Composer György Ligeti Dead at 83
Boundry-pushing composer György Ligeti, best known for his music's inclusion in several Stanley Kubrick films, died today in Vienna, Austria, various sources report. He was 83 years old.
Born in 1923 in Transylvania, Romania, Ligeti moved with his family to Hungary as a child. In 1943, as a guest living under the Nazi regime, he was sent to a labor camp. Although he survived the Holocaust, many members of his family did not. In 1956, he left Hungary for Austria, where he connected with many giants of the European new music avant-garde, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gottfried Michael Koenig, and Herbert Eimert.
Ligeti composed in a variety of forms and styles, including opera, chamber music, and conceptual pieces, including a work for 100 metronomes and 1961's "Future of Music", written for "non-speaking lecturer and audience." His foremost stylistic innovation was the use of "micropolyphony," described by Pitchfork's own Dominique Leone in a 2002 review as "a concept of composing music not as a melody with harmony and rhythm, but as an endless mesh of interweaving textures where no one voice stands out."
Ligeti achieved a new level of fame when Stanley Kubrick used excerpts from his pieces "Atmospheres" and "Lux Aeterna" in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick would go on to feature Ligeti's music in his 1980 film The Shining and 1999's Eyes Wide Shut as well.
