WGBH radio studios in Boston (on Market Street, within the WGBH Guest Street studio complex)

WGBH (89.7 FM MHz) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of NPR and an affiliate of Public Radio International (PRI) and American Public Media (APM). The license-holder is the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns WGBH-TV and WGBX-TV.

The station, dubbed "Boston Public Radio", broadcasts a news-and-information format during the daytime (including NPR News programs and PRI's The World, which is a co-production of WGBH, PRI, and the BBC World Service), and jazz music during the nighttime.

"GBH" stands for Great Blue Hill, the location of WGBH's FM transmitter, as well as the original location of WGBH-TV's transmitter. Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts, has an elevation of 635 feet (193 m), is located within the Blue Hills Reservation, and is the highest point in the Boston area. ( Mai Cramer, longtime host of the program Blues After Hours, jokingly maintained that the station's call sign stands for "We Got Blues Here!")

Stations[link]

WGBH also operates a separately-programmed service for the Cape Cod and Islands area, with a full-time news-and-information format. This service is simulcast on three stations: WCAI (90.1 FM) Woods Hole, WNAN (91.1 FM) Nantucket, and WZAI (94.3) Brewster.

WGBH also owns WCRB (99.5 FM), a classical music station. This service is simulcast by two stations, WNCK (89.5 FM) in Nantucket and WJMF (88.7 FM) in Smithfield, Rhode Island (near Providence).

Both WCAI and WCRB are also simulcast on HD Radio sidechannels of WGBH itself. The WCRB simulcast on WGBH-HD2 is also relayed by translator W242AA (96.3 FM) East Cambridge, as the Federal Communications Commission regards it as a WGBH translator (from October 1991^[1] until April 8, 2010,^[2] W242AA carried WGBH's main service).

WGBH, WCAI, and WCRB all webcast their audio programming on the internet.

History[link]

For more of a history of the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council see the article on John Lowell, Jr.

WGBH Educational Foundation received its first broadcasting license (for radio) in 1951 under the auspices of the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council, a consortium of local universities and cultural institutions, whose collaboration stems from an 1836 bequest by textile manufacturer John Lowell, Jr. calling for free public lectures for the citizens of Boston.

WGBH signed on October 6, 1951, with a live broadcast of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Programming[link]

WGBH broadcasts news programming, generally from NPR or PRI, during the daytime hours, except for some weekend timeslots.

Jazz music is broadcast on evenings and during the overnight hours. This occasionally includes in-studio live performances and interviews.

Saturday afternoon and evening programming is focused on Celtic music, followed by A Prairie Home Companion and Says You!.

Programs originating from WGBH for the local market include:

• The Emily Rooney Show, a daily one-hour local public affairs talk show
• The Callie Crossley Show, a daily one-hour local talk show
• Greater Boston: Radio Edition, a radio adaptation of WGBH-TV's nightly public affairs program broadcast on Saturday afternoons
• A Celtic Sojourn, a three-hour program of Celtic music broadcast on Saturday afternoons
• Arts and Ideas, a three-hour news and arts magazine broadcast on Sunday evenings

Programs originating from WGBH that are broadcast in other markets include:

• Says You!
• Sound & Spirit
• The World (co-produced with the BBC World Service)
• The Changing World
• From the Top

On January 8, 2010, a one-hour food-related program titled America's Test Kitchen Radio, hosted by Christopher Kimball and Bridget Lancaster from the America's Test Kitchen television show, began to air in the 2PM(eastern time) slot on Saturdays.

2009 format change[link]

Until December 1, 2009, WGBH broadcast a variety of classical music programming, mostly during the day on weekdays, weekend mornings, and Sunday afternoons. These broadcasts included (in addition to generally available recordings) recordings made by WGBH of regional chamber music and solo recital performances, live in-studio performances and interviews, as well as live broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from Symphony Hall (on Friday afternoons when the orchestra is scheduled to play), and Tanglewood (on Sunday afternoons in the summer).

In addition, WGBH's music programming also included folk music on Saturday afternoons and blues on Saturday evenings. News programming was limited to drive time (6-9AM and 4-8PM) on weekdays, and between 10AM and noon on weekends.

In September 2009, the WGBH Educational Foundation announced a deal to acquire WCRB, a local classical music station. It consolidated all classical music programming on WCRB, and changed WGBH to an all-news and information format.^[3] A significant number of WGBH's traditional classical listeners were sacrificed in the transition, as WCRB transmits from the North Shore of Boston, and cannot be received reliably in areas to the south, including Cape Cod. In November 2009 the station announced that its long-running Saturday afternoon folk and Saturday evening blues programs would be discontinued in December, however A Celtic Sojourn and A Prairie Home Companion would remain.^[4]

Programming overlap[link]

WGBH and WBUR are two large public radio stations serving the same geographic area and having the same format and some of the same programming sources; it is not yet clear yet whether coordination will be done to reduce the considerable expected overlap in national news and talk programming.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Station website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WGBH
• Radio-Locator information on WGBH
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WGBH
• Audio clip from late 1980s
• WGBH Open Vault

WGBH may refer to:

• WGBH-TV, a public television station based in Boston, Massachusetts
• WGBH (FM), a public radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts

This disambiguation page lists articles about radio and/or television stations with the same/similar call signs, frequencies, channels, or branding. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

Xiang Yu (232 BC – 202 BC) was a prominent military leader and political figure during the late Qin Dynasty.

Xiang Yu was a native of Xiaxiang (下相; present-day Suqian, Jiangsu). He was granted the title of "Duke of Lu" (魯公) by King Huai II of Chu in 208 BC. The following year, Xiang Yu led the Chu rebel forces to victory at the Battle of Julu against the Qin armies led by Zhang Han. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself "Hegemon-King of Western Chu" (Chinese: 西楚霸王; pinyin: Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng) and ruled a vast area of land covering parts of present-day Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangsu, with Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou) as his capital. He engaged Liu Bang, founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, in a long struggle for power, known as the Chu–Han Contention, that concluded with his eventual defeat and suicide at the bank of the Wu River.

