György Ligeti (1923-2006) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential composers of the latter half of the twentieth century. Although not a writer of movie music, he is best known to the general public for the excerpts of his music used in movies, most famously the four of his compositions used in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 epic work 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Born in Transylvania, Romania into a Hungarian Jewish family, he was the grandnephew of the violinist Leopold Auer and cousin of Hungarian philosopher Ágnes Heller. He received his initial musical training at the conservatory in Cluj and graduated in 1949 from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 1949. Due to the repressive political and cultural climate in Hungary at that time, he emigrated to Austria in 1956 and became an Austrian citizen in 1968.
One of Ligeti's most notable compositions, and what is considered by some to be one of the greatest works of the 20th century, is his five-movement Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which he completed in 1993 after four years of effort. It is characterized by an extreme complexity, with a rapidly-moving mixture of avant-garde and traditional styles and techniques. A key to this unique collage, and in sharp contrast to traditional violin concerti, which employ minimal percussion, is the use of a great variety of percussive instruments, including timpani, bass drum, cymbals, gong, crotales, woodblocks, tambourine, snare drum, whip, tamtam, swanee whistles, glockenspiel, vibraphone, tubular bells, marimbaphone and xylophone. Ligeti's five-movement Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1988) likewise makes use of an extensive array of percussion instruments.
Ligeti's only opera, the controversial, two-act Le Grand Macabre [The Great Macabre], premiered in 1978 and was revised in 1996. Aptly described as a work of Theatre of the Absurd, it dispenses with any pretense at realism and instead is mostly a parody of its ridiculous —and frequently horrific — nature. His dramatic and very non-traditional style seems well suited to both the action and the libretto.
Lux Aeterna [Eternal Light] (1966) is a 16-part mixed choir which is best known for its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It employs some of Ligeti's characteristic techniques, including an emphasis on timbre rather than melody, rhythm and harmony as well as the use of cluster chords and micropolyphony.