ABSTRACT
In recent years, the discourse on the music of György Ligeti has drawn attention to the fact that the interplay of rootedness and cosmopolitism played a major role in the creation of compositions that combine techniques from various regional, cultural and scientific sources. In this context, terms like ‘home’ or ‘belonging’ are employed to draw a connection to Ligeti’s restless, unsettled biography – aspects such as the loss of his home, his native language and his close family are usually emphasised.
This chapter, however, takes a somewhat different approach. It will trace the interdependence of three essential constituents of Ligeti’s work by exploring the relations among his musical aesthetics, his compositional technique and the natural sciences. My argument will be based on the assumption that a direct connection can be drawn between Ligeti’s life-long fascination with scientific discourses and the ways in which he refused to settle into compositional and aesthetic securities. Instead, he was driven by the urge to continuously strive for renewal and further development. I will discuss in what ways Ligeti understood the natural sciences as a space that, by focusing on ‘objective’ processes, transcended national, political and aesthetic borders and defied social expectations. What is more, the natural sciences created a framework of values, terminology and methods that helped Ligeti not only to evolve as a composer, but also to shape a mindset that could indeed be considered an alternative and yet powerful site of belonging.