Names and titles[link]

• Names:
  • Family name: Xiang (simplified Chinese: 项; traditional Chinese: 項; pinyin: Xiàng)
  • Given name: Ji (Chinese: 籍; pinyin: Jí)
  • Style name / courtesy name (zi): Yu (Chinese: 羽; pinyin: Yǔ)

• Titles:
  • "Lu Gong" (simplified Chinese: 鲁公; traditional Chinese: 魯公; pinyin: Lǔ Gōng), translates to "Duke of Lu".
  • "Xi Chu Ba Wang" (Chinese: 西楚霸王; pinyin: Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng), translates to "Hegemon of Western Chu", "Hegemon-King of Western Chu", "Conqueror of Western Chu", "Overlord of Western Chu", and other renditions.
    • Sometimes simplified to "Ba Wang" (Chinese: 霸王; pinyin: Bà Wáng), which translates to "Hegemon", "Hegemon-King", "Conqueror", "Overlord", and other renditions.
  • "Xiang Wang" (simplified Chinese: 项王; traditional Chinese: 項王; pinyin: Xiàng Wáng), translates to "King Xiang".

Biography[link]

Birth and family background[link]

There are two accounts of Xiang Yu's family background. The first claimed that Xiang Yu was from the house of Mi (羋), the royal family of the Chu state. His ancestors were granted the land of Xiang (項) by the king of Chu and had since adopted "Xiang" as their family name. The other account claimed that Xiang Yu was a descendant of a noble clan from the Lu state and his family had served the Chu rulers as military commanders for generations. Xiang Yu's grandfather, Xiang Yan, was a well known general who led the Chu army in resisting the Qin invaders led by Wang Jian, and was killed in action when Qin conquered Chu in 223 BC.

Xiang Yu was born in 232 BC in the late Warring States Period when the Qin state started annexing the other six major states. His father was Xiang Chao (項超), the oldest son of Xiang Yan.^{[citation needed]} Xiang Yu was raised by his uncle, Xiang Liang, as his father died early. In 221 BC, when Xiang Yu was about 11 years old, the Qin state finally unified China and established the Qin Dynasty.

Xiang Yu had a double pupil in one of his eyes^[1] just like the ancient Chinese rulers Shun and Duke Wen of Jin before him. He was thus seen as an extraordinary person because his unique double pupil was a mark of a king or sage in Chinese tradition. Xiang Yu was slightly taller than eight chi (approximately 1.85 metres, about 6' 1") and possessed unusual physical strength as he could lift a ding (an ancient Chinese vessel resembling a giant cauldron on tripods).^[1]

Early days[link]

In his younger days, Xiang Yu was instructed in scholarly arts and swordsmanship but he did not manage to master what he was taught, and his uncle Xiang Liang was not very satisfied with him.^[1] Xiang Yu said, "Books are only useful in helping me remember my name. Mastering swordsmanship allows me to face only one opponent, so it's not worth learning. I want to learn how to defeat 10,000 enemies."^[1][2] Hence, his uncle tried to educate him in military strategy instead, but Xiang Yu stopped learning after he had grasped the main ideas.^[1][2] Xiang Liang was disappointed with his nephew, who showed no sign of motivation or apparent talent apart from his great strength, and gave up and let Xiang Yu decide his own future.^[1][2]

When Xiang Yu became older, his uncle killed someone and they fled to Wu (present-day southern Jiangsu) to evade the authorities. At that time, Qin Shi Huang was on an inspection tour in that area and Xiang Yu watched the emperor's procession pass by with his uncle. Xiang Yu said, "I can replace him.", in reference to the Qin emperor.^[1] Xiang Liang was shocked and immediately covered his nephew's mouth with his hand. Since then, Xiang Liang began to see his nephew in a different light.

Rebellion against the Qin Dynasty[link]

In 209 BC, during the reign of Qin Er Shi (Qin Shi Huang's son and successor), peasant rebellions erupted throughout China to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, plunging China into a state of anarchy. Yin Tong, Grand Administrator of Kuaiji (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang), wanted to start a rebellion as well, so he invited Xiang Liang to meet him and discuss their plans. However, the Xiangs lured Yin Tong into a trap and killed him instead, with Xiang Yu personally striking down dozens of Yin's men. Xiang Liang initiated the rebellion himself and rallied about 8,000 men to support him. Xiang Liang proclaimed himself Grand Administrator of Kuaiji while appointing Xiang Yu as General. Xiang Liang's rebel force grew in size until it was between 60,000 to 70,000. In 208 BC, Xiang Liang installed Mi Xin as King Huai II of Chu to rally support from those eager to help him overthrow the Qin Dynasty and restore the former Chu state. Xiang Yu distinguished himself as a competent military leader and mighty warrior on the battlefield while participating in the battles against Qin forces.

Later that year, Xiang Liang was killed in the Battle of Dingtao against the Qin army led by Zhang Han and the military power of Chu fell into the hands of the king and some other generals. In the winter of 208 BC, another rebel force claiming to restore the Zhao state, led by Zhao Xie, was besieged in Handan by Zhang Han, and Zhao Xie requested for reinforcements from Chu. King Huai II granted Xiang Yu the title of "Duke of Lu" (魯公), and placed him second-in-command to Song Yi to lead an army to reinforce Zhao Xie. At the same time, the king placed Liu Bang in command of another army to attack Guanzhong, the heartland of Qin. The king promised that whoever managed to enter Guanzhong first will be conferred the title of "King of Guanzhong".

Battle of Julu[link]

The Chu army led by Song Yi and Xiang Yu reached Anyang, some distance away from Julu (in present-day Xingtai, Hebei), where Zhao Xie's forces had retreated to. Song Yi ordered the troops to lay camp there for 46 days and he refused to accept Xiang Yu's suggestion to proceed further. Xiang Yu took Song Yi by surprise in a meeting and killed him for alleged treason. The other subordinate generals were afraid of Xiang Yu and let him become the acting commander. Xiang Yu sent a messenger to inform King Huai II and the king approved Xiang's command.

In 207 BC, Xiang Yu's army advanced towards Julu and he sent Ying Bu and Zhongli Mo to lead the 20,000 strong vanguard army to cross the river and attack the Qin forces led by Zhang Han, while he followed behind with the remaining majority of the troops. After crossing the river, Xiang Yu ordered his men to sink their boats and destroy all but three days worth of rations, in order to force his men to choose between prevailing against overwhelming odds within three days or die trapped before the walls of the city with no supplies or hope of escape. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Chu forces scored a great victory after nine engagements, defeating the 300,000 strong Qin army. After the battle, other rebel forces, including those not from Chu, came to join Xiang Yu out of admiration for his martial valor. When Xiang Yu received them at the gate, the rebel generals were so fearful of him that they sank to their knees and did not even dare to look up at him.

