Society for Music Theory

Signification of Parody and the Grotesque in Gyrgy Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre

Author(s): Yayoi Uno Everett
Source: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 26-56
Published by: {oupl} on behalf of the Society for Music Theory
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/mts.2009.31.1.26
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Signification of Parody and the Grotesque in Gyrgy

Ligetis Le Grand Macabre
yayoi uno everett
Fashioned as an anti-opera, Ligeti conceived the music for Le Grand Macabre as a kind of pop
art, filled with quotations and references to opera and other preexisting musical genres.
Examining the operas thematic connections with the original play by Michel de Ghelderode and
Mikhail Bakhtins concept of grotesque realism, I suggest that Ligetis parodic approach in this
opera is governed by two narrative trajectories: the grotesque and existential irony. Drawing on
writings by Robert Hatten, Linda Hutcheon, and Esti Sheinberg, this paper develops semiotic
constructs of mapping, troping, and/or reversal in determining the parodic procedures invoked. I
argue that, through such procedures, Ligeti engages with musical parody at two levels: the surface
level at which quotation of existing music and musical styles are transformed and the global level
at which an expressive opposition between ludicrousness and horror is established in articulating
the grotesque trope. Furthermore, through deployment of collage and textural disintegration,
Ligeti creates an aural counterpart to the allegorical depiction of chaos, destruction, and renewal
found in Breughels Triumph of Death.
Keywords: Gyrgy Ligeti, Michel de Ghelderode, Mikhail Bakhtin, Robert Hatten, Linda
Hutcheon, James Liszka, Esti Sheinberg, parody, grotesque, opera, type, topic, trope, micropolyphony, allusion, existential irony, transvaluation

n composing his first and only opera entitled

Le Grand Macabre (1977; revised 1996, hereafter
abbreviated LGM), Gyrgy Ligeti remarked: I
cannot, will not compose a traditional opera; for me the operatic genre is irrelevant todayit belongs to a historical
period utterly different from the present compositional situation (quoted in Lie 2004, vii). While LGMs immense
popularity derives from the seemingly comical aspects of
parody that extend the tradition of opera buffa, it neither

I extend my gratitude to Daphne Leong, Kevin Karnes, and Robert

Hatten for their suggestions and comments in shaping this article.

resorts to a gimmicky satire nor treats operatic conventions

with nostalgia. Intrigued by the composers polemical
stance against traditional opera, critics and scholars have
brought different aesthetic considerations to bear in debating
its significance. Paul Griffiths notes that LGM, like Clocks
and Clouds (1973) and San Francisco Polyphony (1974), came
out of the myriad influences in the early 70s that marked
Ligetis first move away from serial orthodoxy (The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd ed, s.v.,
Ligeti). Richard Toop calls LGM an anti-opera and a
kind of pop art, filled with quotations and references to operatic genres from the past, but their quality is mainly ironic
rather than nostalgic (1999, 163). Furthermore, Thomas

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

May describes the works sonic palette as Rabelaisian, becoming quite visceral in its extremities of contrast, range,
volume, and sound color, as well as the call for over-the-top
virtuosity (2004, iv).
Ligetis deployment of parody and collage in LGM resists
easy categorization because of the vast array of procedures by
which he transforms historical models, often appropriating
styles associated with operatic conventions only to subvert
them. To label LGM a work of postmodern pastiche, celebrating plurality for its own sake, however, trivializes the
richness and complexity of references that underlie it.
Reflecting on the Zeitgeist of late 1960s, many avant-garde
composers adopted parodic strategies as a form of social critique or commentary. In this respect, Ligeti shares an ideological vantage point with composers such as Peter Maxwell
Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, and Mauricio Kagel, who
adopted quotation and collage techniques with the intent
to subvert musical conventions, including the avant-garde
trends associated with the Darmstadt school.1 Catherine
Losada discusses how such works that incorporate quotations and collage constitute both a response to and an outgrowth of the serial practices and provides a useful taxonomy of postwar compositions based on the diverse principles
and motivations that underlie the adoption of collage technique (2004, 19). Given the nine categories of musical borrowing Losada offers with regard to postwar art music, the
work loosely fits into one in which collage is used as a
metaphor for an aesthetic and whereby the conceptual incorporation of different styles of music overrides the significance of the individual quotations (21). Yet what is the
meta-musical concept that governs Ligetis approach to
1

In dramatic works like Bernd A. Zimmermanns Die Soldaten (1965),

Harrison Birtwistles Punch and Judy (1967), Maxwell Daviess
Resurrection (1963), or Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969), composers
used parodic strategies in part to supplant the purity of a modernist
aesthetics, while channeling the avant-gardes power of provocation in
formulating a social commentary or critique.

27

musical parody in this opera? What gives the production of

this opera its visceral, Rabelaisian edge? In what sense does it
constitute an anti-opera?
In light of such questions, the present analysis of LGM
seeks to unveil the works narrative and meta-musical implications in relation to Ligetis parodic strategies for recasting
borrowed musical styles and quotations. Examining the
operas thematic connections with the original play by Michel
de Ghelderode and Mikhail Bahktins concept of grotesque realism, I will suggest that Ligetis parodic approach in this
opera is governed by two narrative trajectories: the grotesque
and existential irony. While many other contemporaneous operas utilize similar parodic techniques to satirize musical conventions, LGM is unique in synthesizing text, images, and
sound toward articulating an overarching trope of the
grotesque, combined with surrealist and absurdist aesthetics.
Furthermore, in theorizing about the narrative trajectories
and musical parody as a marked form of intertextual reference,
I draw on writings by Linda Hutcheon, Robert Hatten, and
Esti Sheinberg.
i. on the narrative implication of the grotesque
From a dramaturgical point of view, LGM presents a
mixture of medieval morality play and absurdist theater, resulting in a curious hybrid of parody and profundity, of
comedy and horror (Lie 2004, vii). The libretto is based on
the Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderodes La Balade du
grand macabre (1934), which depicts the coming of the apocalypse in the fictional Breughelland. As a baroque parable on
the intertwined fortunes of politics and sex, the story revolves around farcical characters that include the evil tyrant
Nekrozotar, young lovers Jadis and Flandre, astrologer
Videbolle, his wife Salivaine, drunkard Proprenaz, and
prince Goulave. Nekrozotar elicits both fear and laughter as
the citizens of Breughelland respond to his announcement of
the apocalypse with sheer indifference, indulgence, or panic.
In the end, life triumphs over death as the impending crisis

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

is avoided and the evil characters (Salivaine and Nekrozotar)

are duly punished; the play concludes with a pantheistic celebration of the regenerative cycle of life (Decock 1969, 116).
As early as in 1965, Ligeti brainstormed ideas for composing an opera, having received a commission from then director of the Stockholm opera, Gran Gentele. After a failed
attempt to compose an opera that parodies Stravinskys
Oedipus Rex, he found inspiration for an operatic libretto in
Ghelderodes play in 1972 (Sewell 2006, 7). For the opera,
the names of the inhabitants were modified to Nekrotzar
(Nekro + tzar), a peasant named Piet the Pot, young lovers
Amando and Amanda, court astrologer Astradamors, his
menacing wife Mescalina, Prince Go Go, the goddess Venus,
and secret police Gepopo.2 Piet the Pot, a buffoon servant
character in commedia dellarte, is adapted from another
Ghelderode character named Piet Bouteille. The addition of
Venus is an homage to Baroque operatic convention, while
the half-bird, half-woman concoction of Gepopo came about
through Ligetis interest in surrealism and the absurdist theater. Unlike the villainess Salivaine who lives to be punished,
Mescalina falls in love with Nekrotzar and expires in his
arms. While substantially cutting back the text from the original play, Ligeti inserted dialogues based on slapstick humor,
Gepopos comical arias, St. Johns Passion, among other texts,
to keep the burlesque and the tragic in balance.3 Amanda
Sewell argues that the most important deviation from the
original play is found in the conclusion; instead of revealing
Nekrotzar as nothing more than a charlatan, Ligeti introduces ambiguity by allowing the audience to decide whether
Nekrotzar is Death or fraud and whether the apocalypse ultimately takes place or not in the final scene (2006, 12).

2
3

In the first version of LGM, the lovers names were Clitoria and
Spermando (Kostakeva 1996, 161).
Von Seherr-Thoss (1998) provides a detailed comparison of the contents of the original play by Ghelderode and the libretto for the first
edition of LGM (14445).

