Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes

In November, 2007 I attended a rather memorable St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert. While I enjoyed the orchestral music of Kurtág and Górecki, it was György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes that has left a burning memory of the performance in my mind. Upon entering the concert hall, I was immediately struck by the string of metronomes surrounded the audience in a crescent. The performance was initiated as all one hundred metronomes, each set to a different tempo, were sent into motion by ensemble members. The result was an onslaught of polyrhythmic clicks, swelling in subtle waves. The sound reminded me of rain droplets hitting a tin roof. As the metronomes began to wind down, the texture thinned, and after about 15 minutes only a few remained until they stopped altogether.

I thought the piece was fantastic, though it wasn't until reading Tom Johnson's views on minimalism, as expressed in "Minimalism in Music: in search of a definition" that I now consider Poème Symphonique a piece of minimalist music. It is a great example of how complexity can be created through minimal means. I was reminded of Poème Symphonique by the polyrhythmic and textural qualities of our run through of Cow Pong in class, and find the comparison between the two pieces rather interesting.

Poème Symphonique was written in 1962 during Ligeti's brief involvement with the Fluxus movement, and was intended as a music critique of the narrow minded musical ideologies that he perceived at that time. The score is surprisingly detailed for a Fluxus piece, many of which were characterized by a few lines of text. Both the winding of the metronomes, as well as a period of silence are intended to be included in the performance of the piece, adding a silent element. In addition to sharing elements with what Johnson calls "silent music," it is also an example of process music, which has connections to Reich's work with phasing.

For some time, this piece was difficult to stage, as procuring a set of 100 identical pyramid shaped metronomes was a difficult endeavor. However, today one can rent a set of 100 metronomes, specifically tailored for this piece.

Here is a youtube performance, which involves an automated mechanism to initiate the metronomes simultaneously (skip to 1:30 for the start of the piece).