Editing György Ligeti (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Ligeti was born in 1923 at Diciosânmartin (''Dicsőszentmárton''; renamed to [[Târnăveni]] in 1941) in [[Romania]], to Dr. Sándor Ligeti and Dr. Ilona Somogyi. His family was [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jewish]]. He was the great-grandnephew of violinist [[Leopold Auer]] and second cousin of Hungarian philosopher [[Ágnes Heller]].{{sfn|Hauptfeld|Heller|2018|loc=22}}{{sfn|Searby|2010|loc=3}} Some sources say he was Auer's grandnephew, rather than great-grandnephew.<ref name="Griffiths 2001">{{harvnb|Griffiths|2001}}</ref>

Ligeti recalled that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation between Romanian-speaking town police. Before that, he didn't know that other languages existed.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{harvnb|Tusa|2001}}</ref> He moved to [[Cluj-Napoca|Cluj]] with his family when he was six years old. He did not return to the town of his birth until the 1990s. In 1940, [[Northern Transylvania]] became part of Hungary following the [[Second Vienna Award]], thus Cluj became part of Hungary as well.

In 1941 Ligeti received his initial musical training at the [[Gheorghe Dima National Music Academy|conservatory in Kolozsvár (Cluj)]],<ref name="bio"/> and during the summers privately with [[Pál Kadosa]] in Budapest. In 1944, Ligeti's education was interrupted when he was sent to a [[The Holocaust#Hungary|forced labor brigade]] by the [[Hungary in World War II|Horthy regime]] during events of the Holocaust.<ref name="Griffiths 2001"/> His brother Gábor, age 16, was deported to the [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]] and both of his parents were sent to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]]. His mother was the only person to survive in his immediate family.{{sfn|Steinitz|2003|loc=20}}

Following [[World War II]], Ligeti returned to his studies in Budapest, graduating in 1949 from the [[Franz Liszt Academy of Music]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=13 June 2006 |title=Gyorgy Ligeti, 83; a Mercurial Composer Who Despised Dogmas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51857164/ligeti-obituary-swed/ |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |location=Los Angeles |page=89 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> He studied under Pál Kadosa, [[Ferenc Farkas]], [[Zoltán Kodály]] and [[Sándor Veress]]. He conducted [[ethnomusicology|ethnomusicological]] research into the [[Hungarian folk music]] of Transylvania. However, after a year he returned to Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, this time as a teacher of [[harmony]], [[counterpoint]], and [[musical analysis]]. He secured this position with the help of Kodály and held it from 1950 to 1956.<ref name="bio" /> As a young teacher, Ligeti took the unusual step of regularly attending the lectures of an older colleague, the conductor, and musicologist [[Lajos Bárdos]], a conservative Christian whose circle represented a safe haven for Ligeti. The composer acknowledged Bárdos's help and advice in the prefaces to his two harmony textbooks (1954 and 1956).{{sfn|Steinitz|2003|loc=31}} Due to the restrictions of the [[communism|communist]] government, communications between Hungary and the West by then had become difficult, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the [[Eastern Bloc]].

===After leaving Hungary===
In December 1956, two months after the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian uprising]] was violently suppressed by the Soviet Army, Ligeti fled to Vienna with his ex-wife Vera Spitz.<ref>{{cite news|last=Service|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Service|date=17 October 2003|title=Prelude for Pygmies|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51858842/ligeti-service/|work=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|page=68|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> They remarried in 1957 and had a son together.<ref name="Steinitz 2003, 70–73">{{harvnb|Steinitz|2003|loc=70–73}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Publications |first=Europa |date=2003 |title=The International Who's Who 2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sR4Ch1dMe8IC&q=ligeti+international+whos+who&pg=PA1005 |publisher=Psychology Press |page=1005 |isbn=978-1-85743-217-6 }}</ref> He would not see Hungary again for fourteen years, when he was invited there to judge a competition in Budapest.{{sfn|Steinitz|2003|loc=250}} On his rushed escape to Vienna, he left most of his Hungarian compositions in Budapest, some of which are now lost. He took only what he considered to be his most important pieces. He later said, "I considered my old music of no interest. I believed in [[twelve-tone]] music!"{{sfn|Steinitz|2003|loc=73–74}} He eventually took Austrian citizenship in 1968.<ref name="Steinitz 2003, 70–73"/>

[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F004566-0002, Darmstadt, Internationaler Kurs für neue Musik.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Karlheinz Stockhausen]] lecturing at the [[Darmstädter Ferienkurse]], July 1957]]

A few weeks after arriving in Vienna, Ligeti left for Cologne.<ref>{{cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=28 May 1989 |title=Ligeti's Eerie Hungarian Rhapsodies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51857568/ligeti-swed/ |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |location=Los Angeles |page=267 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> There he met several key [[avant-garde]] figures and learned more contemporary musical styles and methods.{{sfn|Benjamin|2007}} These people included the composers [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]] and [[Gottfried Michael Koenig]], both then working on groundbreaking [[electronic music]]. During the summer, he attended the [[Darmstädter Ferienkurse]]. Ligeti worked in the [[Studio for Electronic Music (WDR)|Cologne Electronic Music Studio]] with Stockhausen and Koenig and was inspired by the sounds he heard there. However, he produced little electronic music of his own, instead concentrating on instrumental works which often contain electronic-sounding [[texture (music)|textures]].

