Skip to main content
  • pub.mdw

‘Some Sort of Machine Without a Body’. György Ligeti and Antoinette Vischer Explore the Modern Harpsichord

Simple item page
thumbnail image
Download
  • citeproc.author
    Reisinger, Elisabeth
  • citeproc.author.family
    Reisinger
  • citeproc.author.given
    Elisabeth
  • citeproc.container-title
    Studia Musicologica
  • citeproc.issue
    1-2
  • citeproc.issued
    2023-11-28
  • citeproc.page
    75–91
  • citeproc.shortTitle
    ‘Some Sort of Machine Without a Body’
  • citeproc.type
    preprint
  • citeproc.volume
    64
  • cris.virtual.author-orcid
  • cris.virtual.department
    University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
  • cris.virtual.orcid
    0000-0002-0297-025X
  • cris.virtualsource.author-orcid
    5410d306-499c-4dd1-9b7b-0db32b671049
  • dc.contributor.author
    Reisinger, Elisabeth
  • dc.date.accessioned
    2024-06-03T14:35:59Z
  • dc.date.available
    2024-06-03T14:35:59Z
  • dc.date.issued
    2023-11-23
  • dc.description.abstract
    From the mid-1950s, Basel harpsichordist Antoinette Vischer (1909–1973) promoted the harpsichord as a modern instrument, commissioning numerous composers to contribute to a new repertoire. To this end, she turned to György Ligeti, who completed Continuum for her in 1968. The composer had already used the harpsichord in ensembles several times, but now he had to think about it in a soloistic function for the first time, starting from a specific performer with her specific instrument. In this paper, I focus on this relationship between composer, performer-commissioner, and instrument, drawing primarily on the correspondence between Ligeti and Vischer preserved at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. These unpublished letters document their collaboration and how both negotiated their artistic positions and aesthetic concepts of the harpsichord as “some sort of machine.” An in-depth analysis of Ligeti and Vischer’s exchange about the instrument’s peculiarities and performance issues allows us to better un- derstand their self-conception as artists and their ideas of “modernity.” Furthermore, this case study sheds light on a specific period in the history of an instrument that through the efforts of performers like Vischer was transformed from an artifact of the past to an emblem of the present.
  • dc.description.provenance
    Submitted by repo admin (repo-admin@mdw.ac.at) on 2024-06-03T14:35:59Z workflow start=Step: checkcorrectionstep - action:noUserSelectionAction No. of bitstreams: 0
    Made available in DSpace on 2024-06-03T14:35:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2023
  • dc.identifier.citation
    Reisinger, Elisabeth: ‘Some Sort of Machine Without a Body’. György Ligeti and Antoinette Vischer Explore the Modern Harpsichord. 2023 [online verfügbar: https://doi.org/10.21939/ligeti-vischer-fp].
  • dc.identifier.doi
    10.21939/ligeti-vischer-fp
  • dc.identifier.uri
    https://dspace.mdw.ac.at/handle/123456789/7222
  • dc.language.iso
    en
  • dc.rights
    Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
  • dc.rights.license
    CC-BY-4.0
  • dc.rights.uri
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • dc.subject
    György Ligeti
    Antoinette Vischer
    harpsichord
    commissions
    patronage
  • dc.subject.ddc
    786 - Keyboard & other instruments
  • dc.subject.wikidata
    https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q81982
  • dc.title
    ‘Some Sort of Machine Without a Body’. György Ligeti and Antoinette Vischer Explore the Modern Harpsichord
  • dc.type
    text::preprint
  • dcat.theme
    EDUC
  • dcterms.accessRights
    Open Access
  • dcterms.publisher
    pub.mdw
  • dspace.entity.type
    Publication
  • dspace.file.type
    preprint
  • mdwrepo.ancestors
    UB > pub.mdw
    UB > Publications
  • mdwrepo.hasTopCommunity
    UB
  • mdwrepo.publisher.location
    Wien
  • oaire.citation.issue
    1-2
  • oaire.citation.volume
    64
  • oairecerif.author.affiliation
    University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna