • Untuned percussion instruments.
  • Two sirens.

The instrumentation includes tubular bells, celesta, piano (used percussively), various drums, cymbals, gongs, triangles, whips, bells, castanets, tambourines, hammers, bongos, guiro, maracas, claves, finger cymbals, sirens, and strings, performed by 13 musicians. Its rhythms are reminiscent of African and Asian music, and its form resembles a sonata-overture.

Written in Paris and premiered in New York, the work features strictly organized dynamic and rhythmic structures. It inaugurated a style of writing that influenced most music composed after World War II. Although Varèse did not intend a descriptive narrative, his scientific background and commitment to his era allowed him to evoke the sounds and features of everyday life and his environment.