Autograph musical sketch from an apparently unpublished work for orchestra by the important avant-garde composer. According to the accompanying photocopied letter from the composer dated December 21, 1963, the manuscript is the opening pages of a 1958 orchestra work, which he decided not to continue. The verso of the third sheet, however, bears the title in his hand "Apparitions II," and indeed some of the material in the preceding pages is highly reminiscent of the second section Agitato in the work of that name, composed in of the same year, with similarly muted and jittery music for string orchestral groups in different meters. 3 pp., large vertical folio format with 32 staves. Written in pencil with some eraser marks. Slight toning and foxing, with the upper edge slightly trimmed, else fine. Autograph musical material by Ligeti is of the utmost rarity.
"When Ligeti left Hungary, in 1956, he took with him his scores and also his hopes—in particular, his hopes for a kind of music corresponding to a dream he had had as a boy, one of lying in his bed amid a fantastic silken web in which strange creatures and inert objects were suspended. He had tried to realize this dream in sound in Hungary, but lacked the technical means. In 1957 he tried again. Finally, in 1958-9, while working alongside Stockhausen in the Cologne electronic music studio, he produced Apparitions, a nine-minute score whose contents include, in his own words, “sounding planes and masses, which may succeed, penetrate or mingle with one another—floating networks that get torn up or entangled—wet, sticky, gelatinous, fibrous, dry, brittle, granular and compact materials, shreds, curlicues, splinters, and traces of every sort—imaginary buildings, labyrinths, inscriptions, texts, dialogues, insects—states, events, processes, blendings, transformations, catastrophes, disintegrations, disappearances.” (Paul Griffiths, Notes from ASO concert Spacial Explorations, June 1, 2008, Lincoln Center.)
Autograph musical sketch from an apparently unpublished work for orchestra by the important avant-garde composer. According to the accompanying photocopied letter from the composer dated December 21, 1963, the manuscript is the opening pages of a 1958 orchestra work, which he decided not to continue. The verso of the third sheet, however, bears the title in his hand "Apparitions II," and indeed some of the material in the preceding pages is highly reminiscent of the second section Agitato in the work of that name, composed in of the same year, with similarly muted and jittery music for string orchestral groups in different meters. 3 pp., large vertical folio format with 32 staves. Written in pencil with some eraser marks. Slight toning and foxing, with the upper edge slightly trimmed, else fine. Autograph musical material by Ligeti is of the utmost rarity.
"When Ligeti left Hungary, in 1956, he took with him his scores and also his hopes—in particular, his hopes for a kind of music corresponding to a dream he had had as a boy, one of lying in his bed amid a fantastic silken web in which strange creatures and inert objects were suspended. He had tried to realize this dream in sound in Hungary, but lacked the technical means. In 1957 he tried again. Finally, in 1958-9, while working alongside Stockhausen in the Cologne electronic music studio, he produced Apparitions, a nine-minute score whose contents include, in his own words, “sounding planes and masses, which may succeed, penetrate or mingle with one another—floating networks that get torn up or entangled—wet, sticky, gelatinous, fibrous, dry, brittle, granular and compact materials, shreds, curlicues, splinters, and traces of every sort—imaginary buildings, labyrinths, inscriptions, texts, dialogues, insects—states, events, processes, blendings, transformations, catastrophes, disintegrations, disappearances.” (Paul Griffiths, Notes from ASO concert Spacial Explorations, June 1, 2008, Lincoln Center.)