The operative narrative articulates principles central to

Mikhail Bakhtins notion of grotesque realism in several important respects. According to Bakhtin, the essential principle of
the grotesque originates in the idea of degradation central to
the culture of folk humor in the Middle Ages: the lowering
of all that is high, spiritual, ideal, [and] abstract; it is a transfer to the material level, to the sphere of earth and body in
their indissoluble unity (1984, 1920). Bakhtin further argues that the Renaissance writers interest in the material
bodily principle or the rehabilitation of the flesh emerged
as a reaction against the asceticism of the Middle Ages; the
material bodily principle is contained not in the biological
individual, not in the bourgeois ego, but in the people, a people who are continually growing and renewed. This is why all
that is bodily becomes grandiose, exaggerated, immeasurable (19). In this respect, Bakhtin credits the French
Renaissance writer Franois Rabelais for foregrounding the
importance of the material body as a triumphant, festive
principle and uniting the cosmic, social, and bodily elements as an indivisible whole; for example, in Rabelaiss popular novel Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532), grotesque figures of giants derived from popular-festive carnival images
are interwoven with cosmic phenomena in celebrating the
theme of death, renewal, and fertility (328).
From another perspective, the painting entitled The
Truimph of Death (1562) by the Dutch Renaissance artist,
Breughel the Elder, captures the ideas fundamental to
grotesque realism. At first glance, the graphic scenes of terror
may haunt the modern viewer as a horrifying vision of the
apocalypse. In the painting, which depicts a battle scene,
skeletal legions swarm across the landscape, while ordinary
mortals commit desperate acts in confrontation with death:
people flee into a tunnel decorated with crosses while a
skeleton on horseback slaughters them with a scythe; a starving dog nibbles at the face of a child; the pious pray for salvation; and royal figures, including a court jester and Arcadian
lovers, marvel at this phenomenon in sheer disbelief. Yet from
the Renaissance perspective on grotesque realism, the painting

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

assumes a positive characteristic in celebrating the regeneration of life through death: all values, thoughts, phenomena,
and objects are brought together to break down the barriers
that separate the living from the dead.
Given Ligetis lifelong interest in the visual arts, it is
hardly surprising that the apocalyptic scene depicted in
Breughels painting provided the creative impetus for LGM.
Ligeti comments: I have always been fascinated by the idea
of hell and scenes of the Last Judgment. I am thinking of
Breughel and especially of Bosch, whose paintings present a
mixture of fear and grotesque humor (Vrnai 1983, 46).4
Since its 1978 premiere in Stockholm by Opra Royal, the
stage productions of LGMthirty-one in allincorporated
aspects of grotesque humor, absurdist theater, and surrealism
in depicting the imaginary Breughelland to different ends.
Especially controversial was Peter Sellers 1997 production
of LGM in Salzburg, which Ligeti found disturbing due to
the explicit depiction of the apocalypse set in Chernobyl that
detracted from his desire for ambiguity (Sewell 2006, 45). In
the early 80s, Ligeti remarked that only one production had
come close to what he had imagined, namely, the 1979 production in Bologna, which captured the true spirit of the
work as a demonical romp, a great extravaganza (Vrnai
1983,113).
The ensuing analysis of LGM focuses on the revised
score from 1996, in which Ligeti further reinforces his ideas
for ambivalence, absurdism, and the sublime through simplified text setting, minimized spoken dialogue, and revised instrumentation for greater transparency of sound (Von
Seherr-Thoss 1998, 36264). In applying semiotic constructs for analysis, I argue that Ligeti engages with musical
parody at two levels: the surface level at which he transforms
and subverts quotation of existing music and musical styles
and the global level at which he articulates the trope of the
4

In 1961, Ligeti saw Breughels Triumph of Death and Boschs

Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado and they influenced his
Requiem (Lie, vii).

29

grotesque through establishing an expressive opposition between ludicrousness and horror.5 Furthermore, Ligeti builds
dramatic tension by developing textural strategies of collage
and disintegration in lieu of a traditional ensemble ending.
In such contexts, parody and other forms of imitation serve
as the central means by which the composer creates an aural
counterpart to the allegorical depiction of chaos, destruction,
and renewal found in Breughels Triumph of Death.
ii. semiotics, parody, and the
context of enunciation
Before proceeding to the analysis of LGM, I will begin
with a brief summary of semiotic concepts relevant for
analysis. Building on Charles Peirces semiotic theory,
Hatten defines type as a conceptual category defined by features or a range of qualities that are essential to its identity,
while token presents the perceptible entity that embodies
the features or qualities of the type (1994, 4445). Topics are
patches of music that trigger clear associations with styles,
genres, and expressive meanings (2005, 2); tokens that define each topic are constrained by a narrow range of gestures,
such as a descending chromatic bass line in a minor key that
signifies the lament topic. So, for instance, E major is a
token of the general key type, yet as a token of a symbol for
Masonic unity in Mozarts Magic Flute, it gains a more specific topical meaning. Although defined by convention, topics are not restricted to historically established ones; Ligetis
signature style of sound mass texture, used repeatedly in
the context of LGM as an iconic or onomatopoeic representation of the approaching comet, can be interpreted as an
iconic topic that emerges through contextual reinforcement.
And all instances of musical borrowing based on direct or
stylistic quotation constitute indexical types or topics because
5

Ludicrous differs from comical in referring to a situation that is amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration
or eccentricity (Babcock 1993, 1344).

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

they reference existing ones in the musical literature

(Monelle 2006, 28). Lastly, Hatten explains how a trope
emerges from a clear juxtaposition of contradictory, or previously unrelated, types and that there must be evidence
from a higher level to support a tropological interpretation
(2004, 217). In the libretto, even the naming of characters in
Brueghelland derives from the troping of familiar words:
Nekrotzar merges the idea of a tyrant (tzar) with the underworld suggested by nekro (dead); Gepopo combines the
evil connotation of Gestapo (secret police) with Popo
an oblique reference to the half bird, half man character
Papageno from the Magic Flute, and so forth. A musical
trope, likewise, opens up room for a creative synthesis of topics by strategically combining stylistically incongruous elements.6 Hatten describes how the Turkish march used to
embellish the Ode to Joy theme in the finale to Beethovens
Ninth Symphony creates an all embracing trope, in which
topics that represent high and low styles are fused to connote the brotherhood of all men (1994, 84). Applied to the
thematic, formal, and genre levels, Hatten describes troping
as a technique that constitutes one of the more spectacular
ways that composers can create new meanings (2006, 68).
Now, when a composer parodies a style from the past,
the quoted material or its referent7 is marked or highlighted
in a way that differs from other forms of musical imitation.
And here I invoke Michael Shapiros concept of markedness
that establishes a valuative relation between two terms based
on asymmetry, in which the marked term is distinguished

The technique of troping here overlaps with what Martha Hyde calls
an eclectic or exploitative type of imitation, where past styles are combined with contemporary techniques to yield a brilliant manipulation
of the new and old (2003, 102). Hyde offers four categories of imitative strategies (reverential, eclectic, heuristic, and dialectical) in reference to Stravinskys neoclassical works.
In Charles Peirces semiotic theory, the referent or object is what the
sign stands for. Referents can include ideas, events, and material objects and in the present context refers to the parodied musical element.

from the unmarked one on the basis of degree of specification or determinacy (1983, 79). Rather than restricting the
valuative relation, as in a privative opposition (A vs. non-A),
it can be based on equipollent opposition (A vs. B), in which
one term is often evaluatively dominant than the other
(Battistella 1990, 33). So, for instance, the English usage of
woman and man shares this valuative relation, with the
former constituting the marked term (due to the degree of
specificity attributed to the term woman) and the latter unmarked (since man can be used as a generic term for both).
By extension, musical parody and intertextual reference8
share this valuative relation; parody is construed as a marked
reference that involves the composers deliberate reworking
of a borrowed material or style and elicits a concrete identification by educated listeners (e.g., thats a twisted quotation of Wagners desire leitmotif!), while an intertextual
reference is unmarked and elicits a less determinate range
of semantic reference from the listener (e.g., it sounds like a
passage from Die Walkre).
Furthermore, my usage of parody here overlaps with
Christopher Reynoldss term allusion, which he defines as an
intentional reference to another work made by means of a resemblance that affects the meaning conveyed to those who
recognize it (2003, 6). The difference is that Reynolds uses
allusion to refer primarily to motivic, rhythmic, and textual
appropriations in nineteenth-century music, be it the assimilative process by which Schumann alludes to Beethovens
song cycle An die ferne Geliebte in his piano work or the contrastive process by which a song by Mendelssohn serves as a
model for Schumanns Vogel als Prophet (80). The original
model serves as an intertextual reference to the new context,
8

While Julie Kristeva and Roland Barthes treat intertextuality as a

modality of perception where the reader is free to associate texts at
random (Kristeva 1980, 15), Michael Klein draws a distinction between poietic (authorly intention) and esthesic (readerly response) forms
of intertextuality (2005, 12). The present context refers to the esthesic
form.

