György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna

György Ligeti's Lux Aeterna performed by A Cappella Amsterdam, Daniel Reuss & Susanne Van Els
It is by far in my opinion the best interpretation of this work available.

[@outdoorsue]

It's important to know that Ligeti has 7 bars of silence notated for the last 7 bars of this piece. It so very often gets ignored of forgotten, usually due to audiences clapping too soon...

[@segmentsAndCurves]

That is interesting! Maybe it'd work if he was Cage.

[@solarean]

@@segmentsAndCurves LMFAO

[@rusticagenerica]

Those idiotic audiences come just to clap and go. They sleep during the piece.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

@@rusticagenerica And you are better than them, dear stranger?

[@rusticagenerica]

@@segmentsAndCurves Do you know how to IQ of a large group compares to the IQ of an average individual?

[@Dudleymiddleton]

Classic FM plays this quite regularly, in another parallel universe.

[@Lavavy]

👍🙂

[@raphaelbeck229]

Omg, that's exactly where I came from

[@hodurgustavsson762]

DUDLEY MIDDLETON...

[@mikebasil4832]

I think I’ve been to that parallel universe. 🖖🏻

[@osvaldodossantos3474]

@@Lavavy11

[@anderscoffey1729]

It feels like I’m ascending into the heavens and descending into the abyss at the same time.

[@steinjohnsen8766]

Exactly my feeling too.

[@user-wn2yt1sn6c]

Exactly!

[@usmh]

We have a very limited little experience here on Earth. To truly see the vastness of the cosmos would be wondrous, but terrifying.

[@bigdre247]

Existential horror is often beautiful and terrifying

[@Quim141]

So you are at earth

[@jean-mariescieszka4951]

J'ai eu l'honneur de le chanter devant Gyorgy Ligeti à Toulouse, avec des étudiants de ma classe de préparation au CA de formation musicale, des collègues profs à la fac et au CNR, et sous la direction de mon collègue Philippe Lesburgères, alors professeur animateur au CNR de Toulouse. Grand moment! Un ami mélomane mais non professionnel à la fin du concert avait trouvé très beau et m'avait demandé "Mais qui a fait la bande électroacoustique?"!!! Car la rencontre des voix et les harmoniques nombreuses dans l'église du musée des Augustins créaient comme un effet électroacoustique!...

[@mkaeterna9161]

It's so interesting that people have such diverse reactions to this. Some feel that it is terrifying, unsettling, and even intolerable, while others perceive it as beautiful, ethereal, and transcendent. It's as if exists beyond beauty, a sublime piece of music if there ever was one.

[@giljon5971]

as if witnessing an angel

[@rr7firefly]

You reminded me that the Sublime transcends descriptives relating to either very good or very bad. It may have been Joseph Campbell who once related how soldiers in a horrific wartime experience have used that word in reference to the extreme situation they were in.

[@rr7firefly]

@@giljon5971 When angels have appeared to humans they do not always present in human form. There is a prayer to an angel asking that it does not show itself in a form that the human mind could not endure to witness.

[@jpadicecoffee9812]

Too bad, for some of us, we may have heard it in the proximity of a movie instead of for the first time unadultered and if so, the meaning might be different. But is it valid to changes one's meaning of this same piece, the next time that we hear it?

[@zemxxi2765]

This piece captures the feel of outer space far better than John Williams' scores. This doesn't reflect badly on Williams. He's a master for high energy, rip roaring high adventure, dynamic characterization and melodrama. He's the one to go to if you need a memorable leitmotif for your youngster on their hero's myth cycle, your "eeeeeevil empire", your scruffy loveable space rogue, your Superman, or your swashbuckling archaeologist adventurer. But this piece here really captures what deep space is really like. Dark, cold, silent, impersonal, vast, and not at all like driving a car or flying a fighter plane. When you're out there in space, you really are alone.

[@johnaldag3645]

This is The Monolith in audio form. On a side note, these comments are the most perfect blend of lucidity and insanity I've ever seen.