After about three years' working with them, he fell out with the [[Cologne School (music)#Related ideas|Cologne School of Electronic Music]], because there was much factional in-fighting: "there were {{sic}} a lot of political fighting because different people, like Stockhausen, like Kagel wanted to be first. And I, personally, have no ambition to be first or to be important."<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

Between 1961 and 1971 he was guest professor for composition in Stockholm. In 1972 he became composer-in-residence at [[Stanford University]] in the United States.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|url=https://en.karstenwitt.com/artist/gy%C3%B6rgy-ligeti|website=karstenwitt.com|title=György Ligeti, Composer – Biography|access-date=3 January 2023}}</ref>

In 1973 Ligeti became professor of composition at the [[Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg|Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater]], eventually retiring in 1989.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rhein |first=John von |date=18 October 2017 |title=At U. of C, a major homage to Ligeti |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51856833/ligeti-rhein/ |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |location=Chicago |page=4-3 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> While he was living in Hamburg, his wife Vera remained in Vienna with their son, [[Lukas Ligeti|Lukas]], who later also became a composer.<ref name="nytimes" />

Invited by [[Walter Fink]], Ligeti was the first composer featured in the annual [[Rheingau Musik Festival#Portraits of living composers|Komponistenporträt]] of the [[Rheingau Musik Festival]] in 1990.{{sfn|Anon.|n.d.(a)}}

Apart from his far-reaching interest in different styles of music, from Renaissance to African music, Ligeti was also interested in literature (including the writers [[Lewis Carroll]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], and [[Franz Kafka]]), painting, architecture, science, and mathematics. He was especially fascinated by the [[fractal|fractal geometry]] of [[Benoit Mandelbrot]] and the writings of [[Douglas Hofstadter]].{{sfn|Steinitz|2003|loc={{page needed|date=August 2021}}}}

===Death===
[[File:Ligeti.jpg|thumb|Ligeti's grave in [[Vienna Central Cemetery]]]]
Ligeti's health deteriorated after the turn of the millennium; he died in Vienna on 12 June 2006, at the age of 83.<ref name="nytimes">{{harvnb|Griffiths|2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dyer |first=Richard |date=13 June 2006 |title=Gyorgy Ligeti; influential composer of wry, startling pieces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51858197/ligeti-obituary-dyer/ |work=[[The Boston Globe]]|page=23 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> Although it was known that he had been ill for several years and had used a wheelchair for the last three years of his life, his family declined to release details of the cause of his death.{{sfn|Griffiths|2006}}

Austrian Chancellor [[Wolfgang Schüssel]] and Art Secretary {{ill|Franz Morak|de}} both paid tribute to Ligeti.<ref name="Standard">{{cite news |date=12 June 2006 |title=Reaktionen: "In einer Reihe mit Bartok, Stockhausen und Boulez" |url=https://derstandard.at/2478138/Reaktionen-In-einer-Reihe-mit-Bartok-Stockhausen-und-Boulez |work=[[Der Standard]] |location=Vienna |language=de |access-date=6 May 2019}}</ref> His funeral was held at [[Feuerhalle Simmering]].<ref name="Abschied">{{cite web |date=22 June 2006 |title=Abschied von György Ligeti |url=https://www.musicaustria.at/abschied-von-gyoergy-ligeti/ |work=music austria |publisher=Music Information Center Austria |location=Vienna |language=de |access-date=5 May 2019}}</ref> The memorial concert was performed by [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]] and the [[Arnold Schoenberg Choir]].<ref name="Abschied" /> His ashes were buried at [[Vienna Central Cemetery]] in a ''grave of honor'' ({{langx|de|[[Ehrengrab]]|link=no}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.n-tv.de/archiv/Gyoergy-Ligeti-ist-tot-article185683.html |title=György Ligeti ist tot; Ehrengrab in Wien |language=de |access-date=7 November 2013}}</ref>

He was survived by his wife Vera and son [[Lukas Ligeti|Lukas]].<ref name="nytimes" /> The latter is a composer and percussionist based in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lukasligeti.com/|title=Welcome to the website of composer/improvisor Lukas Ligeti|website=lukasligeti.com|access-date=3 January 2023}}</ref>