Symphony Atlas

Lux aeterna

19668 min

This guide follows Ligeti’s Lux aeterna (1966) in one part.

Recording: SWR Vokalensemble, Yuval Weinberg

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Follow all 5 sections as they play

, 0:02–8:30

The piece falls into three parts shaped by the text. In the opening part (A) the sopranos and altos sing almost identical lines, entering a hair apart, and the tenors join around halfway through. In B the basses enter very high, in falsetto, and the women sing "Quia pius es". In B′ the basses sing "Domine" very low, forming a brief D-sharp minor chord, the only conventional chord in the piece. The voices then fade, and the piece ends with seven of silence.

  1. A
  2. B

Section boundaries in music are not always sharp; a transition may be felt over a pause or a held chord.

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In the catalog

György LigetiChoral worksModern period

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