ÉTUDE 12: ENTRELACS

INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THE MUSIC
PERFORMING THE MUSIC
MASTERCLASS
Bar 1
|
Introduction
Bar 1
|
Structure and quality of sound
Bar 2
|
Polyrhythm and "poly-chromatic"
Bar 3
|
Polyrhythm and rhythmic exactitude
Bar 17
|
Building a crescendo and sound quality
Bar 35
|
Polyphony in the left hand
Bar 35
|
The right hand at bar 35 onwards
Bar 50
|
Practicing the different layers in the right hand
Bar 50
|
Controlling the different layers
Bar 51
|
Making the polyphony clear
Bar 79
|
Final bars
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Overview of sources for Étude 12: Entrelacs

The ‘Ligeti’s comments’ function allows you to call up his corrections, additions and explanations in the interactive score, none of which are to be found in the printed score. This critical online edition, compiled by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tobias Bleek, takes into account the following sources:

Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Ligeti's performance suggestions

1. Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Suggestions from and explanations by the composer that Pierre-Laurent Aimard wrote down during their joint working sessions and reviewed for our interactive score. More information on their collaboration and the performance notes can be found in this video as well as in the section ‘Performing Ligeti’.

First page of the autograph fair score of Entrelacs (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)

2. Autograph fair score

Revised version of the fair score, which served as a production master for publication and is preserved today in the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel.

3. Copy of the autograph fair score

A copy of the autograph fair score with annotations by the composer. (György Ligeti Collection, Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)

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LIGETI'S COMMENTS
LIGETI'S COMMENTS
 
 

Ligeti on the character and performance of the opening

“Never too loud or too clearly defined”

“rather poetic”

“poetic-melodic”

“innocently”

bring out “the complexity of the layers”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Contrasting metronome marks

“Quarter note (crotchet) = first 96, then 104”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard


“Quarter note (crotchet) = 104”

Source: Copy of the autograph fair score with annotations by the composer. (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)

Performance note

“Define the interlaced tonalities: never completely mix them”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Misprint in published score

György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 10, right hand, beginning

Sources for correct version: autograph fair score, copy of the autograph fair score with Ligeti's annotations, notes by Pierre Laurent-Aimard

Performance notes

“The background always very piano”

“Accents increasingly louder, the background relatively calm”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance notes

“a capricious moment”

“a lively melody – each group with its own character”

“played with much fantasy”

“stuttering”

“f (mf): lyrical”

“with small crescendi/decrescendi”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance note

“sixteenth notes (semiquavers) almost nothing”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance note

“the phrases marked tenuto to the fore”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance note

“the phrases marked tenuto to the fore”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance notes

“very capricious and angry”

“freely”

“a bit mad”

“the groups in semiquavers stubbornly”

“give an ‘interior life’ to the accents and the small crescendi and decrescendi”

“right hand louder than the left hand”

Left hand: “well accented but not too much”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Performance note

“right hand: explain, (in vain). As if you aren’t really able to articulate”

Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Misprint in published score

György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 81, left hand, 9th-12th semiquaver (sixteenth-note)

Sources for correct version: autograph fair score, copy of the autograph fair score with Ligeti's annotations, notes by Pierre Laurent-Aimard

Context

A neuroscientist on Ligeti’s piano music

Eckart Altenmüller – music physiologist and neuroscientist – talks about what happens in the brain of a pianist when they play a Ligeti étude.

Discover more