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.
When I heard this in the movie, I went to my college music library and checked out the score. It's amazing to me that anyone could write it and that Kubric was smart enough to use it. How lucky we are to have people like this among us.
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...
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!...
L'ami, si tu lis ce commentaire 6 ans plus tard... Ce que je trouve formidable ici c'est de faire naître des harmoniques là où elles ne sont pas évidentes. Mais pourtant elles surgissent du néant, s'ajustent, s''équilibrent. Tension, rétention, l'on touche ici à ce qu'il y a de plus beau et fondamental dans la musique.
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.
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.
@@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.
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?
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.
.....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.....
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.
@@randy5655 no there isn't. Stop romanticising mental illness, when mental illness ruins people's lives and is regarded medically and legally as a severe disability. It's never a good thing to be mentally ill, if you're an artist. The mental illness makes it _HARDER_ to create great art, not easier. Believe me. I have schizophrenia. And I'm a songwriter. When I'm ill I can't create anything at all. It's only when I recover again from an episode of psychosis that I can get back to writing.
@@randy5655 no there isn't. Stop romanticising mental illness, when mental illness ruins people's lives and is regarded medically and legally as a severe disability. It's never a good thing to be mentally ill, if you're an artist. The mental illness makes it _HARDER_ to create great art, not easier. Believe me. I have schizophrenia. And I'm a songwriter. When I'm ill I can't create anything at all. It's only when I recover again from an episode of psychosis that I can get back to writing.
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.
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!
Yo la vi en 1970 también, tenía 12 años, y fue la primera película que vi solo..era la sala de cine más grande de mi ciudad, Zaragoza en España, y me sobrecogió esta grandiosa película…toda la escena con los coros de Liguety es alucinante…bueno toda esta gran película…también para mí es la película más grandiosa que he visto en mi vida…una obra eterna…una obra de arte que muestra la Nueva Humanidad y la Nueva Tierra…
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!!
You might like the English composer Jonathan Harvey's "Thou Mastering Me God", first one I thought of for disonnence. Oh. Comment was 12 years ago. So, how've you been? XD
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."
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.
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?
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
@Post Rock 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)
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.
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!
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 ...
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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?
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.
@@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 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)
It's amazing how something that sounds so pretty is made up completely of dissonants. For those of you who don't know, dissonants will sound ugly unless you use them well and in a group. A dissonant on it's own will sound really bad. But when put together in just the right way you get things like this.
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.
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
Biblique, dramatique et immense. Je voudrais m'identifier à cette musique. Une ancienne légende sacrée visitée par un génie contemporain. Mélangez avec le souffle de la plus majestueuse & sournoise Apocalypse. La désolation épique des anciens Dieux!
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."
exceptionnel. le plus difficile dans une interprétation étant de combiner richesse et lisibilité, celle ci est vraiment superbe de justesse et d'équilibre des masses, un joyau.
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.
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.
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.
***** 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...
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.
Tout ce qui nous entoure est une conséquence du renoncement et du chagrin. Les écrits et images sur des murs fissurés et des lucarnes murales qui font mal aux yeux représentent une vérité que personne bientôt ne lira, ni ne regardera plus ! Nous sommes entourés aujourd'hui de gouvernements de marionnettes aveuglés par d'autres croyances que nos simples désirs et aspirations .. Il nous reste la possibilité de nous décrasser avec cette musique mélancolique, noble et insouciante !! Merci Ô Noble Ligeti
Yours remains my favorite youtube version of this piece, both because of the performance by A Capella Amsterdam and because of the beautiful Buddhabrot image you selected to accompany it.
I would love to watch a moving Mandelbrot fractal zoom into this beautiful and ghostly "Buddhabrot" (who is the artist?) while listening to this Ligeti masterpiece, which is fractal in its own way.
My sense of Ligeti is that he took up the innovations of the 60s-80s musical avant-garde and made better and more expressive music out of the ideas than most of their originators did. Ligeti was a brilliant inventor, but he was a musician and humanist first. This is some of the greatest religious music of the 20th century, discovering a new way to express the spiritual. And to add to the chorus: terrific performance and perfect visual!
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 :)
@@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 UA-cam 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
@@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
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.
I'm creating a classical playlist for LSD experiences, and I can attest. I've heard a number of versions of this piece, and this Capella Amsterdam version is the best of any I can find - the trippiest, most ethereal, hair-raising, trance vibration. Just...wow!
i often disregard the image(s) of a video, especially a static one during a piece of music. but this one seems to fit so perfectly! the so-called "buddha-brot" fractal, with its endless hidden permutations, held me transfixed for nearly the entire length of the composition
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."
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
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.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
When I heard this in the movie, I went to my college music library and checked out the score. It's amazing to me that anyone could write it and that Kubric was smart enough to use it. How lucky we are to have people like this among us.
His wife was the smart one, she thought this would be perfect for Stanley's movie.
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...
That is interesting!
Maybe it'd work if he was Cage.
@@segmentsAndCurves LMFAO
Those idiotic audiences come just to clap and go. They sleep during the piece.
@@rusticagenerica And you are better than them, dear stranger?
@@segmentsAndCurves Do you know how to IQ of a large group compares to the IQ of an average individual?
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!...
L'ami, si tu lis ce commentaire 6 ans plus tard...
Ce que je trouve formidable ici c'est de faire naître des harmoniques là où elles ne sont pas évidentes.
Mais pourtant elles surgissent du néant, s'ajustent, s''équilibrent.
Tension, rétention, l'on touche ici à ce qu'il y a de plus beau et fondamental dans la musique.
It feels like I’m ascending into the heavens and descending into the abyss at the same time.
Exactly my feeling too.
Exactly!
We have a very limited little experience here on Earth. To truly see the vastness of the cosmos would be wondrous, but terrifying.
Existential horror is often beautiful and terrifying
So you are at earth
Classic FM plays this quite regularly, in another parallel universe.
👍🙂
Omg, that's exactly where I came from
DUDLEY MIDDLETON...
I think I’ve been to that parallel universe. 🖖🏻
@@Lavavy11
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.
as if witnessing an angel
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.
@@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.
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?
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.
This is one of my all time favourite pieces of music...utterly beautiful and mysterious
.....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.....
Yeah Ligeti / Kubrick was one of the strongest artistic ‘collaborations’ I’ve ever seen or heard
A Cappella Amsterdam is rendering a masterpiece to all of us. Tank you.
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.
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.
agreed !
@John Aldag In some way, don't the comments reflect the disparate reactions listeners have to the piece?
There is a thin line between genius and insanity.
@@randy5655 no there isn't. Stop romanticising mental illness, when mental illness ruins people's lives and is regarded medically and legally as a severe disability. It's never a good thing to be mentally ill, if you're an artist. The mental illness makes it _HARDER_ to create great art, not easier. Believe me. I have schizophrenia. And I'm a songwriter. When I'm ill I can't create anything at all. It's only when I recover again from an episode of psychosis that I can get back to writing.
@@randy5655 no there isn't. Stop romanticising mental illness, when mental illness ruins people's lives and is regarded medically and legally as a severe disability. It's never a good thing to be mentally ill, if you're an artist. The mental illness makes it _HARDER_ to create great art, not easier. Believe me. I have schizophrenia. And I'm a songwriter. When I'm ill I can't create anything at all. It's only when I recover again from an episode of psychosis that I can get back to writing.
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.
Really "angel" performance. Respect for choir A Cappella Amsterdam and Daniel Reuss... Chapeau bas!
Tim Buckley's STARSAILOR always reminds me of this piece.
I'm going to play this during my musical program for seniors today, Memorial Day 2022. For all fallen soldiers who led good lives.
This incredible piece is the main reason for "2001 - A Space Odyssee" being my favourite movie of all times.
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!
Yo la vi en 1970 también, tenía 12 años, y fue la primera película que vi solo..era la sala de cine más grande de mi ciudad, Zaragoza en España, y me sobrecogió esta grandiosa película…toda la escena con los coros de Liguety es alucinante…bueno toda esta gran película…también para mí es la película más grandiosa que he visto en mi vida…una obra eterna…una obra de arte que muestra la Nueva Humanidad y la Nueva Tierra…
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!!
And the feat of singing it and staying in tune in such chromatic dense lines is phenomenal!
Dreams made into music .
"irritated the piss out of me...and I loved it!"🤣Great reaction. I love mixed emotions too. Ever seen the movie Eraserhead?
You might like the English composer Jonathan Harvey's "Thou Mastering Me God", first one I thought of for disonnence.
Oh. Comment was 12 years ago.
So, how've you been? XD
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."
That was very helpful and informative. Thank you.
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.
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?
@@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.
hehe, cum...
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.
that line is so cold
This is probably the most “psychedelic” piece I’ve ever heard. Would love to get the sheet music on it!
I've seen it before. It is a sight to behold. lol
He must've been tripping on LSD when he wrote it!!
@@Timetraveller2208 I would think if you can write something like this
Drugs are completely a waste of time .
It's only holding you back .
Take a listen to his other pieces like "Atmospheres"
Simply wonderful. I don't have the words to describe what I feel when I listen to this.
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.
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.
This work, and "Lontano" have held unique positions in my all-time favorite 20th cent works - breathless, exquisite, everlasting. Ligeti is timeless.
Fantastic recording of a true masterpiece of the last century! Thank for uploading!
This is heavenly. It gives a slightest feeling of horror or uneasiness, but it is... beautiful. Almost too beautiful.
One of those rare works that conjures beauty out of dissonance.
