Poème symphonique

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Poème symphonique is a 1962 composition by György Ligeti for one hundred mechanical metronomes. It was written during his brief acquaintance with the Fluxus movement.

Overview

The piece requires ten "performers", each one responsible for ten of the hundred metronomes. The metronomes are set up on the performance platform, and they are then all wound to their maximum extent and set to different speeds. Once they are all fully wound, there is a silence of two to six minutes, at the discretion of the conductor; then, at the conductor's signal, all of the metronomes are started as simultaneously as possible. The performers then leave the stage. As the metronomes wind down one after another and stop, periodicity becomes noticeable in the sound, and individual metronomes can be more clearly distinguished. The piece typically ends with just one metronome ticking alone for a few beats, followed by silence, and then the performers return to the stage.Template:Sfn

The controversy over the first performance was sufficient to cause Dutch Television to cancel a planned broadcast recorded two days earlier at an official reception at Hilversum's City Hall on 13 September 1963.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn "Instead, they showed a soccer game".Template:Sfn Ligeti regarded this work as a critique of the contemporary musical situation, continuing:

Poème symphonique was the last of Ligeti's event-scores, and marks the end of his brief relationship with Fluxus.Template:Sfn The piece has been recorded several times, but performed only occasionally.

References

Sources

• Drott, Eric Austin. 2004. "Ligeti in Fluxus". The Journal of Musicology 21 (Spring): 201–40.
• Ligeti, György. 1962. Poème Symphonique 1962 for 100 metronomes – score, translated by Eugene Hartzell. Fluxus Debris!@art/not art (accessed 18 August 2010).
• Ligeti, György. 1997. "Music-Making Machines", translated by Annelies McVoy and David Feurzeig. Booklet notes for Mechanical Music, 7–14. György Ligeti Edition 5. Sony Classical CD SK 62310. [New York]: Sony Classical.
• Morrison, Chris. 2012. "Poème symphonique, for 100 Metronomes, 10 Performers & 1 Conductor: Review". Answers.com (Accessed 26 January 2012).
• Nordwall, Ove. 1971. György Ligeti: Eine Monographie. Mainz: Schott.

Further reading

• Cone, Edward T. 1977. "One Hundred Metronomes". The American Scholar 46, no. 4 (Autumn): 443–59. Reprinted in Journal of Aesthetic Education 13, no. 1 (January 1979): 53–68. Also reprinted in Australian Journal of Music Education, no. 26 (April 1980): 19–24.
• Dibelius, Ulrich. 1980. "Maelzel, wenn er losgelassen". Hi-Fi Stereophonie 19:168–69.
• Ligeti, György. 1999. "Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes". Musical Opinion, no. 123 (Autumn): 56.