The paper Similar Compositional Landscapes in Ligeti and Webern is being considered for publication. This paper compares similar approaches to composition from the composer’s perspective with the aim of showing how initial choices, no matter how seemingly trivial, greatly influence outcomes of artistic processes.

The following is a brief abstract:
Despite inhabiting radically different sound worlds, Ligeti’s Piano Concerto and Webern’s Symphony illuminate similar compositional landscapes. In both cases, the composer’s decision to use strongly characterized primitives limits the potential for large scale form in both duration and complexity.
Generally, primitives, or small irreducible icons, are formed from shaped raw material (isolated pitches, rhythms, timbres) which then become generating mechanisms for the music (of a particular composition or movement). The primitives, for both Ligeti and Webern, are strongly characterized due to immediately perceptible constraints on material identity (such as showing clearly the ordering of pitches in a row or the use of recognizable scales and rhythmic patterns) and a high degree of continuity (elements within the primitive bind together). This bestows a clear precise identity to the music , but also limits its developmental and formal aspects.