Zhang Han sent his deputy Sima Xin to Xianyang to request for reinforcements and supplies from Qin Er Shi. Zhao Gao deceived the emperor and the emperor dismissed Zhang Han's request. Zhao Gao even sent assassins to kill Sima Xin on his return journey later, but Sima managed to escape and return to Zhang Han. In dire straits, Zhang Han and his 200,000 troops eventually surrendered to Xiang Yu in the summer of 207 BC. Xiang Yu perceived the surrendered Qin troops as disloyal and a liability, and had them executed by burying them alive at Xin'an (新安; in present-day Yima, Henan). Zhang Han, along with Sima Xin and Dong Yi, were spared from death. Xiang Yu appointed Zhang Han as "King of Yong", while Sima Xin and Dong Yi were respectively conferred the titles of "King of Sai" and "King of Di".

Feast at Hong Gate[link]

After his victory in the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu prepared for an invasion on Guanzhong, the heartland of the Qin Dynasty. In the winter of 207 BC, the last Qin ruler Ziying surrendered to Liu Bang in Xianyang (Qin's capital), bringing an end to the Qin Dynasty. When Xiang Yu arrived at Hangu Pass, the eastern gateway to Guanzhong, he saw that the pass was occupied by Liu Bang's troops, a sign that Guanzhong was already under Liu's control. Liu Bang's general Cao Wushang sent a messenger to see Xiang Yu, saying that Liu Bang would become King of Guanzhong in accordance with King Huai II's earlier promise, while Ziying would be appointed as Liu's chancellor. Xiang Yu was furious after hearing that. At that time, he had about 400,000 troops under his command while Liu Bang only had a quarter of that number.

As strongly encouraged by his advisor Fan Zeng, Xiang Yu invited Liu Bang to attend a Feast at Hong Gate and intended to kill Liu during the banquet. However, Xiang Yu listened to his uncle Xiang Bo (a friend of Liu Bang's strategist Zhang Liang) instead and spared Liu's life. Liu Bang escaped later under the pretext of going to the latrine.

Xiang Yu paid no attention to Liu Bang's presumptive title and led his troops into Xianyang in 206 BC. He ordered the execution of Ziying and his family, as well as the destruction of the Epang Palace by fire. It was said that Xiang Yu would leave behind a trail of destruction in the places he passed by, and the people of Guanzhong were greatly disappointed with him.^[3]

Despite advice from his subjects to remain in Guanzhong and continue with his conquests, Xiang Yu was insistent on returning to his homeland in Chu. He said, "To not return home when one has made his fortune is equivalent to walking on the streets at night in glamorous outfits. Who would notice that?"^[1] One of his followers said, "It is indeed true when people say that the men of Chu are apes dressed in human clothing."^[1] Xiang Yu had that man boiled alive when he heard that insult.^[1]

Division of the empire[link]

After the downfall of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu offered King Huai II the more honourable title of "Emperor Yi of Chu" and announced his decision to divide the former Qin Empire. Xiang Yu declared himself "Hegemon-King of Western Chu" (西楚霸王) and ruled nine commanderies in the former Liang and Chu territories, with his capital at Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou). In the spring of 206 BC, Xiang Yu divided the empire into the Eighteen Kingdoms, to be granted to his subordinates and some leaders of the former rebel forces. He moved some of the rulers of other states to more remote areas and granted the land of Guanzhong to the three surrendered Qin generals, ignoring Emperor Yi's earlier promise to appoint Liu Bang as king of that region. Liu Bang was relocated to the remote Hanzhong area instead and given the title of "King of Han" (漢王).

Xiang Yu appointed several generals from the rebel coalition as vassal kings, even though these generals were subordinates of other lords, who should rightfully be the kings in place of their followers. Xiang Yu also left out some other important rebel leaders who did not support him earlier, but did contribute to the overthrow of Qin. In winter, Xiang Yu moved Emperor Yi to the remote area of Chen County (present-day Chenzhou, Hunan), effectively sending the puppet emperor into exile. At the same time, he issued a secret order to the vassal kings in that area and had the emperor assassinated during his journey (205 BCE). The emperor's death was later used by Liu Bang as political propaganda to justify his war against Xiang Yu.

Shortly after the death of Emperor Yi, Xiang Yu had Han Cheng (King of Han) put to death and seized Han's lands for himself. Several months later, Tian Rong (chancellor of Qi) took control over the Three Qis (Jiaodong, Qi and Jibei) from their respective kings and reinstated Tian Fu as the King of Qi, but he took over the throne himself afterwards. Similarly, Chen Yu, a former vice chancellor of Zhao, led an uprising against the King of Changshan, Zhang Er, and seized Zhang's domain and reinstalled Zhao Xie as the King of Zhao.

Chu–Han contention[link]

In 206 BC, Liu Bang led his forces to attack Guanzhong. At that time, Xiang Yu was at war with Qi and did not focus on resisting the Han forces. The following year, Liu Bang formed an alliance with another five kingdoms and attacked Western Chu with a 560,000 strong army, capturing Xiang Yu's capital of Pengcheng. Upon hearing that, Xiang Yu led 30,000 men to attack Liu Bang and defeated the latter at the Battle of Pengcheng, with the Han army suffering heavy casualties.

Liu Bang managed to escape after his defeat with Xiang Yu's troops on pursuit. Han troops retreated to Xingyang and defended the city firmly, preventing Chu forces from advancing west any further, but only managed to hold on until 204 BC. Liu Bang's general Ji Xin disguised himself as his lord and surrendered to Xiang Yu, buying time for Liu Bang to escape. When Xiang Yu learnt that he had been fooled, he was furious and had Ji Xin burnt to death. After the fall of Xingyang, Chu and Han forces were divided on two fronts along present-day Henan. However, Xiang Yu's forces were not faring well on the battlefront north of the Yellow River, as the Han army led by Han Xin defeated his troops in every single battle. At the same time, Liu Bang's ally Peng Yue led his men to harass Xiang Yu's rear.

By 203 BC, the tide has turned in favour of Han. Xiang Yu managed to capture Liu Bang's father after a year-long siege and he threatened to boil Liu's father alive if Liu refused to surrender. Liu Bang remarked that he and Xiang Yu were oath brothers,^[4] so if Xiang killed Liu's father, he would be guilty of patricide. Xiang Yu requested for an armistice, known as the Treaty of Hong Canal, and returned the hostages he captured back to Liu Bang as part of their agreement. The treaty divided China into east and west under the Chu and Han domains respectively.

Shortly after, as Xiang Yu was retreating eastwards, Liu Bang renounced the treaty and led his forces to attack Western Chu. Liu Bang sent messengers to Han Xin and Peng Yue, requesting for their assistance in forming a three-pronged attack on Xiang Yu, but Han Xin and Peng Yue did not mobilize their troops and Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu at the Battle of Guling. Liu Bang retreated and reinforced his defenses, while sending emissaries to Han Xin and Peng Yue, promising to grant them fiefs and titles of vassal kings if they would join him in attacking Western Chu.