[@VersaillesP88]

agreed !

[@terrellholmes2726]

@John Aldag In some way, don't the comments reflect the disparate reactions listeners have to the piece?

[@randy5655]

There is a thin line between genius and insanity.

[@RisenPhoenix68]

"My God... It's full of stars!"

[@pinkninja1410]

am i the only one who got this reference?

[@larsadar1987]

@@pinkninja1410 No, no. 😊 The book is fantastic. A shame the line was omitted in the film. Even though the line was included in the movie sequel, it would have contributed to the mystery and surreal feeling when Bowman arrived at the monolith in orbit, approaching it. 😄

[@the.n.1]

@@larsadar1987 movie sequel?

[@zetetick395]

@@the.n.1 Yeah, they made '2010: The Year We Made Contact' - in 1982 (I think) - Directed by Peter Hyams, in a fairly audacious move, making a sequel to a Kubrick movie is a dangerous path for ANY director to take (although we did get 'Doctor Sleep' recently by Mike Flannagan - a really surprisingly solid sequel to The Shining)

[@the.n.1]

@@zetetick395 thanks for the reply 😊🙏

[@1401JSC]

The text (in Latin) is from the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass: Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es. Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis, which means "May everlasting light shine upon them, O Lord, with thy saints in eternity, for thou art merciful. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may everlasting light shine upon them."

[@beauforda.stenberg1280]

That was very helpful and informative. Thank you.

[@maryfreebed9886]

The first time I saw the phrase "may perpetual light shine upon" somebody, as a memorial for the recently passed at a nursing home, my first thought was that it sounded very uncomfortable and not to be desired for a loved one.

[@BTMOvie78]

Strange that the text is from a Roman Requiem Mass but the music express litterally the opposite of the text which is basically full of hope. Strange isn't it?

[@arjenbij]

​@@BTMOvie78I think this has much to do with the shift in the perception of god as an existing being to that which is unknown, everlasting, after, etc.

[@tonysabell7737]

"...while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy..."~Job 38:7

[@8TENASTER8IDS]

.....the sheer brilliance of stanley kubrick to use this music as the backdrop to the lunar landscapes, the solar system and the infinite echos of space.....this music will eternally require imagery upon listening.....

[@lukascielocaminante257]

This is a great music to put at a party !

[@segmentsAndCurves]

No. Anything but parties.

[@leonesilva4996]

@@segmentsAndCurves yuo're a real serious man

[@segmentsAndCurves]

@@leonesilva4996 I am not a man.

[@leonesilva4996]

@@segmentsAndCurves something i appreciate

[@segmentsAndCurves]

@@leonesilva4996 ok then.

[@guibox3]

When I first heard this song, it irritated the piss out of me...and I loved it! The dissonance and cacophony sent my teeth on edge and my body vibrating. I had never heard such vocal dissonance before and I listen to a lot of choral music. This is still unlike anything I've ever heard. A real masterpiece!!

[@mrslucibel]

And the feat of singing it and staying in tune in such chromatic dense lines is phenomenal!

[@TheSolidsoundwavesif]

Dreams made into music .

[@henrybrowne7248]

"irritated the piss out of me...and I loved it!"🤣Great reaction. I love mixed emotions too. Ever seen the movie Eraserhead?

[@christhornley1664]

I've always loved this piece of music since I first heard it in 2001 A Space Odyssey. It was used in the movie to help depict the empty, desolate beauty of the lunar surface.

[@voxpoesis]

Y😮U are right! I was like...yeah I heard this before re but couldn't locate the source, and now thanks to you, I know it's part of one my fave films of all time.

[@guy_in_the_moon]

This is probably the most “psychedelic” piece I’ve ever heard. Would love to get the sheet music on it!

[@guibox3]

I've seen it before. It is a sight to behold. lol

[@Timetraveller2208]

He must've been tripping on LSD when he wrote it!!

[@richerite]

I feel expansive...like i'm at the edge of a nebula witnessing a million years of the universe.