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

Original context

31

New context

Sign system:

transcontextualization

(R = referent)

(I = interpretant)

negation or reversal
I

example 1. Parodic context of enunciation

but typically in an unmarked, neutral sense. Following
Hutcheon, I argue that parody in postwar twentieth-century
music presents a more pronounced form of doubled-voiced
utterance, in which the semantic reference of the original
quotation is set in sharp relief from its surrounding musical
context. Often through exaggeration and distortion, its
meaning is twisted or turned inside out. Ligeti comments
with regard to composing LGM: I take bits of music or signals, put them in an unfamiliar context, distort them, not
necessarily making them sound humorous but interpreting
them through distortion just as a surrealist painting presents
the world (Vrnai 1983, 59).
In this respect, Hutcheon offers important criteria for
formalizing the semantic structure of parody, which she defines as a form of artistic recycling accompanied by complex
forms of trans-contextualization and inversion in reference
to twentieth-century art forms (1985, 15). She also defines
ethosan inferred intended reaction motivated by the
textas an integral factor that determines whether parody

is accompanied by a playful, satirical, or ironic intent (55). In

introducing the concept of ethos, Hutcheon emphasizes the
viewers active role in decoding the artists underlying intention. In extending her theory to the enunciation of musical
parody, Example 1 presents a diagram that illustrates how
the object of a musical sign becomes trans-contextualized
when transplanted into a new context.9 As shown by the arrows, the change in context transforms the sign-interpretant
of the object.10 As a syntactical and rhetorical sign, parody
acquires either a marked ethos, satirical or ironic, when the
sign-interpretant of its referent (I) undergoes topical reversal
or negation (I). For example, in speech, Jack is a REAL
9
10

The diagram builds on the model introduced by Sheinberg to illustrate

the structure of parody (152).
For Peirce, the concept of meaning is simply defined as the actual effect
of a sign (its interpretant), that is, the direct feeling (emotional), physical reaction (energetic), or language-based concept (sign-interpretant)
inspired in the perceiver by a musical sign (Turino, 224).

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

x


    




  
    


         



   

Cdez

a Tempo

 avec une grand motion         

    





    
 
 


  


 




       


 

 

x'

           



 

 
 

Cdez




y'
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x = desire leitmotif a <A F E D > from Wagners Tristan und Isolde

y = ridiculing gesture

example 2. Quotation of Wagner in Debussys Golliwogs Cakewalk

tiger, enunciated with a deliberate roll of the eye and satirical

tone of voice, conveys the reversal of the literal message
that Jack is not at all aggressive like a tiger, that he is a coward (sign-interpretant). In this case, it is the mode of delivery
that transforms the aggressive connotation (the ground)
associated with the referent tiger from affirmation to
negation.
In musical contexts, the negation or reversal can likewise
be achieved through rhetorical and/or syntactical manipulation (Everett 2004).11 For example, when Debussy quotes
the desire leitmotif from Tristan und Isolde in Golliwogs
Cakewalk, I argue that he distorts the borrowed referent
through incongruous juxtaposition. As shown in Example 2,
first, he extracts the ascending minor sixth motive and exaggerates the sentiment (avec une grande motion), and then
he juxtaposes this quotation with the grace-note figuration
that mocks the serious affect of Wagners music. By embedding the operatic leitmotif within the genre of ragtime,
11

In a previous article in Music Theory Online (2004), I introduce three

constructs (paradigmatic substitution, incongruous juxtaposition, and
progressive decontextualization) that induce satiric ethos locally or
ironic ethos at broader metaphoric levels of interpretation.

Debussy blurs the presumed boundary between highbrow

and lowbrow music. Thus while the affect of desire is associated with the borrowed motif, the changes in musical context brought on by its juxtaposition with the mocking
motif, exaggerated expressive indication, and formal context
of ragtime negate the sign-interpretant of desire by trivializing it. According to Sheinberg, Debussy creates an aesthetic distance, a double outlook which is, simultaneously,
satirizing and self-satirizing (2000, 144). And it is the implicit recognition of the original context of enunciation
e.g., the tragic connotation of the desire motif in Wagners
Tristan und Isoldethat enables the listener to recognize
that the sign-interpretant of the original leitmotif has been
subverted.
Expanding on Hattens framework, Example 3 presents
my classification of three types of parodic procedures: mapping, troping, and reversal. They are often used in combination with one another and involve a type or topic as referent.
Mapping refers to the basic procedure of correlating a particular character or situation with a distinctive stylistic type or
topic, troping to juxtaposing or superimposing incongruous
topics and types for creative synthesis, and reversal to negating
the topical referent of a given quotation through distorting

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

Syntactic:

Mapping
of topic/type

Troping
of topic/type

Reversal
of topic

substitution
exaggeration

juxtaposition
superimposition

distortion

Ethos:

Playful

Expressive
States:

Ludicrousness

33

Satirical

Semantic:
:

Horror

Trope of the Grotesque

(Absurdist Aesthetics)
example 3. Parodic Procedures in Le Grand Macabre. Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre.

its syntactical attributes. In the context of LGM, these syntactical procedures map onto two semantic components: a
parodic ethos that ranges from playful to satirical along a
continuum and an expressive state that signifies ludicrousness or horror.
On a broader level, the tropological reading of the
grotesque emerges through two interrelated textural strategies in LGM. First, Ligeti builds the ensemble texture in
each scene by combining procedures of mapping, troping,
and/or reversal into a multi-layered collage. By incorporating
incongruous musical types and topics into a collage that
gradually increases in textural density, Ligeti effectively blurs
the boundary between the ludicrous and horrifying expressive states. Second, he disintegrates a given musical texture
through fragmentation and distortion. In LGM, Ligeti
gradually transforms the vocal utterances or instrumental
collage to a point of total disintegration in order to accentuate the expressive state of horror. Sheinberg finds precedence
for both procedures in Dmitri Shostakovich in his early

opera called The Nose (192728); in this operatic adaptation

of Gogols novel, in which a government official loses his
nose, Shostakovich depicts a number of scenes where individual voices gradually accumulate in textural density into a
cacophonic whole. Sheinberg comments: when a chaotic
multitude of accumulated voices mingles into an indecipherable noise of a horrifying and dangerous mob, the crowdtexture conveys a grotesque picture (2000, 278). Similarly,
Ligeti offers extensive passages in which the citizens plea for
help from the impending disaster builds in density where the
initially homophonic choral utterance disintegrates into a cacophonic outcry (Scene III, rehearsal 377). In the course of
such a transformation, the initially harmless crowd turns into
a dangerous mob. While the first strategy articulates the
grotesque trope via blurring the boundaries between the ludicrous and horrifying expressive states through textural accumulation, the second articulates a definitive shift in expressive state from the ludicrous to the horrifying via
distortion and fragmentation.

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

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  4 ###   
# 

with verve, but slovenly

Mescalina drinks and soon becomes tipsy.

sit,

  

 
sis

ter

 espr.

Ve


-

nus!

  

 ##   
# 
#

  

    

  
  
Org.

 


 ##   
#   
#


  

  



 

 


 ##  
#   
#

 
   

tutta la forza

 

# 
#  
#   
#

   


    


Vln.
Vla.
Vlc.

sul tasto

34

  
     

 


[D  , G  ]

[F  , G, G  , B, D] [B, C, D  , F, G ]

example 4. Mescalinas call for Venus (Scene II, r.187). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
iii. parodic strategies in lgm:
mapping, troping, and reversal
I will now illustrate the diverse contexts in which Ligeti
deploys different parodic procedures within LGM. Under
the category of parody via mapping, Ligeti pays homage to
operatic conventions by assigning distinctive stylistic or timbral idioms to typecast the main characters. Example 4 presents the passage from Scene II where the menacing but
lovelorn Mescalina summons Venus for help in finding her a
virile mate. Here the comedic features of the two characters
are set into sharp relief through the basic procedure of mapping contrastive timbres and stylistic idioms. First, the
arpeggiation of the open fifth interval, GD, on the harp

and clavichord signifies the benevolent spirit of the goddess

of love, whom Mescalina cries out to. Mescalina begins her
drunken aria on G, although her erratic vocal line is punctuated by a succession of dissonant string and organ clusters
on Venus; the abrupt shift in timbre and the deformation
of the perfect fifth to tritones in the cluster chords [F, G,
G, B, D] and [B, C, D, F, G] convey Mescalinas greedy
disposition. In the subsequent musical passage where
Mescalina calls out for Venus, a melody played by oboe
damore mimics the housekeepers yearning for a virile man
(rehearsal 192). When Venus finally appears, her otherworldly presence is underscored by the high soprano range
and vocal contour based on oscillating thirds (rehearsal 217).
In alluding to the fairy scene from Verdis Falstaff, Venus is

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

Amanda

9  tenuto poco cresc. 


