Bagatelles

A few years before leaving Hungary during the 1956 revolution, György Ligeti (1923-2006) wrote a series of short works for piano solo; from this set he selected six to arrange as the Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (1953). Each piece is brief, usually lasting less than two minutes, but they are also incredibly moving and motivically rich. Bagatelle 1 takes a minimal aesthetic to its extreme, using only four distinct pitches: C, E-flat, and G start the work in a clear C-minor realm, after which Ligeti inserts E-natural to shade more toward the major mode. Touched lightly by canon and textural invention, this bagatelle is a short, humorous ride, and jazzy syncopations make it a perfect opening to the larger set. By contrast, Bagatelle #5 is a lugubrious Adagio. The solo flute melody unfolds over tolling low winds. Cut off mid-thought, all parts then latch onto the flute’s iambic (short-long) rhythmic motif. The herky-jerky effect starts off as just plan quirky, but insistent repetition builds toward an alarming highpoint. Ligeti uses the interval of the 3rd everywhere, further enhancing the almost subliminal feeling of being closed in. Bagatelle #5 is by far the longest in the collection.
The final work, #6, is driven and frenetic. I find the main theme redolent of Stravinsky in being oddly catchy; hearing it brings to mind the “Infernal Dance” from Stravinsky’s Firebird. Ligeti plays with rising and falling scales, and he instructs the players to gradually wedge outward in a climactic crescendo, “as though insane.” Two long pauses deceive most audiences into thinking the end has come. But alas, a tumbling solo horn—built, like Bagatelle #5, entirely of 3rds—gets the parting word.

(c) Jason Stell