György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time".
Born in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating to Austria in 1956, and became an Austrian citizen in 1968. In 1973 he became professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater until he retired in 1989. He died in Vienna in 2006.
Restricted by the authorities of Communist Hungary, only when he reached the west in 1956 could he fully realise his passion for avant-garde music and develop new compositional techniques. After experimenting with electronic music in Cologne, his breakthrough came with orchestral works such as Atmosphères, for which he used a technique he later dubbed micropolyphony. After writing his "anti-opera" Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti shifted away from chromaticism and towards polyrhythm for his later works.
Ligeti is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with the surname include:
Longing for the schoolyard
Reaching for the scenes
Reminded by the songs that will never disappear
Random like the infants
Outdated like the old
Lying there in aimlessness listening to the cure
Doing some rehearsal
Excercising in the cold
Lowering the standart
For the six-string never rolled
Whistling at the girls
And saving for the fuel
Making plans and knock, knock, knock on wood
Play some rock
Play some rock
Please don't stop
Coming home, coming home(x2)
Sentenced by our faults
That we were to make in time
Pleasently aware
Of our solitude in mind
Saved me from the boredom
Of what we disavowed
Encouraged by the sound
That was the sweetest one of all
Admiring your senses
Infected by your tongue
Defenceless I believed
That we'd face anything to come
You innocently told me
You'd catch me when I fall
And solemnly we'd knock, knock, knock on wood
Play some rock
Play some rock
Please don't stop
Coming home, coming home(X2)
I'm not the only one, I'm not the only one...
Play some rock
Play some rock
Please don't stop