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" I was fifteen years old, and I hardly knew how to play a simple Bach prelude on the piano when I began to compose music, and at the most advanced level. I had never studied such things as harmony. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

Music

Simple

Play

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" I only want to give a metaphysic for my music. "

" My grandfather was not a musician but he was an artist - a painter, a decorative painter. "

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" Yes, fractals are what I want to find in my music. "

" But if you go from Moscow to Budapest you think you are in Paris. "

" I think a composer is always interested in his last work. "

" First of all I listen to music. I like music. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

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" Steinberg is great. I should like to meet him. "

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" I continued to study Math and Physics on my own, but one and a half years later I realized that I did want to be a composer, and after that I never changed my mind. "

" I write bars, for the musicians, because they have to be together. "

" I lived under the Nazis and under the Communists. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

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" Once, in London, the BBC asked me what was my favorite English book. I said Alice in Wonderland. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

London

Once

" I like to stay home and listen to recordings. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

Listen

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" I don't use old music. "

" But I do not want to use Hungarian verses for British people. "

" I don't read such boring things. Life is too short. "

" In my piano concerto I developed this polyphony to much higher complexity. "

" For the past ten years I have had no financial problems. "

" In January 1944 I was called up by the Forced Labor Service, but I deserted on October 10, 1944. "

" Well I live in Vienna with my wife and son, and I teach in Hamburg, there will be no changes in that respect. "

" When I was younger I was completely without money - when I was studying in Budapest, when I was a refugee. "

" Gesualdo was very important to me, I wanted to do something which corresponded to him. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

Him

Something

" People often thought Leopold Auer was Russian because he lived in St. Petersburg so long, almost fifty years. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

Thought

Lived

" Then, after the war it was impossible to travel, after so many years of Hitler and Stalin. "

" It isn't false modesty when I say this, but although I am supposed to be a famous person it doesn't mean anything to me. I just sit at home and work. "

Gyorgy Ligeti

I Am

Say

" There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry. "

" New York is the dream world, the center of jazz and rock. "

" However, I began composing as soon as I started taking piano lessons. "

" If you come from Paris to Budapest you think you are in Moscow. "

" I listen to all kinds of music - new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything. "

" I know already the music I will write. But the words? I have not yet decided. "