[@danielpincus221]

I'm going to play this during my musical program for seniors today, Memorial Day 2022. For all fallen soldiers who led good lives.

[@Autostade67]

Though Ligeti was much honoured during his lifetime, it feels to me that he was never as widely appreciated as he might have been. I may be a Philistine who just doesn't know any better, but I think this is one of the greatest pieces of choral music of the 20th century - if not among one of the great pieces of choral repertoire period. There's nothing like it. It absolutely achieves Walter Benjamin's marker of greatness in that - and I paraphrase - it destroys and founds a genre all at once.

[@AbsurdTube]

Reading through the comments is a pleasure on a video like this, the majority of people who would come here to listen are not trolls but avid music fans with an appreciation for the sublime.

[@xshullaw]

This is the real music of angels.

[@mosestheleader25]

If H.P. Lovecraft had a theme song, it would be this.

[@adrianaslund8605]

Its tied with the S&M(symphonic) version of Call of Ktulu by Metallica for me. Whatever "The Bridge of Khazad Dum" is for Peter Jackson's Lord of the rings that is the to the Lovecraft mythos for me.

[@jungerhansmann6608]

or if 2001 A Space Odyssey had a theme song :D

[@fraubaumgart]

This incredible piece is the main reason for "2001 - A Space Odyssee" being my favourite movie of all times.

[@wow561]

I saw this movie for the first time in 1970 when I was 13, and hearing this music was like a religious experience and I have loved it ever since. It's my favorite movie too!

[@spencerbean8802]

I actually got my hands on the sheet music, and it turns out that this recording left out something absolutely integral to the piece (no sarcasm whatsoever): the piece ends with seven bars of silence.

[@pamelaguedes5019]

forever, and wherever, what is left is silence.. A. Huxley

[@PurpleRevolutionMusic]

Many of his works end in silence or even start with silence, like the 2nd string quartet. But uploaders don't seem to bother which is a shame. This silence just belongs to the piece.

[@gregperez-greene7408]

Pamela Guedes The rest is silence -W. Shakespeare

[@toothlesstoe]

Just don't click on another video until seven bars of time has passed. Problem solved.

[@bathtubbarracuda2581]

+toothless toe I hadn't seen you in quite some time.

[@tsr207]

As a young boy in 1969 watching "2001" when I heard the first notes of this - it recalled the line from the book " how could life exist here?"- the cold lunar surface and the earth illuminating the small shell of humanity (the moonbus) as it travels to the most momentous incident in human history.

[@SwagGaming87]

that line is so cold

[@JoonilOh]

Ligeti achieved what he did by building on top of the foundations of classical music laid out by the great masters before him. Everyone from Palestrina to Schoenberg was fundamental in Ligeti's growth into the composer we know him as today. If you truly appreciate Ligeti's works, you would do well to show Bach and Mozart some respect. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." --Issac Newton, 1676

[@sinisterbotanist]

I personally do not care for Mozart or Bach, the music is too colorless to me, but I can acknowledge the part they played in influencing all of the composers I actually do enjoy. I can imagine how Beethoven might have been considered "avant-garde" for ears tuned to the time period, and perhaps we might be saying the same thing about modern composers in the future.

[@OssoPoderoso]

sinisterbotanist Just curious about your thoughts, what do you mean colorless? And what parts do you acknowledge and how have they influenced specifically one composer you enjoy? What do you imagine to be considered 'avant-garde' about Beethoven and musical sensibilities of people who listened to Beethoven during his life time, and the mentioned 'same thing', what is it and what is it saying about what composers in the future?

