“Why I picked Hölderlin: he is a favorite poet, and not only to me. But for the ‘composing’ I actually chose the poetic fragments because of their wonderful imagery and their emo- tional aura. […] Some phrases I have treated in a ‘madrigal- esque’ manner, for example the wind onomatopoeia in “Hälfte des Lebens” [Midlife]. In the “Abendphantasie,” an association with Altdorfer’s Alexanderschlacht [Battle of Al- exander at Issus], its grandiose scenery of cloud formations with the sun’s rays breaking through them, also played a role: that may be an altogether arbitrary association of mine; I do not know whether Hölderlin ever saw the Alexan- derschlacht.”243
Friedrich Hölderlin’s richly reflective lyricism has not nearly been set to music as often as, say, Goethe’s, Mörike’s or Eichendorff’s. That is owing to its ele- vated diction, the high demands it makes on the reader, its wilful syntax and its partly abstract content – certainly not to a dearth of musical qualities: its pronounced sonority is rightly celebrated. Since the ‘seventies the interest in Hölderlin has become more intense again, which may explain Ligeti’s turn toward him. His choice of the poems on which he based the Drei Phantasien he dedicated to Eric Ericson is, to say it at the outset, a most felicitous one. The three poems fit as well together as if they constituted a cycle. Central to them is the contrast between illusion and truth, between appearance and reali- ty, between a happy past and a painful present. Idyllic, visionary verses alter- nate with agonized eruptions. The dominant theme is the solitude of the homeless, whom winter and age await.
Ligeti also proved to be skillful in abridging the poems. In “Hälfte des Le- bens” (Midlife) he dropped two lines, “Wenn aus der Ferne” (When from afar) and “Abendphantasie” he shortened by about one half, deleting portions that speak less to us today. And the overall title of the choruses, Phantasien, clearly refers not to any structural aspects of the compositions, which are put together with remarkable rigor, but to the imagery of the poems.
The Three Fantasies, composed in 1982, are written for 16-voice, mixed, unac- companied chorus (4 sopraos, 4 altos, 4 tenors and 4 basses). Having thus the same cast as Ligeti’s Lux aeterna, they suggest a comparison with the earlier work of 1966. Such a juxtaposition, however, will yield more differences than likenesses. Although in the Phantasien Ligeti remains faithful to micropolyph- ony – a basic principle of his work – he treats it in a new, original manner. He also makes use of additional techniques. Altogether, one thus has to speak of new conceptions. The fundamental differences to Lux aeterna can be grouped into four points:
1. In Lux aeterna, the voice-leading is for the most part strictly canonic: chordal passages occur only exceptionally. In the first and third of the
Phantasien, on the other hand, canonic and chordal parts are evenly bal-
anced.
2. As paradoxical as it may sound, micropolyphony in Lux aeterna serves the formation of expanses of sound and the transformational tech- nique. A listener who does not have a score in hand will hardly notice the canonic texture of the voices. The technique of canonic interweav- ing creates novel “harmonies”, which become gradually dim and then clear up again. By contrast, the horizontal, linear dimension is more prominent in the Phantasien, as well as more clearly perceptible.
3. The chief idea of Lux aeterna, according to Ligeti’s own statement, was “the idea, translated into musical forms, of the ‘eternal light’.”244 In the
Phantasien, on the other hand, Ligeti seeks to do justice to the changing
images of the poems. The structural diversity reveals itself as a mirror image of the contrasting expressive color values.
