György Ligeti, Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music, 1923-2006

Restricted in his musical style by the authorities of Communist Hungary, only when Ligeti reached the west in 1956, he could fully realise his passion for avant-garde music and develop new compositional techniques. After experimenting with electronic music in Cologne, his breakthrough came with orchestral works such as "Atmosphères", for which he used a technique he later dubbed micropolyphony. After writing his "anti-anti-opera" "Le Grand Macabre", Ligeti shifted away from chromaticism and towards polyrhythm for his later works. He is best known by the public through the use of his music in film soundtracks, e. g. the sound design of Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey".