György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti (28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Jewish Hungarian composer, widely seen as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the 20th century.

I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.

Quotes

• Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, it’s not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.
  • A lecture at the New England Conservatory in 1993, quoted on [1]

Quotes about Ligeti

• You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.
  • Alfred Brendel, quoted in: "The Music of Ligeti – May 20, 2006," at aventa.ca, 2006.