( &*
   
 '
O

Amando

) & '

poco cresc.



Ada.

18


 &


) &

dar


 



  

   

   

cr

pc

       /

 &  
,
    
     
&
/

,-


Cel.

 

As






marb

etc.

  

le

 


white

 


neath hea - vens




    +        

e




  


  

43 

sempre legato



ling!

pe

ling!

   

dar

   


43

poco cresc.

my

er

Ado.

        

my

 tenuto

poco cresc.

35

    +        

c

        /


,
    
     
/
,-

 

[C, C  , D, F, F  , A]

  


 

  

c

        /


,
    
     
/
,-

text: So let us in our bliss together perish. . . . (ornamentation applies to underlined text).

example 5. Amanda/Amando duet (Scene I, r. 9/18). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
accompanied by a female chorus, placed off stage, providing
a direct echo of every phrase she sings (rehearsal 214225).
Example 5 illustrates a parodic strategy via troping of stylistic types from the lovers duet in Scene I. Amanda and
Amando sing about the enduring quality of love, projected
against Nekrotzars omen of the impending catastrophe.

Strings initially accompany the enchanting duet with sustained harmonics; as shown at rehearsal 9, the vocal parts
move within an expanding chromatic wedge in rhythmic unison. Later in this duet (rehearsal 18), their vocal texture appropriates a Baroque form of ornamentation on the word
perish, harmonized in parallel thirds and accompanied by a

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36

music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

a tempo

$ = 132


34  


Piet
the Pot

lunga

*


24 

Di

sub 

 
o,



gol

 

es i

   


 


1 

sudden outburst

4
     

   4    
5
fill

la

all your child- ren with de light!

 

4
 2
3

 

4

nev

5


diminuendo




 44            


solv - vet sae - clum

sub  dim.

 

24 

 

that

subito poco pi mosso

sub

es il

den Breu ghel - land

$ = 132

care,

di

 

he drinks

poco pi mosso

3
 4  

43 

rae,

$ = 116
sub 



43 

in

4


44 

(hic)

that

poco pi mosso

$ = 132

    3
4


nev - er

knows a

meno mosso

$ = 104


  
O,



cantabile

long




44  

lost

par


    
a

dise,

example 6. Piet the Pot (Scene I, r. 23). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
figuration in the celesta that outlines an atonal hexachord
built on thirds. Here, the stylized neighbor-note figures recall
the trillo technique of ornamentation that traces back to
Baroque vocal ornamentation, specifically, the love duet sung
by Nero and Poppea from Monteverdis Lincoronazione di
Poppea.12 In transforming this stylistic referent, it is merged
with other musical textures to create new meaning. One has
to do with the lovers stylized stammering on the syllable pe
of perish beginning at rehearsal 18; this exaggerated form of
repetition underscores the absurdity of the situation. It is also
through troping of Baroque vocal ornamentation and cyclical
12

Seville, 2324. The aria Ne pi, ne pi sinterporr noia dimora

demonstrates two voices in the treble clef that move in parallel thirds.

repetition of the celesta motive that this passage underscores

the seemingly sublime, but ludicrous expressive state.
Piet the Pots drunken aria exemplifies Ligetis technique of troping incongruous stylistic topics through abrupt
shift in musical discourse. As shown in Example 6, his aria
begins with a literal quotation of the head motive of Dies
Irae (last pitch is chromatically altered to C), which disintegrates into a descending chromatic line. At rehearsal 3, the
vocal line abruptly shifts to a drinking song; Ligetis sketches
indicate that he modeled the vocal line based on the choral
hunting song from Bergs Wozzeck (Act III, rehearsal 560)
and a song called Valentin Alpenrosen (Von SeherrThoss 1998, 22425). Here, Ligeti further distorts Bergs
misquotation of the German folk song Ein Jger aus

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

37

Tempo giusto $ = 80

( 4
4

4 car horns

4 car horns

44

4  2  2  2 

) 4 2
4 car horns

 2  2  2
2

sempre

sempre

2

 2  2  2 

sempre

2 222 22
      12   12     2+ 2  2 2  2
2+
2+
2+
2  22  2 

22222222
2 
22 
22 22
2  2  2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2

22222222
2 
2 2 
22 22
2  2  2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2

22222222
22 
2 
22 22
2  2  2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2


2

sempre

2

 2  2  2

2 

2  2 


2

222 222
 2  2 2  2 2 

22 22

2

 2  2 2

2 2

2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2

axis of symmetry


22 22 22

2
222


22 22 22

2
222


22 22 22

2
222

22 22 7
22 22

22
22

22
22

22 7
22

22
22

22
22

22 7
22

22
2


22 22 22

22 22 22

22 22
22 22


22 22 22
22 22

example 7. Opening Prelude (Scene I). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.

Kurpfalz through irregular phrasing and a succession of upward leaps by a ninth or seventh (originally an octave in the
folk song). At rehearsal 5, the wedge-like vocal entry on the
text O, long lost paradise anticipates the vocal lines sung by
Amanda and Amando at rehearsal 9+5. Because the chromatic motive for Dies Irae later manifests as a signifier of
the comet, Piet displays a prophetic vision of the fate of
Breughelland while presenting himself as a drunken fool.
Troping at the formal level occurs in the instrumental prelude and interludes that separate each scene in this opera. As
shown in Example 7, the beginning of each scene begins with

an instrumental toccata played by three car horns. The car

horns participate in a fugal imitation in which the interval of
the successive entries diminish proportionally in rhythmic value
by half; the composite rhythm shortens until a steady sixteenthnote motion results at measure 6. After two more measures, the
rhythmic pattern reverses itself to form a complete palindrome.
Retrograde-symmetrical structure appears in combination
with imitative and canonic writing throughout this opera.13
13

The palindromic form is also used by Ghelderode in his ordering of the six
tableaux in the original play, from which the libretto for LGM was taken.

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38

music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Ancora pi mosso
Vivacissimo molto ritmico

sempre lo stesso tempo

( = = 480)

< = 144
Picc.

Bass Cl.

3
 4

24

23  



  
Cl.  
3

7 7

3
2
 4 4

Gepopo

7 7

Pno.
Cel.
Glsp.
Mand.
Str.

3
 4

24
24

2 

23  
23

 

Red

Mand.

7 





   

118

3

'

'

diminuendo

glow! Burns bright!

 



118
118

3
3 screaming in panic
  
3
 

Co met in - sight!

3
 4

; ::::::


:
     3  


34 ; 24


 
2
) 
   


Picc.

Cel.

Glsp.


 7

  4
 7

118 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2
2 2
2 2 2
118

Tblk.

example 8. Gepopos aria (Scene III, r. 394). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
Although the form of the prelude and subsequent interludes
between scenes is modeled on an instrumental toccata tracing
back to Baroque operas, Ligeti replaces the timbre of brass instruments with car horns and electric doorbells. Such sounds,
along with the use of metronomes, alarm clocks, and sirens can
be understood as aural markers of surrealism and more specifically futurism, infusing the opera with an unequivocally modernist sound. As a parodic strategy, the construction of preludes
and interludes exemplifies mapping via substitution: that is,
while borrowing the structure and rhetoric (fanfare) of a preexisting form, Ligeti replaces the content with surrealistic
sounds of car horns to create aesthetic distance.
Mapping via substitution applies to a musical context
where the borrowed stylistic referent is less transparent, yet

it is parodic because it invokes and subverts a familiar operatic convention. In an extended aria sung by Gepopo in
Scene III, the head of the secret police of Breughelland
sings a schizophrenic aria in which she warns Prince Go Go
of a comet that will destroy their land, as displayed in
Example 8. In an aria that begins with a high trill that overlaps with trills sustained by woodwinds (rehearsal 389),
Ligeti blends coloratura techniques with tremolos, angular
rhythms, and intervals that fluctuate between extreme ends
of the vocal register. Even in the absence of explicit quotations, Gepopos aria recalls the style of vocal executions featured in the convention of mad arias, for example, from
Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor; the cascading descent
from a high register and shifting points of reference are

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

sub agitato
non pesante

429
(

$ = 176

3
 4

24

Trp.

3
) 4

24

Timp.

