György Ligeti's music of the 1970s shows a distinct change of direction in its main preoccupation. Up to the middle 1970s his dominant concern was with textural elements, note-cluster development and the use of strict canons to create ‘Mikropolyphonie’. Mikropolyphonie is usually generated by a canonic development where each entry uses the same pitch array but also has a unique rhythmic shape and is therefore unlike-a normal canon (Example 1, below, is a good illustration). Melody, non-cluster harmony, and rhythmic clarity were not usually significant features. However the opera Le Grande Macabre (1974–77) shows a clear, unambiguous change of approach and a greater eclecticism; as Ligeti states: ‘In Le Grande Macabre there is less of the static, slowly, gradually evolving music. I felt I had worn these types out’.