Hungarian Rock - Ligeti

CORRECTION - below is an organ version of Ligeti's piece for harpsichord -

What I love is the minimalism influence in the ostinato and its variants played over it while you have this fairly simple tuneful melody flying over and around it. And it still sounds like Ligeti.

Thanks Voce and SSC for the correction -

I think the original version for harpsichord should be heard as the timbre really shows the works pop roots (the accompaniment my god sounds like an Everly Brothers/early beatles riff gone slightly obsessive compulsive)

And yes Voce - transferring harpsichord works to organ present some difficulties because usually you have to vary much more the amount of notes to achieve dynamic and textural variance. So for the organist they have to work much harder at separating notes and phrasing as notes sustain much longer than on the harpsichord. You really hear the difference and its effect on the structure of the piece in the final cadence - on the harpsichord it just doesn't sound as conclusive due to the lower tessitura and voicing and registration, on the organ it sound much more convincing because the range the cadence falls still speaks clearly (and the registration is clearer) and it sustains much longer for you to hear the resolution. However, by doing this the piece loses some of the inconclusiveness and suspense the original for harpsichord version provides. in away, the organ version makles the work far tamer!

SSC - Thanks for pointing out how important it is to know the harpsichord was the original version. And you are correct - you cannot match the percussive (and rhythm guitar effect too!) on the organ. But it makes for a great toccata for organ.

And check the organ competition thread for the first part of the Ligeti organ work SSC mentioned.

the greatest hungarian composer in the xx. century. i'm proud :)

Some of the writing is very fancy shtufffffff, Ligeti being fairly virtuosic in his approach to the keyboard here.

(It's not really an organ piece btw. It's originally for harpsichord.)

Harpsichord original version FTW; a very important point of the piece is to emphasize the percussive character of the harpsichord which is entirely lost on the organ. For Ligeti actually writing for organ, check out Volumina.

Damn, I only head the organ version before. It sounds a lot better on harpsichord.