Defeat and downfall[link]

In 202 BC, Han armies led by Liu Bang, Han Xin and Peng Yue attacked Western Chu from three sides and trapped Xiang Yu's army, which was low on supplies, in the Battle of Gaixia. Liu Bang ordered his troops to sing folk songs from the Chu region, to create a false impression that Xiang Yu's native land had been conquered by Han forces. The morale of the Chu army plummeted and many of Xiang Yu's troops deserted in despair. Xiang Yu sank into a state of depression and he sang the Song of Gaixia. His concubine Consort Yu committed suicide. The next morning, Xiang Yu led about 800 of his remaining elite cavalry on a desperate attempt to break out of the encirclement, with 5,000 enemy troops hot on pursuit.

After crossing the Huai River, Xiang Yu was only left with a few hundred soldiers. They were lost in Yinling and Xiang Yu asked for directions from a farmer, who directed him wrongly to a swamp. When Xiang Yu reached Dongcheng, only 28 men were left, with the Han troops still following him. Xiang Yu made a speech to his men, saying that his downfall was due to Heaven's will and not his personal failure. After that, he led a charge out of the encirclement, killing one Han general in the battle. Xiang Yu then split his men into three groups to confuse the enemy and induce them to split up as well to attack the three groups. Xiang Yu took the Han troops by surprise again and slew another enemy commander, inflicting about 100 casualties on the enemy, while he only lost two men.

Death[link]

Xiang Yu retreated to Wu River (near present-day He County, Chaohu City, Anhui) and the ferryman at the ford prepared a boat for him to cross the river, strongly encouraging him to do so because Xiang Yu still had the support of the people from his homeland in the south. Xiang Yu said that he was too ashamed to return home and face his people because none of the first 8,000 men from Jiangdong who followed him on his conquests managed to survive. He refused to cross and ordered his remaining men to dismount, asking the ferryman to take his warhorse Zhui (騅) back home.

As he refused, his remaining men decided to stay, but Xiang Yu ordered them to go back on the boat.

Before Xiang Yu died, he saw an old friend Lü Matong among the Han soldiers. He then said, "I heard that the King of Han (Liu Bang) had placed a price of 1,000 gold and the title of Marquis of Wanhu^[5] on my head. Take it then, on account of our friendship." Xiang Yu then committed suicide by slitting his throat with his sword, and a brawl broke out among the Han soldiers at the scene due to the reward offered by Liu Bang, and Xiang Yu's body was said to be dismembered and mutilated in the fight. The reward was eventually claimed by Lü Matong and five others. After Xiang Yu's death, Western Chu surrendered and China was united under Liu Bang's rule, marking the start of the Han Dynasty. Liu Bang held a grand state funeral for Xiang Yu in Yicheng (in present-day Shandong), with the ceremony befitting Xiang's title of "Duke of Lu". Xiang Yu's relatives were spared from death, including Xiang Bo, who saved Liu Bang's life at the Feast at Hong Gate, and they were granted titles of marquises.

Song of Gaixia[link]

^[8]

Evaluation[link]

Historian Sima Qian, author of Records of the Grand Historian, described Xiang Yu as someone who boasts about his achievements and thinks highly of himself. Xiang Yu preferred to depend on his personal abilities as opposed to learning with humility from others before him. Sima Qian felt that Xiang Yu had failed to see his own shortcomings and to make attempts to correct his mistakes, even until his death. Sima Qian thought that it was ridiculous when Xiang Yu claimed that his downfall was due to Heaven's will and not his personal failure.^[1]

Liu Bang's general Han Xin, who was one of Xiang Yu's opponents on the battlefield, made a statement criticizing Xiang: "A man who turns into a fierce warrior when he encounters a rival stronger than he is, but also one who is sympathetic and soft hearted when he sees someone weaker than he is. Neither was he able to make good use of capable generals nor was he able to support Emperor Yi of Chu, as he killed the emperor. Even though he had the name of a Conqueror, he had already lost the favour of the people."^[9]

The Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu mentioned Xiang Yu in one of his poems Ti Wujiang Ting (題烏江亭): "Victory or defeat is common in battle. One who can endure humiliation is a true man. There are several talents in Jiangdong, who knows if he (Xiang Yu) can make a comeback?"^[10] However, the Song Dynasty poet Wang Anshi had a different opinion, as he stated: "The warrior is already tired after so many battles. His defeat in the Central Plains is hard to reverse. Although there are talents in Jiangdong, are they willing to help him?"^[11] The Song Dynasty female poet Li Qingzhao wrote: "A hero in life, a king of ghosts after death. Until now we still remember Xiang Yu, who refused to return to Jiangdong."^[12]

Mao Zedong also mentioned Xiang Yu once, saying that "We should use our remaining strength to defeat the enemy, instead of thinking about achieving fame like the Conqueror."^[13] In 1964, Mao also pointed out three reasons for Xiang Yu's downfall: Not following Fan Zeng's advice to kill Liu Bang at the Feast at Hong Gate and letting Liu leave; Adhering firmly to the terms of the peace treaty (without considering that Liu Bang might betray his trust); Building his capital at Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou).

Xiang Yu is popularly viewed as a leader who possesses great courage but lacks wisdom, and his character is aptly summarized using the Chinese idiom you yong wu mou (simplified Chinese: 有勇无谋; traditional Chinese: 有勇無謀; pinyin: yǒu yǒng wú móu)^[14], meaning "has courage but lacks tactics", "foolhardy". Xiang Yu's battle tactics were studied by later military leaders while his political blunders served as cautionary tales for later rulers.^{[citation needed]} Another Chinese idiom, si mian chu ge (Chinese: 四面楚歌; pinyin: sì miàn chǔ gē; literally "surrounded by Chu songs"), was also derived from the Battle of Gaixia, and used to describe someone in a desperate situation without help. Another saying by Liu Bang, "Having a Fan Zeng but unable to use him" (有一范增而不能用), was also used to describe Xiang Yu's reliance on his advisor Fan Zeng and failure to actually listen to Fan's advice.^{[citation needed]}

Historian John Keay cites Xiang Yu as the most accomplished general in Chinese history.^[15]

Modern references[link]

Xiang Yu's might and prowess in battle has been glorified in Chinese folk tales and poetry, especially in his final battle.^[16] However, his ambitions ended with the collapse of Western Chu, his defeat by Liu Bang, and death at the early age of 30. He is also the subject of films, television, plays, Chinese operas, video games and comics. His classic image is that of a heroic and brave, but arrogant and bloodthirsty warrior-king. His romance with his concubine Consort Yu and his suicide have also added a touch of a tragic hero to his character.

