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.

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").