The Musical Timespace
130
Flow, expansion and emotion
Continuum - An expanding flow of timbral-harmonic colors
In
Ligeti's Continuum for harpsichord (1968), the soundspace is gradually
filled with streams of pulsating timbre, vibrating and rotating in transitory
rhythmic and melodic patterns, leading to an wide expansion of the
range of the soundspace.
Continuum is recorded by Elisabeth Chojnacka on a Wergo CD. This is adescription of the evolution of the music;
Ligeti: Continuum
0'00 A sharply attacked trill on a minor third suddenly emerges, 0'11
color is added, 0'20 the trill grows into a pulsating tone web, 0'33
changes color in rotating motion, 0'39 gradually receding in a simple
trill...
0'55 Distinct pulse and harmonic color is added, 1'04 arpeggio patterns
are set in motion, 1'11 the arpeggio spreads, rotates and adopts more
complex colors while irregular rhytmic patterns emerge...1'32 A clear harmony stands out, pulsates, 1'37 develops into a
gradually thickening web, 1'52 is divided in two rotating streams, one
rising, the other one falling, spreading wide apart, 2'09 the sounds-
treams are set in energetic oscillation, 2'19 erupting in large and violent
space-filling vibration, 2'26 again dividing in a high and a low stream,
spreading apart...2'45 The low stream stops, leaving reverberation, the high stream conti-
nues in a trill, 2'51 rises, 2'54 thickens, 3'14 ascends higher and higher,
slightly accelerating, 3'32 is concentrated in a thin line of vibrating
energy, 3'39 is focused in one frenetically repeated high tone accompa-
nied by pulsating keyboard noise, 3'54 stops, reverberates, 3'56 disap-
pears.This music is a flow of sound in continuous transformation. The fast, inces-
sant stream of even notes creates auditory illusions of emerging rhythmic
patterns, transient melodic lines and fluctuating timbral-harmonic colors.
Fig. 7.4 shows the first page of the notated music, corresponding to 0'00-0'28 in the recording. Ligeti gives this instruction to the performer;