Xiang Yu is also depicted as a ruthless leader, in sharp contrast to his rival, Liu Bang. He was a mass murderer, ordering the massacres of entire cities when they refused to surrender and put up strong resistance. The most notorious example of his cruelty was when he ordered the 200,000 surrendered Qin troops to be buried alive after the Battle of Julu,^[17][18] and the gruesome methods of execution he employed against his enemies and critics. Conversely, Liu Bang is portrayed as a shrewd and cunning ruler who can be brutal at times.^[19] However, Liu Bang did forbid his troops from looting the cities they captured and he spared the lives of the citizens, earning their support and trust in return. Xiang Yu's story became an example for Confucianists to advocate the idea that leaders should rule with benevolence and not govern by instilling fear in the people.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Sun Ce is nicknamed "Little Conqueror" (小霸王) and is often compared favorably to Xiang Yu by his contemporaries. Sun Ce is best known for his conquests in the Jiangdong region that laid the foundation of the state of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms era. In Water Margin, another of the Four Great Classical Novels, Zhou Tong, one of the 108 outlaws, is nicknamed "Little Conqueror" for his resemblance to Xiang Yu in appearance.

The Meng Ch'iu, an eighth-century Chinese primer, contains the four-character rhyming couplet: "Ji Xin impersonates the Emperor". It referred to the episode in the Battle of Xingyang when Ji Xin and 2,000 women disguised themselves as Liu Bang and his army, to distract Xiang Yu in order to buy time for Liu Bang to escape from the city of Xingyang.^[20]

A famous Beijing opera, Ba Wang Bie Ji (Chinese: 霸王别姬; pinyin: bà wáng bié jī; literally "The Conqueror bids his concubine farewell"), depicts the events of Xiang Yu's defeat at the Battle of Gaixia. The title of the play was borrowed as the Chinese title for Chen Kaige's award-winning motion picture Farewell My Concubine.

"The Works of Xiang Yu" are a central theme in the Firefly episode, War Stories, which deals with sadism and torture.

In the last episode of the 2001 Hong Kong television series A Step into the Past, the son of Xiang Shaolong (or Hung Siu-lung, the time traveling protagonist) says he wants to change his name to "Yu" (literally means "feather") because he admires the flying birds. His father is shocked to realise that his son is actually the future Hegemon-King of Western Chu.

Xiang Yu is one of the 32 historical figures who appear as special characters in the video game Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI by Koei. He is also featured as a non-playable character (NPC) in the action RPG Prince of Qin.

References[link]

• Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, Volume 7.
• Ban Gu et al. Book of Han, Volume 31.
• Sima Guang. Zizhi Tongjian, volumes 8, 9, 10, 11.

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French pronunciation: [ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ]) (May 12, 1842 – August 13, 1912) was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas fell into almost total oblivion. Apart from Manon and Werther, his works were rarely performed. However, since the mid-1970s, many operas of his such as Thaïs and Esclarmonde have undergone periodic revivals.

Biography[link]

Massenet was born in Montaud, then an outlying hamlet and now a part of the city of Saint-Étienne, in the Loire. When he was six, his family moved to Paris due to his father's ill-health. There his mother (Adélaïde Massenet, née Royer; her husband's second wife) started taking piano pupils. She also taught Jules so well that at the age of 11 he was able to enter the Paris Conservatoire. He was still a student when his family moved from Paris to Chambéry, but Jules returned to Paris after a few months, living with a married member of his father's family by his first wife. To support himself during his studies, he worked as timpanist for six years at the Théâtre Lyrique, playing also other percussion instruments in other theatres, and working as a pianist in the Café de Belleville.

Although at first some of his teachers had not predicted for him any career in music, this changed in 1862 when he won the Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata David Rizzio and spent three years in Rome. There he met Franz Liszt, at whose request he gave piano lessons to Louise-Constance "Ninon" de Gressy, the daughter of a wealthy lady named Mme Sainte-Marie. Ninon became Massenet's wife in 1866.

Massenet early in his career

His first opera, La grand' tante, was a one-act production at the Opéra-Comique in 1867. Nevertheless it was his dramatic oratorio Marie-Magdeleine (first performed in 1873) that won him praise from the likes of Tchaikovsky, d'Indy (who afterwards turned against him), and Gounod. His real mentor, though, was the composer Ambroise Thomas, a man with important contacts in theatrical milieux. Another important early patron was his publisher, Georges Hartmann, whose connections with journalistic circles aided him in becoming better known during the difficult initial years of his composing activity. Even Massenet's marriage to Ninon helped him a great deal in securing commissions and garnering fame in important social circles.

Massenet took a break from his composing to serve as a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War, but returned to his art following the end of the conflict in 1871. From 1878 he worked as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory where his pupils included André Bloch, Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn, Georges Enesco, and Charles Koechlin. His greatest successes were Manon in 1884, Werther in 1892, and Thaïs in 1894. Notable later operas were Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, produced in 1902, and Don Quichotte, produced in Monte Carlo 1910, with the legendary Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin in the title-role.

In 1876 he received the Légion d'honneur, and was appointed a Grand Officer in 1899. In 1878 he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, to the exclusion of Camille Saint-Saëns. He was only 36, the youngest member ever elected to the Académie.

In addition to his operas, Massenet composed concert suites, ballet music, oratorios and cantatas and about two hundred songs. Some of his non-vocal output has achieved widespread popularity, and is commonly performed: for example the Méditation from Thaïs, which is a violin solo with orchestra, as well as the Aragonaise, from his opera Le Cid and the Élégie for cello and orchestra (from his incidental music to Les Érinnyes). The latter two pieces are commonly played by piano students, and the Élégie became world-famous in many arrangements.

There have been periodic performances and recordings of Massenet's orchestral music, especially the seven suites. Naxos has issued the complete suites, as well as ballet music from Herodiade, as performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce.^[1]

Massenet died in Paris at the age of 70, after suffering from a long illness (cancer).^{[2] [3]}

Being a very prolific, hard-working composer (over 25 extant operas, with his daily schedule starting frequently from as early as 4 am), he created his pieces not "at the piano" (as so many other composers do), but entirely from his imagination. That ability greatly helped him to achieve his high standards as an orchestrator. Even in his loudest passages, the instrumental texture is always lucid. It is curious that he was also known to avoid all public dress rehearsals and performances of his works; often he would have to be informed by others of his own operatic successes.

