György Ligeti, Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes

The Dutchman Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel invented the metronome in 1814 but forgot to patent it. His compatriot Johann Maelzel, more astute, took some ideas from him and in 1816 patented the device that since then musicians have used to keep a regular tempo while practicing. The same year, the shrewd entrepreneur began to manufacture it under the name of "Maelzel Metronome".
Soon after, Beethoven learned of the existence of the new gadget, and raised a ruckus. He claimed that for the new, free and untethered music of romanticism, the device was an aberration. Nevertheless, he was one of the first to use it, and to publish works with metronomic indication.

Ligeti's idea

Neither Winkel, Maelzel, nor Beethoven imagined that one hundred and fifty years later, a composer would use the device as a musical instrument. But there was no lack of precedents. Ravel, for example, used three metronomes at different speeds, at the beginning of his opera "The Spanish Hour". But the use of it as the sole instrument in charge of the complete work only occurred to the Hungarian composer György Ligeti, who in 1963 premiered before an astonished audience the work composed the previous year, Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes, 10 performers, and a conductor... the author.

György Ligeti (1923 - 2006)

The reception

The singular performance took place in Holland, in a very circumspect ceremony intended to conclude a series of concerts and conferences on new music that had taken place in the city of Hilversum, in whose municipality Ligeti's symphonic poem was heard for the first time, before the astonished ears (if ears could be astonished) of politicians and local dignitaries.

In due time, the one hundred metronomes were arranged at the established speeds, and the ten performers started them up at Ligeti's precise indication. Then, the performers and conductor left the stage, to return for receiving the applause about thirty minutes later. Naturally, the applause was sparse. It had been arranged for the ceremony to be televised, and so it was, but its broadcast had to be canceled by order of the City Council.

Rhythm, Ligeti's fascination

Celebrated as one of the greatest composers of contemporary music, György Ligeti had always shown a special attraction for the combination of musical lines resting on different rhythms and tempi. This work is based on that approach, and the metronomes – an arbitrary "instrument", it could have been any other –, fully serve that purpose.

Although the concept is odd, the work is still interesting from a rhythmic perspective. In the beginning, it is absolute chaos, but little by little distinguishable rhythmic patterns emerge (perhaps randomly, I think). As some devices are "muted", the silence begins to compete for the limelight. Finally, there is only one "operative" metronome left. Then, only silence.

The "symphonic poem" begins at minute 1:35. Before, two girls, speaking French, introduce the work.
The version, of course, reduced, is by French "metronomists".