[@sinisterbotanist]

OssoPoderoso I'm a synesthete so color is a part of my musical experience. Beethoven and Mozart happen to be very colorless and hence very bland for me. Enjoyable music always has good color. & what is considered avant-garde is really only considered avant-garde within the cultural/historical context (though I use 'avant-garde' synonymously with 'innovative' here). As an example, I love Stravinsky, but he was obviously heavily influenced by a plethora of composers I don't care for. The techniques of the "avant-garde" composers become typical until composers deviate from those typical patterns and you find a whole new innovative paradigm. The perception of modern composers in the future might be the same way we look at Beethoven/Bach/Mozart now. So some snobby kid in the year 3000 may hear a new work by a composer who was deeply influenced by Stravinsky, but his ears are tuning into the new hip pattern deviating stuff by this new composer, so he may dislike Stravinsky in the same way I dislike Beethoven. I may not like it, but I can acknowledge its role in the development of new patterns. The object of musical interest changes. So all of this really goes to say we have perceptions relevant to our historical context. Though, I still agree that music is timeless.

[@OssoPoderoso]

cool..., so what do you consider "hip"?

[@sinisterbotanist]

OssoPoderoso oh, there's so much hip shit going around man you just have to open your ears to find it

[@jgesselberty]

One of those rare works that conjures beauty out of dissonance.

[@Luca-yg5qx]

There are countless beautiful dissonant works

[@1000jamesk]

Ever heard Thelonius Monk?

[@postrock3374]

@@1000jamesk ever heard of coldplay

[@ICanPickLocks]

​​@@postrock3374 I swear to god you did not seriously jusy write Coldplay under a Ligeti piece.(unless this was a joke, in which case I'm sorry for not "understanding" it straight away)

[@hlcepeda]

For me, unpredictable (dissonant) musical passages are often beautiful (why I find Tchaikovsky to be infinitely boring).

[@OfficialGamingNetwork]

Am I the only one who found this piece beautiful throughout the whole thing rather than terrifying? Like sure, I agree it gets creepier/more sinister further into the piece, but I still found those parts to be hauntingly beautiful.

[@oldbird4601]

Sublime is the only word I can find to describe this

[@lizalauda1903]

For me it's the perfect piece to describe space. The void of the cosmos, colorful celestial bodies, and vast emptiness. Beautiful and terrifying the same time

[@henrybrowne7248]

I'm a "beautiful, ethereal, and transcendent" guy--see MKAETERNA comment--with a little eerieness or uncertainty thrown in . .

[@michaeldawes-smith6022]

This is one of my all time favourite pieces of music...utterly beautiful and mysterious

[@martinlagrange8821]

Like most most folks, the moment I hear this, I am instantly transported to the surface of Earth's Moon - this work is practically inseperable from this haunting image thanks to the film '2001 : A Space Odyssey'. Awesome recording, thank you for posting it, its totally gorgeous.

[@seangoldring]

Now it's in interstellar space, the excitement continues, this song excellently communicates the wonder of it all.

[@docbailey3265]

You got to fill out a form first, then you wait in the line.

[@mattia.a.p]

This piece is just so wonderful. Ligeti was actually very ill and high on morphine while writing it, which is quite amazing. If you’re interested, I did a video on Ligeti’s work :)

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

Thanks, Mattia. Video looks interesting - bookmarked for watching later.

[@mattia.a.p]

@@finosuilleabhain7781 I’m happy if you watch it! Let me know what you think.

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

@@mattia.a.p Hi again, Mattia. I finished watching Part 1 last night and liked it a lot. Pure information, with just enough of yourself and none of the gimmicks and infantile presentation style that make most KZbin videos so irritating. Having first heard live Ligeti a long time ago (Melodien, Manchester, 15/2/1973), for some reason I find myself drawn to him more and more these days; I just downloaded the Steinitz biography. Those two organ etudes, which I've never really listened to before, sound amazing. After Part 2 I will be checking out your Schoenberg videos and am subscribed so will watch out for any others you make in future. The long, single composer survey format is a good one. Do you compose? Best wishes ... Fin

[@mattia.a.p]

@@finosuilleabhain7781 Thank you very much! I was impressed by his second string quartet I heard in Berlin. Yes, I would love to hear those organ pieces live one day. Steinitz is very informative. Thank you for subscribing! My next video will be about Anton Webern. I hope to upload it in October. I compose as well, yes. Hopefully I will be able to share some of my music one day. All the best, Mattia

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

@@mattia.a.p That's great. I look forward to the Webern ... I hope it will be longer than his pieces. :o)

[@cringeproof100]

This is freaking out my cat.