The only known recording by Massenet is a scene from Sapho where he accompanies the soprano Georgette Leblanc on the piano; never published, it is in the Historical Sound Recordings collection of Yale University.^[4]

Compositions[link]

	"Manon! avez-vous peur...On l'appelle Manon" From Manon (1884), performed by Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar in 1912. "Ah! fuyez, douce image" From Manon (1884). Recorded in 1910 by Aristodemo Giorgini for Edison Records. "Notre Père" Performed by l'Atelier Vocal des Herbiers
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Operas[link]

Oratorios and cantatas[link]

• David Rizzio – 1863
• Marie-Magdeleine – 1873
• Ève – 1875
• Narcisse – 1877
• La Vierge – 1880
• Biblis – 1886
• La Terre Promise – 1900

Ballets[link]

• Le carillon – 1892
• Cigale – 1904
• Espada – 1908
• L'histoire de Manon (arr. Leighton Lucas) – 1974

Orchestral compositions[link]

• Première suite d'orchestre – 1867
• Scènes hongroises – 1870
• Scènes pittoresques – 1874
• Scènes dramatiques – 1875
• Scènes napolitaines – 1876
• Scènes de féerie – 1881
• Scènes alsaciennes – 1882
• Fantasy for cello and orchestra – 1897
• Piano Concerto – 1903
• Ouverture de concert
• Overture to Racine's Phèdre
• Sarabande espagnole

Incidental music[link]

• Les érinnyes (containing the famous Élégie) – 1873
• Un drame sous Philippe II – 1875
• La vie de bohème – 1876
• L'Hetman – 1877
• Notre-Dame de Paris – 1879
• Michel Strogoff – 1880
• Nana-Sahin – 1883
• Théodora – 1884
• Le crocodile – 1900
• Phèdre – 1900
• Le grillon du foyer – 1904
• Le manteau du roi – 1907
• Perce-Beige et les sept gnomes – 1909
• Jérusalem – 1914

Song collections and cycles[link]

• Poëme d'Avril (Armand Silvestre), Op. 14, songs, declaimed poems and piano solos, c.1866, published 1868
• Poëme pastoral (Florian and Armand Silvestre), baritone, 3 female voices, piano, 1870–72, published 1872
• Chansons des bois d'Amaranthe (M. Legrand, after Redwitz), four solo voices (SATB) and piano, 1900, published 1901

Songs[link]

• À Colombine (Serenade d’Arlequin) (Louis Gallet)
• À la trépassée (Armand Silvestre)
• À la Zuecca (Alfred de Musset)
• À Mignonne (Gustave Chouquet)
• Adieu (Complainte) (Armand Silvestre)
• Adieux (Gilbert)
• Anniversaire (Armand Silvestre)
• Aubade (Gabriel Prévost)
• Automne (Paul Collin)
• Berceuse (Gustave Chouquet)
• Bonne nuit! (Camille Distel)
• Ce que disent les cloches (Jean de la Vingtrie)
• C'est l'amour (Victor Hugo)
• Chant provençal (Michel Carré)
• Comme autrefois (Jeanne Dortzal)
• Crépuscule (Armand Silvestre)
• Dans l'air plein de fils de soie (Armand Silvestre)
• Declaration (Gustave Chouquet)
• Élégie (Louis Gallet)
• Epitaphe (Armand Silvestre)
• Être aimé (Jules Massenet after Victor Hugo)
• Feux-follets d'amour (Madeleine Grain)
• Guitare (Victor Hugo)
• La Lettre (Catulle Mendès)
• La mort de la cigale (Maurice Fauré)
• La veillée du Petit Jésus (André (Theuriet)
• La vie d'une rose, Op. 12, No. 3 (Jules Ruelle)
• L'air du soir emportati (Armand Silvestre)
• L'âme des oiseau (Elena Vacarescu)
• Le portrait d'une enfant, Op. 12, No. 4 (Pierre de Ronsard)
• Le printemps visite la Terre (Jeanne Chaffotte)
• Le sais-tu? (Stéphan Bordèse)
• Le sentier perdu (Paul de Choudens)
• Le verger (Camille Distel)
• Les alcyons (Joseph Antoine Autran)
• Les bois de pins (Camille Distel)
• Les enfants
• Les femmes de Magdala (Louis Gallet)
• Les mains (Noel Bazan)
• Les oiselets (Jacques Normand)
• L'esclave, Op. 12, No. 1 (Théophile Gautier)
• Lève-toi (Armand Silvestre)
• Loin de moi ta lèvre Qui Ment (Jean Aicard)
• Madrigal (Armand Silvestre)
• Musette (Jean Pierre Claris de Florian)
• Narcisse à la fontaine (Paul Collin)
• Néére (Michel Carré)
• Nocturne (Jeanne Dortzal)
• Nouvelle chanson sur un vieil air (Victor Hugo)
• Nuit d'Espagne (Louis Gallet)
• Ouvre tes yeux bleus (Paul Robiquet)
• Pensée d'automne (Armand Silvestre)
• Pour qu'à l'espérance (Armand Silvestre)
• Prélude (Armand Silvestre)
• Première danse (Jacques Clary Jean Normand)
• Puisqu’elle a pris ma vie (Paul Robiquet)
• Que l'heure est donc brève (Armand Silvestre)
• Rêvons, c'est l'heure (Paul Verlaine)
• Riez-vous (Armand Silvestre)
• Rondel de la belle au bois (Julien Gruaz)
• Rose de Mai (S.Poirson)
• Roses d’Octobre (Paul Collin)
• Sérénade (Molière)
• Sérénade aux mariés, Op. 12, No. 2 (Jules Ruelle)
• Sérénade de Zanetto (François Coppée)
• Sérénade du passant (François Coppée)
• Si tu veux, Mignonne (Abbé Claude Georges Boyer)
• Soir de rêve (Antonin Lugnier)
• Soleil couchant (Victor Hugo)
• Sonnet (Georges Pradel)
• Sonnet matinal (Armand Silvestre)
• Sonnet payen (Armand Silvestre)
• Souhait (Jacques Normand)
• Sous les branches (Armand Silvestre)
• Souvenez-vous, Vierge Marie! (Georges Boyer)
• Souvenir de Venise (Alfred de Musset)
• Stances (Gilbert)
• Sur la source (Armand Silvestre)
• Un adieu (Armand Silvestre)
• Un souffle de parfums (Armand Silvestre)
• Voici que les grans lys (Armand Silvestre)
• Voix suprême (Antoinette Lafaix-Gontié)
• Vous aimerez demain (Armand Silvestre)

Other[link]

• Miscellaneous piano pieces
• Massenet completed and orchestrated Léo Delibes' unfinished opera Kassya.
• Prelude in C major for organ.

