Intricate webs of gradually evolving sound, rhythmic systems that seem to dissolve into chaos—György Ligeti was a master of musical Surrealism. He was born in 1923 into a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania. After studies in Budapest, he moved to West Germany in 1956. A brief period working in an electronic studio with Karlheinz Stockhausen led to a series of orchestral and choral scores conceived in the textural terms of electronic music. Among these, Atmosphères (1961) and Requiem (1963-65) established Ligeti’s reputation when they were used by Stanley Kubrick for the film 2001. The opera Le Grand Macabre (1974-77) demonstrated the absurdist side of Ligeti’s personality, as did the Nonsense Madrigals (1988-93), based on Alice in Wonderland, a lifelong influence. In his later music, Ligeti explored a broad range of traditions and ideas that complemented his interest in musical complexity and illusion. His three books of Piano Études (1985-2001) draw on Hungarian folk music, African drumming, chaos theory, and even the jazz piano of Bill Evans. Ligeti taught in Stockholm through the 1960s, and from 1973 to 1989 was professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater. He died in Vienna in 2006 at the age of 83.