[@stephaniecurtet5832]

Same for my dogs. How can they understand something to the music?

[@ninahettema6427]

Lovecraft loved cats.

[@artofflying5650]

Your cat probably had a close encounter with the Black Monolith

[@welldarn5063]

MY CAT IS TWITCHING

[@AABB-zb6dv]

This is freaking me out as well.

[@canousi]

ligeti is a visionary far ahead of his time , it's treatment of human voice is astonishing , and really out of this world ? culminating with his requiem in 1965 , nobody BEFORE went as far as he did ...

[@johngeist518]

As a composer, this excites immensely disparate regions of my primordial self. Fantastic.

[@seanm.9942]

I’m a self proclaimed layman. Are you trying to say that the music elicits conflicting feelings/emotions? I do not quite know what “primordial self” is after searching the web for a hot minute

[@f.p.2010]

@@seanm.9942 something like the very fundament of your being

[@henrybrowne7248]

@@seanm.9942 I would say the limbic system.

[@shlecko]

@@seanm.9942 My skeleton is ready to hatch

[@Vingul]

@@shlecko brah

[@WilliamFord972]

This transcends words.

[@katyisgone]

+Ivo Treszka I laughed

[@stevenkiers5533]

words transcend already

[@greywalker505]

There’s a saying: “Music takes us where words cannot.” I don’t mean to sound pretentious or anything; I’m just following up what you said.

[@OscarGeronimo]

...it even transcends butsecks too. So it transcends pain and laughter.

[@lastunctives2095]

Heaven is hell

[@Serpent947]

This song perfectly encapsulates how I feel about space

[@-YogSothoth]

This song inspites fear, love, confusion, and dread to the people who listen to it. Imagine a light, dancing and shaking ever slowly in the cosmos, possibly the source of creation, but you dont know. You cant possibly know or understand what it truly is, and it frightens you, but you cant help but stare at its luminous and everlasting glory. This light truly is eternal, undying, and dark at core, for the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. To know of the true nature of such an eldritch being of metaphysical form, would surely drive someone mad. But would that not be a blessing? To know the source of curiousity on such a cosmic scale, surely could be defined as enlightenment. The cosmos truly is the source of the strangest and most curious of forms and especially fears. As H.P Lovecraft once said, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

[@greywalker505]

Funny that Yog-Sothoth should be saying this.

[@midinerd]

I listened to it and didn't feel those emotions. You are, therefore, wrong.

[@williampatrick2971]

I’m so glad to see a Ligeti piece get over a million views. Hopefully his work will live on

[@eurisko618]

This work, and "Lontano" have held unique positions in my all-time favorite 20th cent works - breathless, exquisite, everlasting. Ligeti is timeless.

[@remzgangsta]

this touches me deep in my heart and soul , it is one of the most beautyfull things i have ever heard

[@AndreasWoykepianistandcomposer]

Fantastic recording of a true masterpiece of the last century! Thank for uploading!

[@timages]

...brilliant...a restrained unsettlingly depth...the very best of modern music.

[@daniellecimpean9316]

Simply wonderful. I don't have the words to describe what I feel when I listen to this.

[@zebonautsmith1541]

This IS the sound of the mysteries of deep space.

[@novakattila]

This is the music at humanity's end scene

[@Musicadora]

With Carl Orff's Carmina Burana just before

[@wolfil8019]

This is the voice of ice singing ... and such a beautiful voice she has as she sings through the winter ....

[@doltifantara]

pretty and floating, beckoning the listener and then giving freedom

[@FatherRikhi]

this is mindlblowing.

[@ClaylandStudios]

Listening to this on LSD in the dark gave me life altering effects. This is just so perfect.

