Ligeti, Escher, Brâncuși. From Muse to Music

CONFERENCE

The fourth edition of the Festival reflects Ligeti´s aesthetic passions beyond the confines of music. The composer was always susceptible to all things visual, so much so that his first sketches often took a graphic form. As he put it, 'I always imagine music visually, in many different colours'.

Ligeti spoke on numerous occasions about the influence Bosch, Brueghel, Cézanne, Dalí, Escher, Brâncuși, or fractal geometry had on his music. His oeuvre is deeply anchored in the realm of the visual and his musical vocabulary draws time and again from that of painting technique, even, in some cases, overtly referencing various visual works in the titles of pieces.

The conference organised in Cluj-Napoca (the city where the composer started to study music), brings together contributors from leading European and American universities, - welcoming Heinz-Otto Peitgen as keynote speaker - who seek to „draw” in concert the portrait of Ligeti as a passionate and avid lover of all the arts.

Details on the programme can be found on the Festival webpage: Ligeti Festival Transylvania - 4th edition | 2023 Conference Program.