There are countless beautiful dissonant works
Ever heard Thelonius Monk?
@Post Rock 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)
For me, unpredictable (dissonant) musical passages are often beautiful (why I find Tchaikovsky to be infinitely boring).
@@hlcepedaTchaikovsky is boring. As Vivaldi. Bach and Penderecky rocks.
'2001' is my favorite film and this piece was my favorite part of the film (Moonbus scene). A Fantastic Performance. Bravo!
...brilliant...a restrained unsettlingly depth...the very best of modern music.
this touches me deep in my heart and soul , it is one of the most beautyfull things i have ever heard
What a beautiful piece. Absolutely brilliant!
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.
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!
For me not scary, but it's spooky.
It's kinda eerie.
You have to imagine all the victims of the Holocaust crying out in pain, terror, confusion and despair.
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 ...
Krysystof Penderecki did the same thing with orchestral works. Visionaries indeed.
This is a great music to put at a party !
No. Anything but parties.
@@segmentsAndCurves yuo're a real serious man
@@leonesilva4996 I am not a man.
@@segmentsAndCurves something i appreciate
@@leonesilva4996 ok then.
Sehr eindrucksvoll und interessant! Schöne Stimmen!Ja,es gefällt mir sehr gut!
The tone clusters are so wonderful
I feel expansive...like i'm at the edge of a nebula witnessing a million years of the universe.
Still a mesmerizing work after all these years!
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.
forever, and wherever, what is left is silence.. A. Huxley
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.
Pamela Guedes The rest is silence -W. Shakespeare
Just don't click on another video until seven bars of time has passed. Problem solved.
+toothless toe I hadn't seen you in quite some time.
I think this is one of the most amazing pieces of music ever created!
I've always loved this piece, ever since I first saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" as a boy. Thanks for sharing it here.
This is peaceful and beautiful at the same time!!!
As a composer, this excites immensely disparate regions of my primordial self. Fantastic.
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
@@seanm.9942 something like the very fundament of your being
@@seanm.9942 I would say the limbic system.
@@seanm.9942 My skeleton is ready to hatch
@@shlecko brah
This is genius. This piece invokes so much different emotions at the same time.
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
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.
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?
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.
cool..., so what do you consider "hip"?
OssoPoderoso oh, there's so much hip shit going around man you just have to open your ears to find it
"My God... It's full of stars!"
am i the only one who got this reference?
@@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. 😄
@@larsadar1987 movie sequel?
@@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)
@@zetetick395 thanks for the reply 😊🙏
It's amazing how something that sounds so pretty is made up completely of dissonants. For those of you who don't know, dissonants will sound ugly unless you use them well and in a group. A dissonant on it's own will sound really bad. But when put together in just the right way you get things like this.
Cold and crystalline, borne of an angelic perfection. By the time anyone composes music better than Ligeti, music will be obsolete.
lol
Music for and from the Soul... a timeless masterpiece!
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.
Sublime is the only word I can find to describe this
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
I'm a "beautiful, ethereal, and transcendent" guy--see MKAETERNA comment--with a little eerieness or uncertainty thrown in . .
Biblique, dramatique et immense. Je voudrais m'identifier à cette musique. Une ancienne légende sacrée visitée par un génie contemporain. Mélangez avec le souffle de la plus majestueuse & sournoise Apocalypse. La désolation épique des anciens Dieux!
This is the voice of ice singing ... and such a beautiful voice she has as she sings through the winter ....
"When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy..."~Job 38:7
Listening to this on LSD in the dark gave me life altering effects. This is just so perfect.
+ClaylandStudios How it altered your life? I'd like to hear.
+Somerset Pete i assume u havent tried it.
+Teemu Kokkonen made me view voices and sound in a more deep way
i tried it for the first time and didn't think it was worth it
ClaylandStudios .... someone who uses LSD - to alter this experence must be a really weak person in any respekt.....
it is pure beauty! it is like what you hear when you put a seashell close to your ear. it sounds like the echo of the universe and human's soul
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."
Funny that Yog-Sothoth should be saying this.
I listened to it and didn't feel those emotions. You are, therefore, wrong.
exceptionnel. le plus difficile dans une interprétation étant de combiner richesse et lisibilité, celle ci est vraiment superbe de justesse et d'équilibre des masses, un joyau.
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.
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.
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.
***** 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...
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.
ich stimme mit Ihnen in allem. der Rest ist unmöglich zu entschieden, da wir Ligetis Gedanken nicht lesen können.
