Post-Tonal Theory and Analysis
04 December 2023
The Capriccio movement of the Sonata for Solo Cello by György Ligeti effectively establishes a tonal center without setting the piece in any recognizable minor or major key. This brief but poignant movement is set in a rapid, presto con slancio tempo (meaning “fast with enthusiasm”). Despite writing 266 measures of music (1,500+ notes) the entirety of the movement flies by in just 4 minutes (Crawford).
In pieces composed to be performed at this speed, composers have historically avoided dense chromaticism in order to preserve easily recognizable tonality. For example, in the last movement of Haydn’s C major cello concerto, the tempo is wildly fast but it’s also triadic and the runs of scales are clearly major or minor. Similar techniques are found in many of the presto movements of western composers like Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, and many others. Chromaticism, especially when performed quickly, creates tonal ambiguity. Ligeti’s solo Cappricio movement stands out from these works by fully embracing the use of chromatic or “accidental” pitches yet it also establishes G as the tonal center. He consistently includes both major and minor harmonic intervals throughout the work but uses the pitch G as a foundation. Ligeti appears to be keenly aware of the gratifying nature of a tonal center, but also the dizzying, fantastical atmosphere created with excessive chromaticism. So he uses both.
Example 1:
Here in the opening of the piece we already find Ligeti establishing G as the tonal center. He includes an F#, the leading tone of a G major scale, along with the perfect fourth and fifth which would lead us to think that this movement will plainly be in G major but he doesn’t include the major third so it isn’t explicitly clear yet. Curiously, in the next phrase he includes a C# which is the raised fourth interval in the context of G major. This is not an unheard of interval to include in a piece set in a major key but it does certainly encourage more tonal ambiguity. In mm.5-9 Ligeti makes the tonality more uncertain by rapidly changing between the major and the minor seventh interval in the scale ( G to F#, then G to F♮). Remember, this major seventh (F#) was the only pitch that Ligeti had introduced thus far that would lead the listener to believe that the piece is in a major key. Thus, by removing its place with the addition of the F♮, he strays further into tonal uncertainty.
It’s important to note, however, that within the array of chromaticism, Ligeti never strays far enough to cause the listener to simply hear the piece as atonal. He repeatedly asks the cellist to repeat the tonal center pitch. This effect causes the listener to continue to search for cadences, and harmonic tension and resolution, regardless of the fact that there is no clear key.
See below example 2, this technique is continued in mm.162-173. Intervallically, there are many similarities to the opening- particularly in regards to the alternating seventh interval- however, C is used as the tonal center instead of G.
Example 2:
Ligeti dances around this new pitch center using B♭quickly followed by B♮and he once again avoids the third interval so the listener again cannot tell if there’s a major or minor key present at all. It sounds so close to a major or a minor key, but nothing quite fits. In example 3 (mm.166-167) he introduces a pattern that compliments this harmonic ambiguity brilliantly.
Example 3:
Here Ligeti is able to effectively introduce a new tonal center pitch using this sequence: root, major second, augmented fourth, perfect fifth (alternatively, 0,2,6,7). These are the first four notes displayed above: C, D, F#, G (tenor clef is used). You may notice that the first three pitches of this interval pattern is just a major-minor seventh chord with an omitted fifth, inverted (D, F#, C). This only further emphasizes Ligeti’s alternating major minor harmony pattern! He cleverly uses the major third in the inverted major-minor chord as a leading tone to the new tonal center. F# is the major third in the chord but is used as a leading tone to G.
The sequence (0,2,6,7) creates a seamless transition into the new tonal center because the augmented fourth to perfect fifth sounds slightly conclusive. In the presto speed, the augmented fourth to perfect fifth sounds more like a major seventh to the root than a third to a fourth. See example 3 m.166 above, the G appears to be the tonal center despite the fact that Ligeti just established C to fill this role four measures earlier! Again, he accomplishes this using root, major second, augmented fourth, perfect fifth (0,2,6,7). The “root” in this sequence is changed after each time the sequence is used, but the sequence itself doesn’t change. This same clever trick reappears only moments after in mm. 171-172.
Example 4:
In the newly established G tonal center Ligeti writes the sequence G, A, C#, D which once again takes us to a new center pitch. G, A, C# is an inverted major-minor seventh chord (without the fifth) and Ligeti uses the third in the chord (C#) as a leading tone to the new tonal center. It’s truly a dizzying effect. As we’ll see in example 5, the effect is only exacerbated by the addition of unexpectedly accented beats and drastic dynamics.
Example 5:
In this final example, Ligeti writes three fantastic examples of the prior compositional methods being broken down and deconstructed into thrilling chaos. Each sequence is a level more intense then the one that preceded it. In the first circled section above, a clear tonal center is already more challenging to spot than what we’ve seen from earlier examples. However, the F natural and F sharp sequence is very similar to what we heard in the opening. The D to C# and D C♮ moments allude to D being a sort of temporary center pitch but considering A is the lowest repeated note, it is, for the first time in this movement, very unclear where the tonal center is.
In the following circled example we hear almost identical pitches, just moved up an octave for a dramatic effect. There aren’t necessarily new ideas being presented, but the octave separation certainly adds to the excitement.
In the final measure, Ligeti drives home the disorienting nature of the movement by shocking the listener with a clear, pure major chord. And not just any major chord, but a G major chord which has the same tonal center pitch Ligeti had established in the opening measures! After a frenzied, crazed series of dissonant and chromatic pitches, shocking accents and an allargando repetition of G# to A, he writes a plain G major chord. Any listener would utterly lose track of where the home pitch is in all of the dissonance but he concludes the piece in G major. This is like an extreme Picardy third! Contextually, the major chord is more shocking than a cluster chord or a Tristan chord could be. We were, by this point, expecting dissonance, not consonance.
György Ligeti’s brilliant work in his solo cello sonata is certainly not going unnoticed in the classical world as its popularity and demand has only been increasing (Farrar). However, this piece is rich with detail and tonal complexity which often goes unnoticed. In these examples and many more throughout the work, Ligeti displays his compositional expertise by crafting a movement that perfectly balances the satisfaction of a tonal center with the unpredictable nature of chromatic tonality.
Ben Meitzen 