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Article: Gyorgy Ligeti's Music Was a Constant Surprise; Composer Who Refused to Be Categorized Put Unique Stamp on '2001: A Space Odyssey'
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 13, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Millions of people have heard the music of Gyorgy Ligeti,
although most wouldn't recognize -- or know how to pronounce --
his name.
The music of Ligeti (lig-it-tee, without an accent), who died
yesterday in Vienna at 83, was used to convey the eerie strangeness
of fresh discovery in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Although he did not write the so-called "2001 music" -- those 90
seconds of ultra-familiar grandeur taken from Richard Strauss's tone
poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra" -- the furious buzzing of Ligeti's
work for unaccompanied chorus, "Lux Aeterna," is the soundtrack for
several key scenes, and it is impossible to imagine the film without
it.
Another work used ...