Ligeti's Desordre

[pies]

What do you think of this etude? I have to write a creative-ish essay about a piece of music and I chose Desordre. I don't know where to start with this essay.

[jre58591]

it totally lives up to its name. for starters, the right hand only plays white keys and black for the left. they finally come together on the last note though, which is that high C. maybe you can talk about the disorder in the piece and how it might say something about ligeti himself. im not too sure how i would start this either, actually, to be honest.

[pies]

I've spent about an hour on this and have gotten nowhere. I think I need a different piece.
Holy shit I'm an awful writer.

[jre58591]

it may not be you. this piece is very complex and hard to grasp.

[pies]

I was thinking of doing Opus Clav but I still haven't listened to Ogdon's entire recording 

[Ruro]

I never seen the score, or heard the piece, and I highly doubt this is much use to you, but if you eMule KAD search for "Ligeti Desordre", there is a PDF file named: "An Algorithmic Model Of Gyorgy Ligeti's Etude No.1 Desordre"

Probably not any use for you in this case, but it makes me intreagued as to what this Etude is all about.

[pies]

I never seen the score, or heard the piece, and I highly doubt this is much use to you, but if you eMule KAD search for "Ligeti Desordre", there is a PDF file named: "An Algorithmic Model Of Gyorgy Ligeti's Etude No.1 Desordre"

Probably not any use for you in this case, but it makes me intreagued as to what this Etude is all about.

I've already seen/read it.
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~tkunze/pbl/1999_desordre/ligeti.html

There is a link to a midi of the etude on the page (at the very top). The tempo of the midi is too high.

[desordre]

 Dear Pies:
 Needless to say, I really love this piece...
 About your paper, I must ask you something: what is it for? Conservatoire, undergraduate, school? Furthermore, how deep you deal with 20th century analysis trends?
 If you shall answer me this, maybe I can help you a bit. It's a complete different story write a ten-page essay about general considerations and write a cientific, academic oriented, hundredish-page paper.
 Anyway, kind of good choice to work on. Best to you!

[pies]

what is it for? Conservatoire, undergraduate, school?

It is for a creative writing assignment for English class.

Furthermore, how deep you deal with 20th century analysis trends?

I haven't really looked into the analytical aspects of 20th century (other than what I just linked to in my last post), though I'm interested in it.

It's a complete different story write a ten-page essay about general considerations and write a cientific, academic oriented, hundredish-page paper.
 Anyway, kind of good choice to work on. Best to you!

This essay has to be two or so paragraphs--it is more of a creative piece than an analytical one, but I still want to analyze the piece a bit.

[jre58591]

you could easily write a 100 page essay on this piece probably. if you wanna go into detail, my suggestion would be to pick a different piece. or you can do a surface analysis and make it short, possibly.

[pies]

I'm sure I could write a 100 page essay on this if it were analytical. But this is a creative essay, and I absolutely suck at creative writing.

[iumonito]

Well, we as a group should be nothing if not creative.  Here is a model, if you can call it that:

It all started as an image in their heads, like a movie being projected directly into their neurons.  A frantic movie.  Gyorgy was running for his life (or was it after his life?) but everything around him seemed to fragment, as if a tri-dimentional puzzle that he had thought was his surroundings was suddenly being dismantled.  But by whom?  And why?

Then it happened.  They new it instantaneously, even though it was subtle (if anything can be subtle amid such chaos); they were no longer in the same phase.  Their dimensions were dislocated; the movie fragmented, like Gyorgy's reality.  Inexorably they were progressing in different vectors.  And yet, even though it was clear they would be apart for a long time, it was also inexorable that they would at a point certain in the future intersect again.

Gyorgy's heart was the last to desintegrate.  Once it did, it breathed life into a new whole, seemingly integrated.

"I feel, I am" they remembered one shortly after (or before?) the other.  The organicity of the whole, it became clear, was unaffected by the appearance of chaos.

And they lived happily ever after.   

P.S.  You should do L'Escalier du Diable.  Much easier for writing.

https://www.andersonpiano.com/media/video.html

[desordre]

 Dear Pies:
 Oh, well... sorry but "creative" writing is beyond my field of interest or action. I didn't understand what was about your work before, so I beg your pardon about my question. I thought you were dwelling with some analysis issue, what seems to be not the case.
 Best wishes!

[desordre]

 P.S. Anyway, if you want to begin some reflection about this etude, think about metric. That it's half what it is about. The other portion Jre pointed out: harmonic mediums.

[desordre]

 Most dear Jre:
 Should you let me disagree with you?
 

you could easily write a 100 page essay on this piece probably. (...)
 

Do you really think that? Since you know the analytical and methodological procedures of scientific research, I find that it comes easy.  Anyway, it's a lot of work to do that, and another one to produce some purposeful and meaningful academic paper. Maybe "easy" it's not the proper label.
 OK, "whatever nevemind" (COBAIN, 1991)... 
 Best to you, and Merry Christmas!

[minor9th]

Since it's a "creative" piece of writing, why not write from the viewpoint of your fingers trying to negotiate the notes? (As an English teacher, I'm not too fond of the term "creatve writing"--all writing involves creation of some sort!)

[jre58591]

Do you really think that? Since you know the analytical and methodological procedures of scientific research, I find that it comes easy.  Anyway, it's a lot of work to do that, and another one to produce some purposeful and meaningful academic paper. Maybe "easy" it's not the proper label.
 OK, "whatever nevemind" (COBAIN, 1991)... 
 Best to you, and Merry Christmas!

i was exaggerating a bit. it is, indeed, a very complex piece. it may not be possible to get 100 pages (at 12 point font) , but it may be possible to come close, given that you analyze every little detail of it. i said that merely to make a point, which was that this piece may not be the best to pick, for it is so complex, which i alluded to earlier. oh well, i still wish my best to pies on this paper.

merry christmas to you as well (and to the whole forum)!

[mephisto]

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[mephisto]

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[mephisto]

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[iumonito]

Play it again, Sam.

That type of analysis, while entertaining and provocative, tells you very little about the music.  You can do the same thing to a Bach fugue, a Brahms intermezzo or a Boulez sonata.  A description of her DNA doesn't look like Janeane Garofalo (nor is it as funny), the blue-print of Notre-Dame doesn't feel as magical, and Masters & Johnson, well, enough about the descriptions.

Do you play the piece?  I have read it and it feels animal.

[jre58591]

did you want to say something, mephisto?

[mephisto]

I basicly copy pasted what I later found out was in the link pies posted.

Great piece by the way.

[soliloquy]

Why not write an article about the whole Etudes Book I and how they are both innovative AND good music, in comparison to some composers like say... Ferneyhough, whose music is innovative but hardly anyone wants to hear, and composers like Liebermann, whose music is listenable but uninspired, and why/how this sets Ligeti's Etudes apart from the rest of the extremely modern piano literature.