References[link]

Notes

Cited sources

• Irvine, Demar (1994). Massenet: A Chronicle of His Life and Times. Portland, Oregan: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-63-2. 
• Harding, James (1970). Massenet. New York: St. Martin's Press. 
• Massenet, Jules (1971). My Recollections. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-04229-5. 
• Full text of My recollections at archive.org
• Huebner, Steven (2006). French Opera at the Fin de Siecle: Part I – Jules Massenet. Oxford Univ. Press, US. pp. 25–168. ISBN 978-0-19-518954-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=KSQGZOTQKmwC&pg=PA25&dq=%22The+Ascent+of+Massenet%22. 
• Finck, Henry T. (2007). Massenet and His Operas. READ BOOKS. ISBN 978-1-4067-3416-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=byUI4dmwy4AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Massenet+And+His+Operas%22. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jules Massenet

• Works by Jules Massenet at Project Gutenberg
• Free scores by Jules Massenet at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Jules Massenet in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Massenet – Meditation from Thais on YouTube for cello and orchestra.
• Masters of French Music: Jules Massenet by Arthur Hervey
• All Music biographical notes on Massenet (in English)
• Extensive biography with list of references and compositions (in French)
• Scores and Vocal Scores on Indiana University Bloomington Libraries:
  • Werther: Full orchestral score, French text only
  • Manon: Full orchestral score, French text only
  • Don Quichotte: Vocal score (piano reduction), French and English libretto

György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor, [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006) was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating and becoming an Austrian citizen.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Ligeti was born in Dicsőszentmárton, which was renamed Târnăveni in 1945, in Transylvania to a Hungarian Jewish family. Ligeti recalls that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation among the Romanian-speaking town police. Before that he hadn't known that other languages existed.^[1] He moved to Kolozsvár (Cluj) with his family when he was 6, and he was not to return to the town of his birth until the 1990s.

Ligeti received his initial musical training in the conservatory at Kolozsvár (Cluj), and during the summers privately with Pál Kadosa in Budapest.

In 1940, Northern Transylvania was occupied by Hungary following the Second Vienna Award. In 1944, Ligeti's education was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labor brigade by the Horthy regime.^[2] His brother, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp, and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz. His mother was the only other survivor of his immediate family.^[3]

Following the war, Ligeti returned to his studies in Budapest, Hungary, graduating in 1949 from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress. He went on to do ethnomusicological research into the Hungarian folk music of Transylvania, but after a year returned to his old school in Budapest, this time as a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis. However, communications between Hungary and the West by then had become difficult due to the restrictions of the communist government, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the Soviet bloc.

After leaving Hungary[link]

In December 1956, two months after the Hungarian revolution was violently suppressed by the Soviet Army, Ligeti fled to Vienna with his ex-wife Vera (soon to be wife again) and eventually took Austrian citizenship (in 1968).^[4] He would not see Hungary again until he was invited to judge a competition in Budapest fourteen years later.^[5] On his journey to Vienna, he left most of his Hungarian compositions in Budapest, some of which are now lost; he only took what he considered to be his most important compositions. He later explained, "I considered my old music of no interest. I believed in twelve-tone music!"^[6]

A few weeks after arriving in Vienna, he left for Cologne. There he met several key avant-garde figures and learned more contemporary musical styles and methods.^[7] These included the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig, both then working on groundbreaking electronic music. During the summer, he attended the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt. Ligeti worked in the Cologne studio with Stockhausen and Koenig and was inspired by the sounds he heard there. However, he produced little electronic music of his own, instead concentrating on instrumental works which often contain electronic-sounding textures.

After about three years, he finally fell out with the Cologne school, because it was too dogmatic and there was a huge amount of factional in-fighting: "There were a lot of political fighting because different people, like Stockhausen, like Kagel wanted to be first. And I, personally, have no ambition to be first or to be important."^[1]

Starting around 1960, Ligeti's work became better-known and respected. His best-known work include works in the period from Apparitions (1958–59) to Lontano (1967) and his opera Le Grand Macabre (1978). In recent years, his three books of Études for piano (1985–2001) have become better-known through recordings by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Fredrik Ullén, and others.

In 1973, Ligeti became professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater, eventually retiring in 1989. In the early 1980s, he tried to find a new stylistic position (closer to "tonality"), leading to an absence from the musical scene for several years until he reappeared with the Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (1982). His output was prolific through the 1980s and 1990s. Invited by Walter Fink, he was the first composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1990.^{[citation needed]}

Ligeti's grave in Zentralfriedhof, Vienna

However, health problems became severe after the turn of the millennium. On June 12, 2006, Ligeti died in Vienna at the age of 83. Although it was known that Ligeti had been ill for several years and had used a wheelchair the last three years of his life, his family declined to release the cause of his death.^[8] Ligeti's funeral was held at the Vienna Crematorium at the Zentralfriedhof, the Republic of Austria and the Hungary Republic of Hungary represented by their respective cultural affairs ministers. The ashes were finally buried at the Zentralfriedhof in a grave dedicated to him by the City of Vienna.^{[citation needed]}

Apart from his far-reaching interest in different types of music from Renaissance to African music, Ligeti was also interested in literature (including the writers Lewis Carroll, Jorge Luis Borges, and Franz Kafka), painting, architecture, science, and mathematics, especially the fractal geometry of Benoît Mandelbrot and the writings of Douglas Hofstadter.^[9]

Ligeti was the grand-nephew of the great violinist Leopold Auer. Ligeti's son, Lukas Ligeti, is a composer and percussionist based in New York City.

Music[link]

Years in Hungary[link]

Many of his very earliest work were written for chorus and set folk songs. His largest work in this period was a graduation composition for the Budapest Academy, entitled Cantata for Youth Festival, for four vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. One of his earliest pieces now in the repertoire is his Cello Sonata, a work in two contrasting movements written in 1948 and 1953 respectively. It was initially banned by the Soviet-run Composer's Union and had to wait a quarter of a century before its first public performance.^[10]

Ligeti's earliest works are often an extension of the musical language of Béla Bartók. Even his piano cycle, Musica ricercata (1953), though written according to Ligeti with a "Cartesian" approach in which he "regarded all the music I knew and loved as being... irrelevant",^[11] has been described by one biographer as inhabiting a world very close to Bartók's set of piano works, Mikrokosmos.^[12] Ligeti's set comprises eleven pieces in all. The work is based on a simple restriction: the first piece uses exclusively one pitch A, heard in multiple octaves, and only at the very end of the piece is a second note, D, heard. The second piece then uses three notes (E♯, F♯, and G), the third piece uses four, and so on, so that in the final piece all twelve notes of the chromatic scale are present. Shortly after its composition, Ligeti arranged six of the movements of Musica ricercata for wind quintet under the title Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet. The Bagatelles were performed first in 1956, but not in their entirety: the last movement was censored by the Soviets for being too 'dangerous'.^[13]