4. The musical structure of the Phatasien is substantially more complex than that of Lux aeterna. In the three choruses, Ligeti is not content with the chromatic possibilities of the tempered scale, but frequently al- so takes in quarter tones, which function as transitional notes. Even more symptomatic is the preferential leading of the voices in con- trasting blocks: strictly canonic voice combinations often overlap with differently structured ones. Micropolyphony is, as it were, coupled with, or grounded in, individual voices or else more chordal formations. Hölderlin’s poem “Hälfte des Lebens” is composed of two antithetical stan- zas. The first stanza conjures up the idyllic image of a lake landscape with yel- low pears, wild roses and graceful swans; the second gives expression to the fear of winter, which drives the already solitary speaker into total isolation:
blast.” The setting takes this antithesis into account; more, it artfully makes explicit the drama only implied in the poem. The idyllic picture of the begin- ning is portrayed in downright impressionistic soft focus (dolcissino, later espres-
sivo and caloroso). Then, in mm. 13-16, when the canonically led women’s voic-
es tell of the kiss-drunk swans, there follows a brief, but very intense agogic (accelerando) and dynamic (crescendo) heightening, at whose climax the tenors and, one bar later, the basses burst out “Weh’ mir!” (Woe is me!) in triple forte (tutta la forza). Most of the lines in the second stanza are then strictly chordal in multiple forte. One exception is the phrase “im Winde” (in the wind), which Ligeti emphasizes quasi with tone-painting or onomatopoeia and treats almost in concertante fashion: on both syllables of the word “Winde” he erects an eight-voice canon twenty bars in length (mm. 29-48), which describes an “un- folding or moving form.” The motif starts on the small a-sharp and rises like an ascending vortex in dynamic crescendo higher and higher until all of the women’s voices reach the two-line c. The concluding words “klirren die Fahnen” (clatter the vanes) are set homophonically again, with the two final cords to be recited “like two shrieks, but in exact pitch.”
“Wenn aus der Ferne” tells the story of a tender love that ends in separation. The first eleven stanzas revel in memories of a happy past. Only the twelfth (penultimate) stanza brings the painful admission: “Ah, woe is me, those were such lovely days. But mournful twilight followed thereafter.” Knowing, as we do, of Ligeti’s predilection for the idea of music from afar (e.g., in Lontano), one can well imagine that the poem would appeal to him largely because of its first line. Within the Three Fantasies, this second one (Andante con tenerezza) rep- resents the slow movement. The basic mood of the composition, correspond- ing to that of the poem, is soft. At only one point (mm. 46-48), the outburst “Ach, wehe mir”, does Ligeti set quasi dramatic accents. The form of the composition is eminently polyphonic: the piece receives its characteristic physiognomy from multi-voiced canonic structures and the counterpoint of the vocal blocks described. Ligeti’s method occasionally reminds of the old contrapuntal motet, in which it was customary to base every line of the text on a separate “theme” and to treat it canonically. Typically for Ligeti, howev- er, the “themes”, which at first sight seem so independent, turn out, upon closer inspection, to be ingenious rhythmic and intervallic variants of an ur- model, as Ex. 26 will illustrate. That explains why the passage “es waren schöne Tage” (mm. 49 ff.) after the “wehe mir” sounds almost like a recapitu- lation.
Ex. 26 Second Fantasy, “Wenn aus der Ferne”: a core in five themes
The poem “Abendphantasie” owes its title to the dream that spring might blossom in the evening sky, and the wish that in the golden world of the pur- ple clouds love and sorrow might dissolve into light and air for the tortured speaker. But once gain the wishful thinking proves to be illusory: “But, as if chased by such foolish asking, the magic flees; darkness falls, and lonely under the heavens, as ever, am I.” In setting this text Ligeti followed every sugges- tion of the poem. Lines and single words are interpreted according to their semantics, poetic images are transmuted into musical ones. Compositional technique, preferred pitch level, dynamics, agogic, expression – everything is engaged in the service of interpreting the text. Chordal and canonical passages frequently take turns, and in the canonical ones Ligeti is fond of letting each voice enter a half-tone higher (mm. 4-11, 40-42). Individual words, such as dark, youth, cheerful, age, are given emphasis by diverse means. The word “purpurne” (purple) receives a concertante treatment similar to that of the words “im Winde” in the first fantasy. “Common” sounds are at times re- placed by falsetto ones. As in the first fantasy, the agogic is subject to drastic changes. Several expression marks correspond to the image content. Thus the recitation of the strongly alliterative lines “und möge droben in Licht und Luft zerrinnen mir Lieb und Leid!” (and may up there dissolve in light and air both love and pain) is to be “dancelike effusive.” The chorus closes, to be sure, morendo in a low bass region.
Complex and dense structure, rich tonal imagination and subtle textual inter- pretation beyond all doubt make these three Hölderlin settings rank high within Ligeti’s overall vocal oeuvre.
2.15 Construction and Imagination: Principles of the Piano Etudes