The Hungarian composer György Ligeti published three string quartets: two string quartets proper (1953–54, 1968) and a student piece from 1950 published toward the end of his life. The first two quartets represent his early period, inspired by Béla Bartók, and middle period, which was largely micropolyphonic. In 2012, sketches and notes for his projected String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were discovered by Bianca Ţiplea Temeș at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and represent Ligeti's late period.

A wind quintet, also known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon). Unlike the string quartet (of 4 string instruments) with its homogeneous blend of sound color, the instruments in a wind quintet differ from each other considerably in technique, idiom, and timbre. The modern wind quintet sprang from the octet ensemble favored in the court of Joseph II in late 18th century Vienna: two oboes, two clarinets, two (natural) horns, and two bassoons. The influence of Haydn's chamber writing suggested similar possibilities for winds, and advances in the building of these instruments in that period made them more useful in small ensemble settings, leading composers to attempt smaller combinations. It was Anton Reicha's twenty-four quintets, begun in 1811, and the nine quintets of Franz Danzi that established the genre, and their pieces are still standards of the repertoire. Though the form fell out of favor in the latter half of the 19th century, there has been renewed interest in the form by leading composers in the 20th century, and today the wind quintet is a standard chamber ensemble, valued for its versatility and variety of tone color.

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti published three string quartets: two string quartets proper (1953–54, 1968) and a student piece from 1950 published toward the end of his life. The first two quartets represent his early period, inspired by Béla Bartók, and middle period, which was largely micropolyphonic. In 2012, sketches and notes for his projected String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were discovered by Bianca Ţiplea Temeș at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and represent Ligeti's late period.

A ballade (; French: [balad]; and Latin: ballare ,pronounced [bälˈlʲäːrɛ]) refers to a one-movement instrumental piece with lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities reminiscent of such a song setting. In 19th century romantic music, a piano ballade is a genre of solo piano pieces written in a balletic narrative style, with lyrical and virtuosic elements being prominently featured.

György Sándor Ligeti (; Hungarian: [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time". Born in Romania, he lived in the Hungarian People's Republic before emigrating to Austria in 1956. He became an Austrian citizen in 1968. In 1973 he became professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where he worked until retiring in 1989. His students included Hans Abrahamsen, Unsuk Chin and Michael Daugherty. He died in Vienna in 2006. Restricted in his musical style by the authorities of Communist Hungary, only when he reached the West in 1956 could Ligeti fully realise his passion for avant-garde music and develop new compositional techniques. After experimenting with electronic music in Cologne, Germany, his breakthrough came with orchestral works such as Atmosphères, for which he used a technique he later dubbed micropolyphony. After writing his "anti-anti-opera" Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti shifted away from chromaticism and towards polyrhythm for his later works. He is best known by the public through the use of his music in film soundtracks. Although he did not directly compose any film scores, excerpts of pieces composed by him were taken and adapted for film use. The sound design of Stanley Kubrick's films, particularly the music of 2001: A Space Odyssey, drew from Ligeti's work.

Ramifications is a composition for strings by Hungarian composer György Ligeti. It was finished in 1968 and premiered in 1969.

The Sonata for Solo Cello is an unaccompanied cello sonata written by György Ligeti between 1948 and 1953. The piece was initially received poorly by the Soviet-run Composer's Union and was not allowed to be published or performed. However, in the 1980s and 90s, after over a quarter century in repose, the piece reemerged and has since become a well-known part of the standard cello repertoire.

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti published three string quartets: two string quartets proper (1953–54, 1968) and a student piece from 1950 published toward the end of his life. The first two quartets represent his early period, inspired by Béla Bartók, and middle period, which was largely micropolyphonic. In 2012, sketches and notes for his projected String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were discovered by Bianca Ţiplea Temeș at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and represent Ligeti's late period.

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti published three string quartets: two string quartets proper (1953–54, 1968) and a student piece from 1950 published toward the end of his life. The first two quartets represent his early period, inspired by Béla Bartók, and middle period, which was largely micropolyphonic. In 2012, sketches and notes for his projected String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were discovered by Bianca Ţiplea Temeș at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and represent Ligeti's late period.

The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano by György Ligeti was completed in 1982. The piece was a turning point in Ligeti’s career. Ligeti had composed little since he completed his opera, Le Grand Macabre, in 1977, having only finished a few smaller pieces, like Hungarian Rock (chaconne) and Passacaglia ungherese for harpsichord. Influenced by sources as diverse as sub-Saharan African drumming, the music of Conlon Nancarrow, and the piano music of Chopin and Schumann, the Trio is considered to be the watershed moment that opened up his "third way," a style that Ligeti claimed to be neither modern nor postmodern. Ligeti wrote the Trio at the suggestion of pianist Eckart Besch as a companion to Johannes Brahms' Horn Trio, one of the few other examples in the genre, which is why the Ligeti Trio is marked Hommage à Brahms. Ligeti recalled his reaction to the suggestion: "[a]s soon as he pronounced the word 'horn' somewhere inside my head I heard the sound of a horn as if coming from a distant forest in a fairy tale, just as in a poem by Eichendorff."

György Ligeti composed his Viola Sonata between 1991 and 1994. It is a sonata for viola solo in six movements, and Ligeti composed it in various phases, parallel with his Violin Concerto, and his piano études. The composer was inspired to write a viola sonata after hearing Tabea Zimmermann playing on the radio, then began writing various movements. The second movement Loop, was premiered by Garth Knox (then violist of the Arditti Quartet), while Facsar was premiered in 1993 by Jürg Dahler. The two movements were conceived as part of a complete work and they became the second and third movements of Ligeti's Viola Sonata. The sonata is a departure from Ligeti's Cello Sonata, composed 40 years earlier and represents an important turning point. In contrast with the earlier work, his Viola Sonata follows a pattern reminiscent of the Baroque sonata, with its many movements of contrasting tempi and rhythms. The fifth movement, a slow Lamento, comes between a prestissimo and the final vivace, chromatic chaconne. This perhaps harks back to Frescobaldi's sonatas where one can find a Toccata Cromatica as well as examples of the passacaglia and chaconne. The first and third movements are variations on an ostinato, and alternate between the moto perpetuo movements that are the second and the fourth. In the first, fourth and fifth movement, one finds elements of Eastern European traditional music, while the influence of free rhythms and jazz and Latin harmonies intervene more in the second, third and sixth movement. Other characteristic features are the harmonies in the first and fourth movements and the repeated chords in the second and sixth. Critic Blair Sanderson referred to the sonata as "one of the major viola works of the 20th century".