[@teemukokkonen9220]

+ClaylandStudios How it altered your life? I'd like to hear.

[@britainthroughmylens]

+ClaylandStudios Who needs LSD? Just watch the closing sequence to Kubrick's 2001 a Space Odyssey!

[@jagbot]

+Somerset Pete i assume u havent tried it.

[@ClaylandStudios]

+Teemu Kokkonen made me view voices and sound in a more deep way

[@amphitheatre]

i tried it for the first time and didn't think it was worth it

[@rickyf3448]

Ligeti + weed = poor man's DMT

[@anthonymcbride855]

Yes Sir👏👏👏👏😂👏

[@Yetipfote]

:DDD

[@frithjofrinklin6559]

It is beautiful

[@Musicadora]

XD

[@REON-pw5ze]

lol

[@AFMusicChannel]

What a beautiful piece. Absolutely brilliant!

[@theoboueid6450]

Sublime and transcendant.

[@bibniebt]

This piece says this to me: imagine seeing something in the distance. It's beautiful. It's otherworldly. You absolutely cannot avert your gaze. You venture closer and closer as you must know what it is that possessed such unnatural beauty. Then, as you approach, you get a feeling of unease. You see clearer the thing's odd form. As you draw nearer, your awe transforms into fear as you realize just how wrong you were. It is not a thing of beauty, but of abject horror the likes of which you have never experienced. What you discover is in fact a dark perversion of all that is beautiful, and you are afraid. You are terribly, terribly afraid. But it is too late. For it has opened its maw in a twisted song and is upon you. And you shall be doomed to join in its grim chorus forever

[@myriadpath]

very well put!

[@sheenavernon6499]

I wonder if Ligeti was haunted by dreams of the concentration camps where his father and brother died.

[@ChollieD]

Nope, this is clearly a warm day in late Spring, near a lake, with a bottle of wine and a woman you love. But she's there with me.

[@kerrgal]

Now I'm hearing this differently.

[@tlome8033]

So corruption?

[@LazyBastard69]

Hauntingly beautiful!

[@chrisdoeller7332]

This is a good rendition. I like the singers to use straight tone as it keeps the line cleaner and more elongated

[@SeventiesVet]

Stanley Kubrick was onto something when he chose to include it in his metaphysical movie about space.

[@SharpChronofighter]

Music for and from the Soul... a timeless masterpiece!

[@Ciclopea2]

What an unusual mix of fear and relaxation i got from this piece, i can imagine death feeling a bit like that.

[@dissolutopunito0408]

Maravillosa composición.

[@ShaunaMarieSings]

That was so out of this world...LOVED IT!!! 💗 💗 💗

[@WKFO_Space]

This is heavenly. It gives a slightest feeling of horror or uneasiness, but it is... beautiful. Almost too beautiful.

[@hermanjoseph2043]

20th century: first half --Bartok 2nd half Ligeti--this composition brings a new dimension to music--absolutely beautiful

[@golden-63]

I concur.

[@josephivernel2078]

Herman Joseph what do you do about Maurice Ravel ? He was pretty neat

[@alejandrom.4680]

@@josephivernel2078 I think he is talking about completely atonal composers

[@Eorzat]

Alejandro M. Bartok didn’t really compose atonal music though...

[@docbailey3265]

No. First half: Stravinsky/Schoenberg. Second half: Frank Zappa (😂)

[@Hypoplastician]

"Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, das wir kaum in der Lage sind, zu ertragen. Und es erstaunt uns so, weil es gelassen davon absieht, uns zu zerstören. Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich. "

[@tuberwupp]

Spencer McKee Rainer Maria Rilke, 1. Elegie der Duineser Elegien.

[@danielmatthews7680]

Rilke

[@frankburrows9850]

Beautiful! Thank you for posting.

[@guy_in_the_moon]

This is peaceful and beautiful at the same time!!!

