Ligeti in 1/4 comma meantone

>p.s. Ligetti's harpsichord solo in meantone is gorgeous. Manfred
> Stahnke sent me a copy. I don't know if it is commercially available, > but I will ask him.

"Commercially available" meaning what? Published score (yes)? Multitude of recordings (yes)?

I played that piece on one of my doctoral recitals, back in '94. The whole recital was of meantone pieces, with Hassler's "Einmal ging ich spatieren" variations as cornerstone. The Ligeti piece--_Passacaglia ungherese_--is carefully notated so every single note in it is spelled enharmonically correctly according to the tuning. Even in the wicked fast spots where it seems as if it almost shouldn't matter, they're still spelled correctly even if this makes it hard to read. Meanwhile, the ostinato (very much like the Pachelbel Canon's) keeps going and keeps migrating downward; and it's dogged either above or below by pure major 3rds and pure minor 6ths, the whole way, against the free blitz of the third voice. Excellent stuff.

Brad Lehman