Composer Gyorgy Ligeti Dies

One of the 20th century's most compelling and original voices, composer Gyorgy Ligeti died June 12 in Vienna at the age of 83. His passing came after a serious illness, but the exact cause was not disclosed.

Ligeti became better-known in the wider pop culture when some of his work appeared in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," including excerpts from his "Requiem," "Lux Aeterna" for chorus and "Atmospheres" for orchestra. "Atmospheres" in particular was a defining piece for the composer, packed with thick textures in a style that he dubbed "micropolyphony."

Ligeti's music was ever-resistant to easy classification, and his compositional voice reflected the turmoil of his own life and the wider backdrop of a chaotic Europe. Born in 1923 in Romania to Hungarian-Jewish parents, he lost his father and brother to Holocaust death camps; he himself survived forced labor. After World War II, he entered the Budapest Academy to study music. When the Soviet Union crushed Hungary's revolution of 1956, Ligeti fled and settled in Cologne, Germany. Three years later, he moved to Vienna and eventually became an Austrian citizen.

Using a broad palette was a conscious choice. As he put it, "I am an enemy of ideologies in the arts. Totalitarian regimes do not like dissonances." Ligeti's eclectic output ranged over an extraordinary array of aesthetic territory, such as in his "Poeme Symphonique," a witty 1962 piece scored for 100 metronomes; the surreal opera "Le Grand Macabre," which debuted in Sweden in 1978; the Balkan- and Gypsy music-inspired "Horn Trio" from 1982, which was an homage to Brahms' piece for the same configuration of French horn, violin and piano; and his "Etudes for Piano," a series begun in the 1980s that often evokes the polyrhythms of Central African drumming.

Ligeti's discography includes releases on Sony Classical, Teldec, Deutsche Grammophon, Wergo and BIS, among many other labels. He is survived by his wife, Vera, a psychologist; and son Lukas, a rising New York-based composer.