[@giasharie274]

How is this scary? This has to be one of the most beautiful choir songs I've heard, so calming and relaxing, makes you think profoundly about the world, the universe we live in. The marvels of the human voice!

[@markodebeljak1145]

For me not scary, but it's spooky.

[@-Vitalis-]

It's kinda eerie.

[@ed1726]

You have to imagine all the victims of the Holocaust crying out in pain, terror, confusion and despair.

[@leem898]

I hear the total nature of true space and time in this music.

[@nebularsmusic]

The tone clusters are so wonderful

[@Adolfitotherevenant2003]

Creepily beautiful

[@Mag.Wolfgang.Boehm.Vienna]

Ich kann mich erinnern, wie der Komponist György Ligeti in den 80er Jahren in einem Radio-Interview sagte, dass für ihn die späten Streichquartette von Ludwig van Beethoven und die späte Kammermusik von Franz Schubert sowie die Streichquartette von Béla Bartók das Höchste in der Musik überhaupt seien. Man kann ihm nur Recht geben. 1966 komponierte György Ligeti "Lux aeterna" für 16-stimmigen Chor a cappella. Als der Regisseur Stanley Kubrick 1968 diese Musik für den Film "2001: Odyssee im Weltraum" nutzte, führte dies zu einem außergerichtlichen Rechtsstreit. Doch Kubrick verwendete Musik von Ligeti auch in den späteren Filmen "Shining" und "Eyes Wide Shut". Manche Stellen in "Lux aeterna" könnten wie Mikrotöne anmuten - Vierteltöne, Achteltöne -, das gesamte Werk besteht aber ausschließlich aus Halbtönen. György Ligeti "Lux aeterna" für 16-stimmigen Chor a cappella. Cappella Amsterdam unter Daniel Reuss.

[@FiliusPluviae]

mein Herr, Ligeti war keiner österreichische Komponist. Seine Familie war Ungarisch, er war geboren in Transylvanie (nach dem erste Weltkrieg) und er lebte in Romanie, Ungarn und andere Länden.

[@Mag.Wolfgang.Boehm.Vienna]

FiliusPluviae Sie haben natürlich Recht, György Ligeti wurde in Rumänien geboren und war rumänisch-ungarischer Herkunft. Doch ab 1967 war Ligeti österreichischer Staatsbürger und wurde 2006 in einem Ehrengrab am Wiener Zentralfriedhof beigesetzt. Ich habe dennoch oben "österreichischer" Komponist entfernt.

[@FiliusPluviae]

***** ja, es ist so. aber ich weisse (und glaube) nicht ob er dachte sich Österreichischer zu sein. ich glaube er wollte nur aus Ungarn und von den Kommunisten zu fliehen und die österreichische Staatsbürgerschaft war nur ein Mittel um dies zu erreichen. aber, es ist möglich dass ich falsch bin...

[@Mag.Wolfgang.Boehm.Vienna]

FiliusPluviae Ligeti floh 1956 - wie Sie richtig sagen, vor der kommunistischen Partei - nach Wien, 1967 nahm er die österreichische Staatsbürgerschaft an - freiwillig, ohne dies tun zu müssen. Aber Ligeti war im Grunde ein Kosmopolit im besten Sinne des Wortes.

[@FiliusPluviae]

ich stimme mit Ihnen in allem. der Rest ist unmöglich zu entschieden, da wir Ligetis Gedanken nicht lesen können.

[@terencemckennabitch8580]

I think this is one of the most amazing pieces of music ever created!

[@judymorsink883]

Sublime. Really appreciate hearing this performance

[@benettilize]

A Cappella Amsterdam is rendering a masterpiece to all of us. Tank you.

[@brianconnelly1878]

Beauty is the beginning of terror.

[@brianconnelly1878]

tomtriffid It's not original to me. It's a line from the Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

[@christophersharp2103]

The full quote is, "beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us." I don't think this poet was talking about just any kind of beauty, but awesome beauty...something like a nuclear explosion has been described as beautiful by some...but from a safe distance the explosion "serenely disdains to annihilate us."

