Ligeti was born in Transylvania, which was then part of Hungary, now in Romania, on . As a child he studied music and composition, and graduated from Budapest Academy of Music in 1949. The following year, Ligeti joined the faculty of the Academy as a professor of counterpoint and harmony. While there he made an extensive study of Romanian folk music (influenced by Béla Bartók), and many of his early compositions were based on arrangements of Hungarian and Romanian...