( 3
) 4

24     68      

43

Cl.

Police
Whistle

Gepopo

24

68

68

 secco

68

24 



 
   
  





2








4
             
   
24
               

 

2  

3
2 
 4    4
Da! Da! Da!

39

 




A - da!

68  

A - da!

24

goes into a paroxysm of excitement,

confusion and panic

 


   



   



   

2 
 4 



A - da!

A - da! A - da!

A - da! A - da!

A - da!

A - da! A - da!


3     24     68


4

       
  

Hrpsd.
El. Org.

3
2
68

 4     4

A - da!

A - da! A - da!



; ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

24 

Hrpsd./Bsn./Vln.

;
    

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

24 

example 9. Gepopos aria (Scene III, r. 429). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
points of commonality found in both, although Gepopos
aria is far more discontinuous and angular. In addition, in
commenting on her half-bird, half-man nature, her vocal
utterances are accompanied by an array of percussion instruments that offer futuristic sounds and outbursts, alternating
with a rhythmic ostinato (based on an aksak rhythm 4+4+3)
by temple blocks and congos that brings lightheartedness to
the musical passage.
Later in the same aria, Gepopos mimicking of animal
sounds assumes a surreal and Dadaesque quality as her
singing degenerates into an unintelligible stutter that extends

the quality of madness to an absurd height.14 As shown in

Example 9, Gepopos plea to Call a guard! dissolves into a
repeated utterance of A-da across a minor ninth. The accompanying instruments support her musical stutter with
sustained trills and the synchronized rhythmic patterns,
14

Ligeti was particularly interested in Alfred Jarrys absurdist theater,

which denied the traditional flow of action and traditional concept of
characters on stage by making them appear incoherent and disconnected, like parodies of the real world (Grossman 1967, 475). Gepopos
incoherence and musical stutter exemplify this theatrical orientation.

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40

music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

the lowest note possible
with fluttertongue

3
 4 2

Trb.
Tb.

3
 4

Go Go

subito moderato
guisto $ = 100

 

E - nough!

 4
Hrpsd.

3
 4

ritenuto al meno mosso $ = 80

44

cresc.

4
 4 

nough!

 

 softly

 

E - nough!



   

4
   4  

  





   

   4   
4 7

 





For - give


Vla.

Vlc.
Cb.





me!

  

beg your

''
'

'

'

par



   '


  

 '





dim to a breath

don!

'




'
'
'

distorted cadence

example 10. Prince Go-Go (Scene III, r. 306). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
which become progressively shorter and faster as she goes
into a paroxysm of excitement, confusion, and panic (Ligetis
description in the score). This passage obviously presents a
case where the parodic effect is enunciated without troping,
but rather through exaggerated forms of repetition and fragmentation associated with the aesthetics of absurdist theater.
In contrast to such examples that underscore the ludicrous expressive state, Ligeti reserves the third category of
parody via reversal or negation for dramatic moments that
satirize a character or articulate a large-scale enunciation of
the grotesque in the context of a collage. For instance, Prince
Go Gos role is satirized through troping of stylistic types
and distortion. Example 10 is taken from the beginning of
the third scene, in which two corrupt politicians try to force
Prince Go Go to sign a decree to raise taxes. This scene begins with a boisterous, hocketing duet by the politicians in
the comic buffa tradition of Rossini. Against their mockery,

Prince Go Go is portrayed as a nave and helpless creature,

whose noble status is indexed by the use of secco recitative
that segues to string accompaniment on the text Forgive
me! Although the vocal rhythm retains the secco recitative
style of enunciation, it is harmonized by dissonances built on
thirds and fifths that loosely parallel the vocal contour. The
princes clueless and idiotic character is satirized through
subverting a tonal cadence; note the manner by which the
vocal line cadences on B, against which the bass moves from
B to F and the retardation and suspension in the upper part
resolve to a major ninth from E to F.
Another satirical example is provided in Example 11.
Mecalinas schizophrenic aria is characterized by a dramatic
shift in musical discourse to reveal two different sides of her
personality. First, the lament topic appears in combination
with a distorted quotation of of Wagners desire motif a A
F E D to portray the lovelorn nature of Mescalina. Notice

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

44


Mesc.

Oh,

pain!




@

Vlc.

molto sostenuto, dolente $ = 40

sotto voce, dolente

  

41

24

desire motif a

 

Oh,




 

pain!

  



Oh,




 
 

pain!

 
  




     

Oh,

pain!

 
   

  

   

Oh,

   

45


pain!

 



    




lament topic with descending bass line

45

doppio movimento $ = 80

Mesc.




      

 

Wholl rinse dish - es? Do the wash - ing?


Org.

Vlc.

inversion of the desire motif b

       


Who the cook - ing? Who the mend - ing?

  

 



  7 

  

 



 
  7 

 

 



 

44

     



Who will do the clean - ing?

 

''7 '

 

'''
7

43
  



 

Who the scrub - bing, wax - ing?

   

 

  

   

 

  

''

 







sub  ten.

example 11. Mescalinas lament (Scene II, r.153, reduced score). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights
Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
how the cello outlines a chromatically descending bass upon
which Mescalina sings her song of lament based on the distorted and incomplete rendition of the desire motif B G
F F. In the next system, the music quickly shifts to reveal
her menacing character, intensified by chromatic clusters in
the organ and strings that support the melodic inversion of
the desire motif b G A A B. Arguably, the whole of the
desire leitmotif has been divided and distorted across two

contrasting musical passages to convey Mescalinas lovelorn

and menacing dispositions.
The desire motif surfaces in an ironic moment later in
Scene II, when Nekrotzar approaches Mescalina as an answer
to her wish to find a virile lover. Example 12 illustrates the sudden change in texture at rehearsal 229, as the string trio presents a bourre with an expressive indication of grazioso that
accompanies the love/death scene of Mescalina. Appropriating

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42

music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Andantino con moto, grazioso (boure perpetuelle)

Venus

4
 4

$ = 104

4
 4 

  

It

 sempre sotto voce

Mesc.

 sempre sotto voce

shall

be



It


   

Still

 sempre sotto voce

Nekro.

man!

Vln. 1/2

Vla.

Vlc.

( 4 
 4 




A




 

rise





   

Bac




chan -







4
   
A 4                   

44                   
)

  

te!




    
    

  

 

done.

man!

4 
) 4

desire motif a'





my





Ill

still

thy

shall

be

  


de - sire!










   
 



       

   





       

de - sire!







       



       

elaboration of the desire motif a'

example 12. Use of pastoral topic (Scene II, r. 229). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
a courtship dance, the desire motif appears in the chromatically descending Alberti bass figures in the lower strings,
echoed by the appearance of the motif sung in staggered thirds
by Mescalina and Nekrotzar three bars later. Venus, Mescalina,
Nekotzar, Piet the Pot, and Astradamors engage in a closing
vocal ensemble that accumulates in textural density as the
scene results in the death of Mescalina. The perpetual descent
in the bass provides the perfect musical analogue for
Mescalinas figurative descent into hell. And the positive affect

of the pastoral is turned inside out by this macabre dance, in

which the misaligned vocal entries create a multi-layered collage; while Nekrotzar seduces Mescalina and Venus prods
them on, Piet the Pot and Astradamors are plotting to kill
Mescalina. Her last utterance on the word Murder! is accompanied by a light-hearted dance music in 2/4 meter in the
harpsichord and electric piano (rehearsal 235). Furthermore,
the rhetorical effect is ironic rather than simply satirical; the
combination of euphoric and dysphoric expressions gives rise

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

to a trope of irony inaugurated by the contradiction between
what is claimed (murder of Mescalina) and an ambivalent context where two motivations coalesce into one (was this scene
about love or murder?).15 Although the death of Meculina in
the operatic narrative is an aberration from the original play,
the scene curiously resonates with Ghelderodes conviction that
eroticism is a source both of tragedy and of burlesquerie and
his view of lust as deaths other companion (Herz 1962, 96).
The most dramatic effects are achieved when Ligeti deploys parody via reversal or negation in the context of a
multi-layered collage texture to articulate the expressive state
of horror. In the first scene, when Nekrotzar announces the
coming of the apocalypse, the idea of horror is signified by
the polymetric superimposition of descending cluster chords
over the ticking of a gigantic metronome on stage. Against
the cluster chords in the piano that maintain the notated
meter, the harpsichord, metronome, and choral entry proceed
in different rhythms and tempi. Example 13 provides the
relevant passage. Nektrozars static vocal enunciation on C4
draws on the operatic convention of the oracle aria. Von
Seherr-Thoss traces this topical convention to Glucks Alceste
(1776), where the voice of Oracle announces the death of the
king in a declamatory recitation based on a single note (1998,
251). In response to Nekrotzars proclamation, the chorus delivers a chromatically distorted Lutheran chorale that turns
the parodic ethos of its referent inside out: more specifically,
the text that speaks of a God as guardian in the chorale
Erkenne mich mein Hter from Bachs St. Matthews
Passion is replaced by one that invokes destruction and peril.
Additionally, the chorale melody is harmonized mainly by
tritones to convey the musical expression of horror.
In Scene III, Ligeti introduces a massive textural collage
entitled Homage to Ives, where he builds on the formula of
15

Furthermore, Ligetis transformation of traditional form (e.g., bourre

in Scene III) intersects with Martha Hydes criteria for a heuristic form
of musical imitation in which a composer seeks a deeper engagement
with a given model in order to achieve dramatic conflict (2003, 119).