[@theguss3171]

+Christopher Sharp Sublime

[@brianconnelly1878]

An interesting idea, although I disagree :)

[@papuanblack3810]

terror has a clinical beauty which fascinates and is an integral part of our evolution. We are in effect a quite nasty and ultimately doomed creature. Only art and especially music can express this unsavoury truth.

[@americaneagle2076]

Fascinating beyond words.

[@abyios]

hypnotizing ...the music and the image...well done

[@HenryMollicone]

Still a mesmerizing work after all these years!

[@nm-zx1wf]

hauntingly beautiful

[@erick-gd7wo]

i'm totally agree with you....

[@sherlockholmeslives.1605]

GENIUS!

[@leoclerici2764]

the best version I heard ... awesome!!

[@Kamozeloraoz]

Amazing piece. So much relaxing.

[@charlesdavis7087]

A ship makes waves as it moves upon the sea. I believe that same thing might be true as the planets move around the sun. Ligeti's music reminds me of these great cosmic waves as they move slowly, and yet, eternally about us all. Sound waves of the highest order. His music allows the listener time to relax into "that" which was before life came into existence. "Before the beginning there was Ligeti."

[@pyrania6828]

Look up gravitational waves.

[@alessandrosevera3859]

This music had been used as example in the italian youtube cultural video "Lezioni di Musica - Il Canone" of the channel "musicamonteverde". Is a really very very interesting video.

[@pob-4810]

This is genius. This piece invokes so much different emotions at the same time.

[@RanBlakePiano]

Wonderful. Thank you a lot for this marvelous post

[@GhostRyder1172]

This piece had creeped the hell out of me - though in good way - ever since I first heard it in the 2001 score. The scene where it plays is simply haunting and foreboding.

[@krismariasy9728]

This fits the image in the background perfectly

[@robertwbecker]

Brilliant performance! One of my favorite composers!

[@Kobzar3374]

Fabulous. Impressing. Thank you very much for sharing this beauty.

[@christinae8062]

It took me back to the womb. ❤️

[@rollertoaster]

When i hear this song, i think of myself as a lone astronaut inside his tiny little capsule, somwhere out in space, and that's it. I don't think many people realize the true terror of space, just the fact of being locked inside a tiny metal tube, and then nothing. Just nothing, forever. Kind of like what Romilly said in Interstellar.

[@nielspemberton59]

It should have been used in Interstellar.

[@MrPGC137]

I've always loved this piece, ever since I first saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" as a boy. Thanks for sharing it here.

[@hildeskunstmusikheim5429]

Wonderful! This sounds heavenly!

[@tiialehto4456]

the most beautiful lux aeterna of the world! spiritual experience!

[@Jogyot3260]

How is this beautiful and unsettling at the same time?

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Don't use words. They're meaningless here.

[@Jogyot3260]

@@segmentsAndCurves when I listen to this in the dark.. I feel like I am living outside of time

[@AardvarkStrikeforce]

Fantastic work of music. this is brilliant.

[@ViktorPavel]

Incredible good. Might be the best interpretation i´ve heard so far.

[@scotgat]

There's a bit of death and life in both the visual and the music.

[@kriegsmaschine4050]

Beautiful, creepy, scary - this piece doesn't feel like any of those to me, though I can see where others are coming from. I first heard it (like many others here I assume) in 2001, and somehow it feels cozy to me. It felt like I was a kid driving in a car through an unknown country, sleepily taking in the sights. It's what I felt when I first saw doctor Heywood Floyd and his men gliding soundlessly over the surface of the moon, on their way to Tycho crater and the secret waiting there.

[@Labelle818]

terrifying and beautiful

[@RomanIDrozd]

Really "angel" performance. Respect for choir A Cappella Amsterdam and Daniel Reuss... Chapeau bas!

[@Tenskwatawa4U]

Tim Buckley's STARSAILOR always reminds me of this piece.