György Ligeti

György Ligeti (1923-2006) has been called "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century".

Ligeti composed over 80 concert works. Several of them employed microtonal techniques in small or large ways. Let us document them here.

Large ensembles

• The Hamburg Concerto uses 4 natural horns with different fundamentals to achieve a xenharmonic effect, described by Ligeti as "weird" and "harmonies [...] that had never been used before".
• Ramifications is scored for two string sections tuned a quarter-tone apart.
• Violin Concerto, which bears a fuller analysis of microtonal techniques, includes scordatura section tuning, natural harmonics, and 4 ocarinas.

Chamber ensembles

• In Six Bagatelles, movement 3, for wind quintet, the rhythmic ostinato that begins in other instruments is modified to use the 7th partial when taken over by the horn.

Solo

• Passacaglia Ungherese for solo harpsichord specifies a preferred tuning of some type of meantone temperament. The greater consonance of the 3rds and 6ths is structurally essential to the composition, which "a two-bar canon [that] produces an interval cycle composed entirely of major thirds and minor sixths that includes all twelve tones (Amy Bauer, "Codes, Constraints, and the Loss of Control in Ligeti’s Keyboard Works").