43

topical reversal by de-contextualizing the theme from the finale of Beethovens Symphony No. 3. As shown in Example
14, the rhythmic is preserved while the pitches are distorted;
the theme is transformed into a twelve-tone passacaglia, in
which the ordered pitch interval (opi) of the row alternates
between ics 6 and e. Furthermore, the permutation of twelve
tones and the rhythmic talea of Beethovens theme are misaligned so that the next entry of the row begins on last quarter note of the talea. This passacaglia forms the foundation
for a multi-layered collage in different tempi and meters: a
solo violin enters with a ragtime that recalls the devils music
from Stravinskys lHistoire du Soldat, the bassoon enters with
a Greek orthodox tune, the piccolo trumpet plays a Brazilian
samba, the parade drum plays marching music in irregular
meter, and the bass trombone blares out a distorted variation
of the twelve-tone Eroica theme. By combining music drawn
from high and low styles into a massive collage, this passage
turns into an ultimate macabre dance, gradually building in
textural density and dynamic intensity, and in which the ludicrous and horrifying states co-mingle. As a musical corollary
to Bakhtins grotesque body, the individual layers maintain
their autonomy through independence in timbre, meter, and
tempo, while being subsumed into the ever-growing collective. As this procession of incongruous tunes unfolds, chaos
reigns on stage as people fight, eat, drink, copulate, and so
forth, in coping with the final moments of life.
Following the macabre dance, the citizens of Breughelland
make their plea for help in the form of a disintegrated
chorale, as Nekrotzar makes his final pronouncement of the
apocalypse. In this climactic passage, the heavenly trombone motif appears over and over again to signify a form of
divine intervention that thwarts Nekrotzars omen. Ligetis
instruction indicates that two trumpeters and two trombonists are to be positioned high up in a box overlooking the
stage and that they are to sound as if coming from far away.
Historically, the trombone symbolizes the supernatural or the
underworld and conjures up images of terror and unknown
realms of darkness. The presence of trombones plays upon

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

with a visionary gesture

62 6


Nekro

For
Hrpsd.




Pno.

Vla.

Cb.

 
1
   +
 

 B    




@





there

will

sub.





be

and fi-re

 

  

cresc. poco a poco

              






 B   
  

'@

'@

 

 

  1+     1 +

 

will

 

fol

1
    +



               

sempre



sub.

  sub.
 
  6 
 



blood,

  
 
   1+
   1+
   1 +

low!

1
   

And

 

no



1
  


-

thing

1

  



re - main,

   
1
1
 

molto pesante

        
  




 
                        
'@

@



 7

Ten.
Bass.

 
( )

44 $ = 80

45

Des - truc- tion soon draw

 

   

44

shrieking, forced, nasal

     

   

arco



45

 
         


high,

thou

art

in

pe - ril

great.

example 13. Nekrotzars announcement of the apocalypse (Scene I, r. 62, reduced score). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott
Music. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC,
sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
this conventional symbolism, although Ligeti reverses the
glorious and triumphant topic that usually accompanies its
use in the Tuba Miram sections of the Requiems by Mozart
and Berlioz. As shown in Example 15, this theme sounds
pastoral, cast in a lyrical 6/8 meter and accompanied by an
expressive indication of dolce. In addition, the tenor trombones continuously play notes at the uppermost threshold of
their range. And here is an instance where the effect of this

reversed symbol is subsumed by the expressive horror of the

music that follows. The trombone motif repeats several
times, each time followed by Nekrotzars final pronouncement and the choruss desperate plea for help.
Ultimately the stage darkens as the scene concludes with
an instrumental postlude, entitled Intermezzo: the terrible,
imaginary Last Judgment (rehearsal 603). And there is something rather ironic in Ligetis designation of this horrifying

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

451
( 4
Timp. )
 4

Andante misurato, sempre ostinato (collage)

$ = 100

  


4
 4 
pizz.

Vlc.
Cb.

 secco



    



 

A: <F B B  E E  A D A  G D  C G >




Violin: ragtime (r. 452)

Ragtime two step - ben ritmato

2
 4    
   

$ = 60

   
 

      
 


opi: <6 e 6 e 6 5 6 e 6 e 6>

Vln.

45

opi = ordered pitch-class intervals

 


          





          

  
   
   





   

 

Bassoon: Greek orthodox tune (r. 453)

Tempo giusto, ben ritmato (alla danza)

Bsn.

   
A 68

 

$  = 80

 

 

    

 

   

 

 

 

 

 non legato

Piccolo clarinet: Brazilian samba (r. 454)

$ = 138

Cl.
Picc.

   
34 



  E  



  E 


 
 







     E   
6




  



Flute piccolo (r. 457)

$ = 192
vivace leggiero
Fl.
Picc.

4
 4

   

 possible



   



   

                  



   

  

  
   

example 14. Eroica variation theme; collage (Scene III, r. 451, reduced score). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music.
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC,
sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.
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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Parade drum (r. 456)
Tempo agitato

Par.
Drum

44

 

$ = 192

2222 

22 2 

22 2 

 

2 2

34 2 

22 

22 

 

2 22 

 2

3 brutale
Bass trombone (r. 457)
Multo vivace, energico

Bass
Trb.

4
 4 

3 brutale

 

$ = 168176

 

 

blaring

 

  



   
   
 


example 14. [continued ]

postlude as an Intermezzo, referring to a genre of comic operatic interlude presented between scenes of an eighteenthcentury opera seria. This music that serves as the sonic icon
for the falling comet, a micropolyphonic texture that increases in dynamic intensity to the written indication of
eight fortes, appears to reverse the conventional meaning of
an Intermezzo. Or does the heavenly trombone motif signify some form of divine intervention? As the stage turns
completely dark, the audience is left in suspense over the significance of the music that closes the third scene.
Before proceeding to the Epilogue, I will discuss the significance of the structuring of the operatic numbers within
each scene in relation to parodic strategies deployed. As
mentioned earlier, each of the three scenes develops in a similar manner by a crescendo to a catastrophic climax within
the Wagnerian bar form (Toop 1999, 163). Furthermore, as
shown in Examples 16, 17 and 18, musical numbers map
onto distinctive expressive states of ludicrousness or horror
within each scene. The arrows show the path through which
the musical numbers oscillate back and forth between the
two expressive states, while the bracket indicates where textural strategies of collage and disintegration cut across the
two expressive states.

In the first scene, the ludicrous and horrifying states are

brought into stark contrast: Amanda and Amandos innocent
love duet oscillates between Piet the Pot and Nekrotzars
omen about the impending crisis; the momentous build-up
to the first collage (rehearsal 59) shifts the expressive state
from ludicrous to horrifying, yet the scene concludes with a
brief recapitulation of the love duet. The structure of the second scene, given in Example 17, further amplifies the opposing expressive states through abrupt shifts in musical discourse; while Mescalina and Astradamorss number duet and
quotations from Liszt and Schumann belong to the comic
buffa genre, Mescalinas lament and the ensemble scene (rehearsal 228) blend the ludicrous and the horrifying expressive states. The closing comic buffa ensemble (rehearsal 250)
immediately follows the ironic boure perpetuelle and leads to
the ominous micropolyphonic postlude that signifies the approaching comet. The third scene, given in Example 18, provides a change in setting as it opens with a series of buffa
numbers featuring Prince Go-Gos politicians at the castle of
Breughelland. The playful aksak rhythm is abruptly followed
by the sinister choral recitation, which embodies the fear and
helplessness of the inhabitants of Breughelland. Gepopos
mad aria provides another comic relief before it segues into

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

Fl. 1/2

Ob. 1/2

Da lontano $ = 66

6
 8

6
) 8

6
 8

Nekro

489
'
44 '

 
F

 

44 ''

F

3

44     

He
Vln./Vla.

