An illuminating study of the life and work of Gyoergy Ligeti, one of the best-loved and most original composers of our time. For 50 years Gyoergy Ligeti has pursued a boldly independent and uncompromising course, yet his music is widely loved and admired. Ever since Stanley Kubrick's (unsanctioned) use of his music on the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, interest in Ligeti has extended far beyond the classical domain. He is the only living composer whose complete output, including juvenilia, is being systematically issued on CD. Published to coincide with the composer's eightieth birthday, Richard Steinitz's compelling new book is both an illuminating study of the music and its associative ideas - drawn from literature, theatre, the visual arts, fractal mathematics, ethnic cultures and other maverick composers - and of Ligeti the man. Ligeti has confided in Steinitz a mass of previously unknown biographical information. The result is an astonishing account of his early upbringing in Romania, of his terrifying yet surreal experiences in the war, and of his difficulties attempting to forge an identity as a young composer under repressive censorship in Communist Hungary, before his dramatic escape to the West in 1956. The story continues via Ligeti's association with the Western avant-garde and his increasingly masterful sequence of highly individual compositions, which Steinitz brings vividly to life through informative commentaries as well as through the composer's own words.

Explosions in November tells the story of one of Europes leading cultural institutions, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf), through the eyes of its founder and former artistic director, Professor Richard Steinitz. From its modest beginnings in 1978, when winter fog nearly sabotaged the inaugural programme, to todays internationally renowned event, hcmf has been a pioneering champion of the best in contemporary music.Now Richard Steinitz brings his insider view on the people behind the festival and how they made each year a success. He recalls his encounters with some true giants of music, including Boulez, Berio, Cage, Ligeti, Stockhausen and Xenakis. Discover how the author survived mushroom-hunting with John Cage, how the festival engineered a historic reconciliation between Cage and Pierre Boulez and how a ceiling fitting nearly brought Stockhausens career to a premature end. It is a compelling, inspiring and often entertaining story. Explosions in November reveals the full picture of a festival that continues to surprise, delight and provoke its audiences to this day.

MURDER OVER THE BORDER is a mystery set in the context of the Middle East Peace Process. The hero, Yossi Abulafia, is an Israeli policeman on army reserve duty near the Jordanian border. Instead of watching the border, he is taking photographs of antelope when the observation post he is sitting in collapses and he is seriously injured. During the accident, he unwittingly takes a photograph of what appears to be a murder -- on the other side of the border with Jordan. As a result of his accident, he is transferred to a boring desk job. He uses his connections to try and investigate what happened on the other side of the river. In the course of his new job, he travels to Amsterdam for a conference where he meets Aziz -- a Jordanian police officer. During the few days they are together, the two men become friends, but are attacked twice by an unknown assailant - the 'shooter'. The first attack passes without any damage, but the second is far more serious. Both men are shot, Yossi loses consciousness and is returned to Israel. As a result of his disabilities from the second accident, Abulafia is discharged from the police force against his will. He is semi-crippled, walks with difficulty and the aid of a cane. His close friend Yehiel, a lawyer and now special advisor to the Prime Minister, offers Yossi a job. Yehiel is in charge of the secret negotiations being conducted with the Palestinians in Oslo. Yossi, who is not enthusiastic about the idea of talking to the PLO, becomes his general factotum and police liaison. For the full story, buy the book

One of the world's best known living composers, Gyoergy Sandor Ligeti is widely acknowledged as the most influential and admired creative figure of the late twentieth century. His brilliantly conceived and challenging pieces, searingly intense at times and full of humor and irony at others, include the orchestral Apparitions and Atmospheres, piano etudes, the opera Le Grand Macabre, and the unaccompanied choral work Lux aeterna, which Stanly Kubrick actually pirated for the film soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In this book, Richard Steinitz fuses biographical, stylistic, and technical analysis to examine thoroughly the evolution of Ligeti's innovative music. Drawing extensively on his own private conversations with the composer as well as on many published and recorded interviews, Steinitz places Ligeti's extraordinary body of work within the context of his complex personal life.