Between Nonsense and Silence. Hölderlin in the Works of György Ligeti and György Kurtág
Between Nonsense and Silence. Hölderlin in the Works of György Ligeti and György Kurtág

Summary/Abstract: The friendship between György Kurtág and György Ligeti is reflected in their musical dialogues and inter-artistic communications, as well as in the essays they dedicated to each other, which are of great testimonial value in the context of world music history. In the Hungarian musical landscape, the two personalities appear as two contrasting characters. “I have followed Ligeti all my life without ever imitating him” , confesses Kurtág. Although they shared similar interests (composing musical works based on historical tradition, placing the focus on language, musical allusions and inter-artistic dialogues), they had radically different aesthetic views. The approach to Friedrich Hölderlin's poems in Ligeti's Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin and in Kurtág's Hölderlin-Gesänge, Op. 35 offers a parallel perspective of their respective ars poetica.

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