Vlc./Cb.

6
 8

 


 



 

 
 

6
)  8    

 

 

  

The Heavenly Trombones

(as though from a long way away, but clearly audible)

   

Trp.

Ten.

  

sub. 

 

 

    


 

   

          


6
)A 8           
 dolce

 


34  

 

34   

 

34      

who has ears to hear, let him

44

'
'

44 '
'

sub. 

hear, for the hour

34

of

doom

is up

 


34  


 

break off
suddenly,
without accent


( 6                    
 8      
 
 dolce
   

Tempo primo $ = 188

47

3: 12th overtone
4: 8th overtone

example 15. The Heavenly Trombones (Scene III, r. 489, reduced score). Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre. 1996 by Schott Music.
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC,
sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music.

the distorted choral recitation that captures the inhabitants

desperate plea for help. The sense of catastrophe reaches its
climax with the instrumental postlude that depicts the fall of
the comet.

In summary, the structure of the three scenes shares a

parallel construction with regard to the sequence of numbers
that culminates in a polymetric or polytemporal collage. The
massive collage comprised of the superimposition of seven

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Scene I
Ludicrousness

Horror

Prelude [car horns]

Piet the Pot Dies Irae quote]

r.1
[Berg: hunting song
from Wozzeck]
r.9

Amanda/Amando
[love duet]

r.51

Piet/Nekrotzar [duet;
allusion to Wozzeck]

r.59

Collage 1
Nekrotzars announcement of
the apocalypse (polymetric
ticking of metronomes)

r. 63

Deformation of Lutheran
chorale (choirs response)

r. 94

horse riding music

[allusion to Wagners
Walkre]

r.110

Amanda/Amando
[love duet]

example 16. Mapping of Expressive States in Le Grand Macabre

incongruous musical types in the third scene (see Ivesian collage) expands the initial strategies introduced in the first and
second scenes. In both contexts, a trope of chaos and destruction is established through inclusion of an explicitly marked
referent (e.g., distorted chorale) within a multi-layered

collage. This effect is nonetheless offset by the buffa ensemble or pastoral topic that follows. Continual shifts in topical
discourse relativize the effects of the ludicrous and horrifying in the first two scenes, as indicated in the example by
the criss-crossing arrows. In the third scene, however, the

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

Scene II
Ludicrousness
r. 119
r. 120

Interlude [car horns]

Mescalina/Astradamors duet
[comic bua; pseudo 12-tone]

r. 153

Mescalinas lament motif

[distorted desire motif]

r. 165

Astradamors song of mercy

[parallel fourths/organum]

r. 172

Grand Galop chromatique [Liszt]

The Merry Peasant [Schumann]

r. 184
r. 194

Comet music
Venus
[harp arpeggiation]

r. 209

Piet the Pot/Astradamors duet

[comic bua]

r. 213

Venus/chorus
[call & response]

r. 228
Collage 2

Boure perpetuelle
[pastoral
desire motif]

r. 244
r. 250
r. 273

Horror

Mescalina

Mescalina

disintegration
Comet music

Final ensemble [comic bua]

Comet music

example 17. Mapping of Expressive States in Le Grand Macabre (continued)

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Scene III
Ludicrousness
r. 277
r. 278

Interlude [door bells]

White/black politicians
[comic bua; pseudo 12-tone]

r. 300

Prince Go-Go
[secco recitative]

r. 364

aksak rhythm (4+4+3)

r. 377

Choral recitation

Horror

disintegration
Go! Go! <

r. 387
r. 395

Chamber Concerto, mvt. III

(self-quotation)
Gepopos mad aria

r. 417

Chorus: dread and fright do sear us

r. 432

siren <

r. 451

Collage 3: homage to Ives

picc. cl: Brazilian samba
/picc: Hungarian tune
parade drum: marching music

r. 474

bass trumpet: leitmotif

The Heavenly trombone fugue
Nekrotzars oracle aria
Chorus Hear us prince!

r. 482
r. 504

12-tone def. of Eroica

violin: ragtime
bsn: Greek Orthodox tune

Astradamors/Piet/Nekrotzar
[comic bua]
example 18. Mapping of Expressive States in Le Grand Macabre (conclusion)
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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

r. 528
r. 534

Hocket on drink!
String quartet [Andante
Grazioso Galmatias]

r. 544

Astradamors/Piet
galloping music

r. 576
r. 603

51

deformation of bass trumpet motif

The Heavenly trombones <
Intermezzo: the terrible, imaginary
Last Judgment

example 18. [continued ]

distinction between the two states becomes increasingly

blurred from the successive enactment of textural strategies
involving collage and disintegration, as indicated by the
brackets that cross over the two expressive states. As the
ensemble texture acquires greater density, the dynamic indication for the comet music is pushed to an absurd level
(fffffff ). All of these strategies contribute to Bakhtins idea of
infinite accretion, the process that accepts and affirms all
contradictory data as part of one large, rich, and varied picture (Sheinberg 2000, 314).
iv. on narrative ambivalence and existential irony
Aside from the parodic strategies and the trope of the
grotesque, a larger question revolves around what to make of
the conclusion of LGM. The short Epilogue of this opera is
marked by a reversal of expectation and dramatic irony, as
the main characters wake up only to realize that Nekrotzars
omen was false. As the citizens of Breughelland greet one
another in awe, Ligeti presents a brief recapitulation of the
ludicrous musical numbers featured in the last three scenes
in a continuous medley; e.g., the Prelude music of car horns
(Scene I), horseriding music (Scene II), Gepopos secco

recitative, and the politicians duet (Scene III) all return in

bits and pieces. Nekrotzar, disempowered and defeated, returns to his grave, as the pastoral topic of the final passacaglia brings the opera to closure. Amanda and Amando,
waking up to find out that the world still exists, sing an ethereal duet (with text borrowed from Verdis Falstaff ) celebrating the supremacy of love; Let others fear the Judgment
Day: we have no fears, let come what may! Neath terrors
dire let others bow: for us theres only here and now. Over a
fugal passacaglia in mirror canon (Andantino con moto),
other singers join in to bid farewell and reassure their compatriots not to be afraid of death.
This farcical ending has invited critical commentary from
critics and scholars. Alastair Williams remarks: Ligetis
frustration with limited systems and stable meanings becomes explicit in the absurd libretto to Le Grand Macabre,
which deals in its half-mocking, half-serious way with questions of temporality and death, though scorning anything resembling an insight. If the Day of Judgment does not take
place, which is one interpretation of the opera, it is death itself that dies on the fictitious Day of Judgment, hence the
unknowable other to life fails to become a stable sign that
would confer metaphysical significance on the opera (1997,

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

archetypes, Liszka comments that irony moves away from
the comedic-like quality of satire to a simple and fatalistic
perception of the human condition in which the main emphasis is on the natural cycle, the unbroken turning of the
wheel of fate or fortune (1989, 132). Hutcheon further remarks that ironic meaning emerges when the unsaid is
other than, different from, the said (1994, 64).
On a first glance, the operatic characters indifference to
the outcome of the disaster seems to suggest dramatic irony;
even after facing the most appalling threat of disaster, the
characters simply return to the way things were in the beginning. There is no reflection, no moment of enlightenment.16
However, Ligetis idea of purposeful ambivalence renders the
reading far more complicated than a simple case of dramatic
irony. Even if the conditions of death and doom are magically thwarted, the viewer is left with a sense of unease, a
lack of resolution to the putative crisis. Perhaps the moral of
the story lies in acknowledging that progress itself is kind of
an illusion, that our perception of reality is unfinalizable in
accordance with Bakhtins concept of grotesque realism.
Considering Ligetis emphasis on ambivalence, the type of
irony found here comes closer to existential irony, which
Sheinberg introduces in reference to Shostakovichs embrace
of contradictory signifiers in Symphony No. 10 and other
works; the recurring waltz theme in Symphony No. 10 articulates the topical correlation of a dance that is not a dance,
one that conveys an expression of a euphoric dysphoria
(2000, 31617). Just as Shostakovichs symphony leaves contradictory affects fused and unresolved, LGM is filled with
instances marked by ambivalence, e.g., Mescalinas love-death
scene, the heavenly trombone motif, the designation of
Intermezzo for the apocalypse. Even the happy ending in

90). But exactly why does Ligeti avoid narrative closure and
resist formation of stable meanings with regard to death
and the Day of Judgment? By dismissing Ligetis intention
as half-serious and scorning anything resembling an insight, Williams seems to miss the broader picture, the metaconcepts, that underlie the operatic narrative.
In a standard narrative trajectory, there is a progression
from the initial conflict (marked) to its eventual resolution
(unmarked), accompanied by a process that Liszka calls
transvaluation in reference to his analysis of myth:
The narration focuses on a set of rules from a certain domain or domains of cultural life which define a certain cosmic, social, political,
or economic hierarchy, and places them in a crisis. There is a disruption of the normative function of these rulesthey are violated, there
is some transgression. The narrative then unfolds to a certain, somewhat ambivalent, resolution to the crisis, depending on the pragmatics of the tale: the disrupted hierarchy is restored or enhanced or, on
the other hand, the hierarchy is destroyed, leading to social anomie,
or terrible tragic consequences. . . . The ambivalence of the resolution
reveals the presence of a certain tension which serves as the dynamic
of the narration, the tension between an order or hierarchy, i.e., a set
of rules which imposes an order on a culture, and the possibility of its
transgression, i.e., the possibility of an alternative order. The narrative of myth continually plays out this tension (1998, 15).