Tout ce qui nous entoure est une conséquence du renoncement et du chagrin. Les écrits et images sur des murs fissurés et des lucarnes murales qui font mal aux yeux représentent une vérité que personne bientôt ne lira, ni ne regardera plus ! Nous sommes entourés aujourd'hui de gouvernements de marionnettes aveuglés par d'autres croyances que nos simples désirs et aspirations .. Il nous reste la possibilité de nous décrasser avec cette musique mélancolique, noble et insouciante !! Merci Ô Noble Ligeti
20th century: first half --Bartok
2nd half Ligeti--this composition brings a new dimension to music--absolutely beautiful
I concur.
Herman Joseph what do you do about Maurice Ravel ? He was pretty neat
@@josephivernel2078 I think he is talking about completely atonal composers
Alejandro M. Bartok didn’t really compose atonal music though...
No. First half: Stravinsky/Schoenberg. Second half: Frank Zappa (😂)
Yours remains my favorite youtube version of this piece, both because of the performance by A Capella Amsterdam and because of the beautiful Buddhabrot image you selected to accompany it.
I would love to watch a moving Mandelbrot fractal zoom into this beautiful and ghostly "Buddhabrot" (who is the artist?) while listening to this Ligeti masterpiece, which is fractal in its own way.
My sense of Ligeti is that he took up the innovations of the 60s-80s musical avant-garde and made better and more expressive music out of the ideas than most of their originators did. Ligeti was a brilliant inventor, but he was a musician and humanist first. This is some of the greatest religious music of the 20th century, discovering a new way to express the spiritual. And to add to the chorus: terrific performance and perfect visual!
Fantastic sound. dynamic, colors, tune, a master pice.
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 :)
Thanks, Mattia. Video looks interesting - bookmarked for watching later.
@@finosuilleabhain7781 I’m happy if you watch it! Let me know what you think.
@@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 UA-cam 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
@@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
@@mattia.a_p That's great. I look forward to the Webern ... I hope it will be longer than his pieces. :o)
Fabulous. Impressing. Thank you very much for sharing this beauty.
If H.P. Lovecraft had a theme song, it would be this.
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.
or if 2001 A Space Odyssey had a theme song :D
So amazing this is produced only by the human voice- heard the Los Angeles Master Chorale perform it last year- mind boggling-ly beautiful!
Un chef d'œuvre ! À la réécoute, je suis toujours autant fasciné, subjugué par cette force mystérieuse qui s'en dégage !
La voz humana ! Uno queda conmocionado después de escuchar esto. Gracias !
This song perfectly encapsulates how I feel about space
That image is in perfect symmetry. I love it!
What an unusual mix of fear and relaxation i got from this piece, i can imagine death feeling a bit like that.
I'm creating a classical playlist for LSD experiences, and I can attest. I've heard a number of versions of this piece, and this Capella Amsterdam version is the best of any I can find - the trippiest, most ethereal, hair-raising, trance vibration. Just...wow!
drop the link!
Ohh, my goodness. Amazing. Listening along as I read the Edition Peters score. Mindblowing, and I'm a jaded choral singer....
Beautiful performance!
Good choice for the video!
Very special !!!
pretty and floating, beckoning the listener and then giving freedom
Beautiful! Thank you for posting.
Maravillosa composición.
I felt my life on Earth imploding. then I browsed into this celestial sound.life goes on.
This transcends words.
+Ivo Treszka I laughed
words transcend already
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.
...it even transcends butsecks too. So it transcends pain and laughter.
Heaven is hell
Incredible good. Might be the best interpretation i´ve heard so far.
This is a good rendition. I like the singers to use straight tone as it keeps the line cleaner and more elongated
i often disregard the image(s) of a video, especially a static one during a piece of music. but this one seems to fit so perfectly! the so-called "buddha-brot" fractal, with its endless hidden permutations, held me transfixed for nearly the entire length of the composition
This is the best recording/rendition of this piece I have ever heard. Sublime. 5:18 = Goosebump city.
Wonderful. Thank you a lot for this marvelous post
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."
Look up gravitational waves.
Brilliant performance! One of my favorite composers!
This is the real music of angels.
Beautiful. And I love the picture of the Cat Nebula
this is mindlblowing.
Breathtaking beauty. So pure and real.
Sublime and transcendant.
Музыка вечности во вселенной. Звук космоса. Это потрясающе. Светлая память маэстро.
This is freaking out my cat.
Same for my dogs. How can they understand something to the music?
Lovecraft loved cats.
Your cat probably had a close encounter with the Black Monolith
MY CAT IS TWITCHING
This is freaking me out as well.
I had a seizure once, while I was out I heard the most beautiful of possible music, and it sounded---nothing like this.
jungastein - What a story.
Go on, tell more
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
very well put!
I wonder if Ligeti was haunted by dreams of the concentration camps where his father and brother died.
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.
Now I'm hearing this differently.
So corruption?
its eternal , cosmic and very emotional. A truly masterwork that deserves more recognition
Fascinating beyond words.
the most beautiful lux aeterna of the world! spiritual experience!
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.
Fantastic work of music. this is brilliant.