Because of Soviet censorship, his most daring works from this period, including Musica ricercata and String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes (1953–1954), were written for the 'bottom drawer'. Composed of a single movement divided into seventeen contrasting sections linked motivically,^[14] the First String Quartet is Ligeti's first work to suggest a personal style of composition. The string quartet was not performed until 1958, after he had fled Hungary for Vienna.^[15]

[edit] From 1956 to Le Grand Macabre

Upon arriving in Cologne, he began to write electronic music alongside Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig at the electronic studio of West German Radio (WDR). He completed only two works in this medium, however—the pieces Glissandi (1957) and Artikulation (1958)—before returning to instrumental music. A third work, originally entitled Atmosphères but later known as Pièce électronique Nr. 3, was planned, but the technical limitations of the time prevented Ligeti from realizing it completely. It was finally realized in 1996 by the Dutch composers Kees Tazelaar and Johan van Kreij of the Institute of Sonology.^[16]

Aventures, like its companion piece Nouvelles Aventures, is a composition for three singers and instrumental septet, to a text semantically without meaning of Ligeti's own devising. Each of the singers has five roles to play, exploring five areas of emotion, and they switch from one to the other so quickly and abruptly that all five areas are present throughout the piece.^[17]

Ligeti's music appears to have been subsequently influenced by his electronic experiments, and many of the sounds he created resembled electronic textures. The texture used in the second movement of Apparitions and Atmosphères Ligeti would later dub "micropolyphony".

The Requiem is a work for soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, twenty-part chorus (four each of soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), and orchestra. Though, at about half an hour, it is the longest piece he had composed up to that point,^[18] Ligeti sets only about half of the traditional text: the Introitus, the Kyrie, and the Dies irae—dividing the latter sequence into two parts, De die iudicii sequentia (Day of Judgement Sequence) and Lacrimosa (Weeping).

Lux Aeterna is a 16-voice a cappella piece whose text is also associated with the Latin Requiem.

String Quartet No. 2 belongs to the great tradition of quartet writing, from the Classical masters to Berg and Bartók. The five movements differ widely from each other in their types of motion. In the first, the structure is largely broken up, as in Aventures. In the second, everything is reduced to very slow motion, and the music seems to be coming from a distance, with great lyricism. The pizzicato third movement is another of Ligeti's machine-like studies, hard and mechanical, whereby the parts playing repeated notes creates a "granulated" continuum. In the fourth, which is fast and threatening, everything that happened before is crammed together. Lastly, in strong contrast, the fifth movement spreads itself out. In each movement, the same basic configurations return, but each time their coloring or viewpoint is different, so that the overall form only really emerges when one listens to all five movements in context.^[19]

Ramifications, completed a year before the Chamber Concerto, is scored for an ensemble of strings in twelve parts—seven violins, two violas, two cellos and a double bass—each of which may be taken by one player or several. The twelve are divided into two numerically equal groups but with the instruments in the first group tuned approximately a quarter-tone higher (four violins, a viola and a cello). As the group play, the one tuned higher inevitably tends to slide down toward the other, and both get nearer each other in pitch.^[19]

In the Chamber Concerto, several layers, processes and kinds of movement can take place on different planes simultaneously. In spite of frequent markings of "senza tempo", the instrumentalists are not given linear freedom; Ligeti insists on keeping his texture under strict control at any given moment. The form is like a "precision mechanism". Ligeti has always been fascinated by machines that do not work properly and by the world of technology and automation. The ticking of periodic mechanical noises of not-quite-reliable machinery occurs in many of his works. The scoring is for flute (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling oboe d'amore and cor anglais/English horn), clarinet, bass clarinet (doubling second clarinet), horn, trombone, harpsicord (doubling Hammond organ), piano (doubling celesta), and solo string quartet.^[20]

From the 1970s, Ligeti turned away from total chromaticism and began to concentrate on rhythm. Pieces such as Continuum (1968) and Clocks and Clouds (1972–73) were written before he heard the music of Steve Reich and Terry Riley in 1972. But the second of his Three Pieces for Two Pianos, entitled "Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin in the background)," commemorates this affirmation and influence. During the 1970s, he also became interested in the polyphonic pipe music of the Banda-Linda tribe from the Central African Republic, which he heard through the recordings of one of his students.^[21]

In 1977, Ligeti completed his only opera, Le Grand Macabre, thirteen years after its initial commission. Loosely based on Michel de Ghelderode's 1934 play, La Balade du grand macabre, it is a work of Absurd theatre—Ligeti called it an "anti-anti-opera"—in which Death (Nekrotzar) arrives in the fictional city of Breughelland and announces that the end of the world will occur at midnight. Musically, Le Grand Macabre draws on techniques not associated with Ligeti's previous work, including quotations and pseudo-quotations of other works^[22] and the use of consonant thirds and sixths. After Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti would abandon the use of pastiche,^[23] but would increasingly incorporate consonant harmonies (even major and minor triads) into his work, albeit not in a diatonic context.

[edit] After Le Grand Macabre

From left to right: György Ligeti, Lukas Ligeti, Vera Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, and Michael Daugherty at the ISCM World Music Days in Graz, Austria, 1982

After Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti struggled for some time to find a new style. Besides two short pieces for harpsichord, he did not complete another major work until the Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano in 1982, over four years after the opera. His music of the 1980s and 1990s continued to emphasize complex mechanical rhythms, often in a less densely chromatic idiom, tending to favor displaced major and minor triads and polymodal structures. During this time, Ligeti also began to explore alternate tuning systems through the use of natural harmonics for horns (as in the Horn Trio and Piano Concerto) and scordatura for strings (as in the Violin Concerto). Additionally, most of his works in this period are multi-movement works, rather than the extended single movements of Atmosphères and San Francisco Polyphony.

From 1985 to 2001, Ligeti completed three books of Études for piano (Book I, 1985; Book II, 1988–94; Book III, 1995–2001). Comprising eighteen compositions in all, the Études draw from a diverse range of sources, including gamelan,^[24][25][26] African polyrhythms, Béla Bartók, Conlon Nancarrow, Thelonious Monk,^[26][27] and Bill Evans. Book I was notably written as preparation for the Piano Concerto, which contains a number of similar motivic and melodic elements.