In LGM, the crisis passes without any foreseeable impact

on the inhabitants of Breughelland; life seems to go on as
usual, and Amanda and Amando sing about love at the end,
as if nothing happened. The opera is ironic because in spite of
the narrative closure achieved through the apparent resolution
of the crisis, the viewer is left to ponder the ambivalence
generated by the forced closure. It lacks the transformative
moment that characterizes the comedic narrative archetype
in which the characters profess to a new beginning marked
by the restoration of an idealized social order. Nor does it fit
the tragic archetype in which there is a defeat of order
through transgression (that is, Nekrotzar fails to conquer
Breughelland). In summarizing Northrop Fryes narrative

16

Muecke describes dramatic irony as a kind of situational or Sophoclean

irony in which the characters on stage remain unaware of the prospect
or irony of fate that lies ahead (1970, 29).

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

the Epilogue is fraught with semantic tension. Ligeti may
have injected the deus ex machina formula at the end as a critique of the operatic convention that sentimentalizes such
moments and intended it also as a farcical commentary on
societys responses to impending catastrophes throughout
the ages.
v. conclusion and further considerations
Undoubtedly, a comprehensive analysis of LGM needs to
take into account many other aspects of the operas musical
design that are not based on the parodic procedures of mapping, troping, and reversal discussed here. The intricate contrapuntal writing, mirror canons, and quasi-serial passages
are tokens of Ligetis musical style, but they are not marked
in a specific sense in constituting a parodic enunciation
under the criteria invoked here.17 So are numerous instances
of intertextual references or allusions to musical types or
topics that remain neutral or unmarked, such as the horse
riding music that connotes Wagners Walkre (Scene I),
Nekrotzars declamatory recitation based on an oracle aria
(Scene I), or Ligetis self-quotation of the Chamber
Concerto (Scene III). Although LGM offers a compositional labyrinth of pitch, harmonic, and rhythmic procedures
that is worthy of investigation onto its own, my aim in this
article was to demonstrate the systematic manner by which
parodic procedures are correlated with oppositional expressive states in formulating a tropological reading of the
grotesque and existential irony.
Needless to say, not all parodied elements carry the same
dramatic weight. A parodic enunciation in LGM acquires
markedness or perceptual salience through contrastive
17

Amy Bauer argues, however, that one could consider Ligetis method of
appropriating and transforming contrapuntal writing as paralleling the
Mannerist School and his micropolyphonic texture as an instance of
musical parody (1997, 4146).

53

setting, repetition, and topical reversal. Even the basic

strategy of mapping topic or type is often accompanied by
contrastive shifts in texture, timbre, and register to underscore the quoted element. Frequency in repetition plays an
important role in heightening the level of markedness of a
particular parodic enunciation; for instance, the distorted
choral music that represents the desperate plea of people
returns in various contexts and acquires a music-dramatic
weight of its own, compared to the unmodified quotations
of music by Liszt and Schumann (Scene II) that appear
only once. Thus, certain parodic references assume a narrative function through repetition (akin to that of a leitmotif ), while others impart only a localized, descriptive
function to comment on a character or situation. Topical
reversal presents the most poignant or pronounced form of
parodic enunciation, as the referent is thoroughly transcontextualized in accordance with Hutcheons definition of
parody.
Future work may consider examining the intersection
between parodic and non-parodic musical topics in unifying the motivic and harmonic contents of the opera. For
example, minor third and tritone surface as important intervallic building blocks for musical topics and types that
signify the apocalypse. While the Dies Irae quote embedded in Piet the Pots initial aria presents an indexical topic,
Ligetis micropolyphonic texture for the comet emerges as
an iconic topic: that is to say, while the Dies Irae quotation
refers to other repertory as a symbol of death and destruction in western musical canon, the latter provides a soundscape that resembles the natural qualities of an impending
disaster. And Ligetis writing reveals fluidity and inventiveness in transforming the motivic and harmonic content of
this indexical topic to an iconic one, as shown in Example
19. The Dies Irae incipit, introduced in Piet the Pots aria,
distorts the original melody by altering the seventh note to
C (rather than C). The triplet figuration and the minor third
descent 3 are subsequently transformed into a rhythmic

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music theory spectrum 31 (2009)

Indexical topic
r.2

Piet
the Pot

lunga

3  
4


* 


42

Di

 

es i

Iconic topic (comet)

 

 

rae, di
<3>

es il

 
la

<3>

r. 67+2
Fl./Picc.

          
 1  



F 
<3>

r.194
Mesc.

3 suddenly shouting loudly

3 
 8

 48 

Ve - nus,

Ve -

44

Trb.

nus!

<6 +6 6 +5 7>

Tr. Bass
(off stage)

Venus

3
 4

 

 

<3>

     








r. 206

 dolcissimo, innocente

<3>

like an emergency siren

  

<3 +3 4>

r.217

<3>





And then what hath thou done with these two

<3 3 +3 3 +4 2 +3>



3 
 4













 












<+6 6 +6 6 +6 6 +5 6 +6 6 +6>

men?

r. 243
Tutti
(Winds/
Brass)

 &

G*
'

forced

33

+

break off suddenly

  7

G
'

forced, shrill

greatest possible
volume

  

33

<3 +4>

example 19. Transformation of the Dies Irae motif

diminution of descending thirds in the upper woodwinds

(rehearsal 67+2), call and response pattern between
Mescalina 3 +3 4 and the trombone motif with tritones
and fifths substituting for thirds (rehearsal 194), the bass
trombone motif that inverts the contour into an ascending

figure (rehearsal 206), Venuss response to Mescalina that

inverts the latters vocal contour (rehearsal 217), and the
comet motif derived from the same contour (rehearsal
243). The emerging emphasis on the tritone interval is significant because it later surfaces as the harmonic building

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signification of parody and the grotesque in gyrgy ligetis le grand macabre

block for the apocalyptic music (Intermezzo: the terrible,
imaginary Last Judgment) in Scene III.18
In concluding, LGM constitutes an anti-opera par excellence because of its narrative ambivalence and double-voiced
forms of parodic enunciation. It has all the ingredients of a
post-Brechtian musical theater that engages the audience to
actively participate in decoding defamiliarized references
(what Brecht calls the divided sign), as a way of dislodging
conditioned responses in order to perceive works of art in a
new light. Even the over-the-top virtuosity that disintegrates
into noise, e.g., Gepopos coloratura aria that degenerates into
animal-like barking, attests to the idea of embracing operatic
tradition in order to dismantle it. In this respect, Ligetis aesthetic stance is hardly postmodern in the sense of advancing
eclecticism for its own sake, but rather aligned with what Hal
Foster calls oppositional postmodernism, which is concerned
with a critical deconstruction of tradition, not an instrumental pastiche of pop or pseudo-historical forms (1983, vii).
From a biographical perspective, the narrative discourse
of this opera constitutes an intertext that mirrors Ligetis
own artistic habitus of exile; as a survivor of the Holocaust
and Hungarian Uprising, the theme of death and survival
has been an integral part of his life experiences. There is a
profound message that Ligeti communicates in LGM that
far surpasses its capacity to elicit laughter: by situating the
audience inside the fantasy-world of Breughelland, the opera
forces us to confront our own fears and pretensions as we
grapple with the existential chaos of the human condition.
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18

For example, the apocalyptic music (rehearsal 603) comprises intersecting tritones of B-F, C-G, D-G, D-A and E-A.

55

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Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 31, Issue 1, pp. 2656, ISSN 0195-6167,
electronic ISSN 1533-8339. 2009 by The Society for Music
Theory. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission
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ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/mts.2009.31.1.26

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