György Kurtág, who is still active at the age of 99, is the last representative of a great generation of composers who emerged after World War II. A legendary chamber music coach and source of inspiration for composers and musicians around the world, with a compositional output spanning more than 70 years, Kurtág is widely regarded as one of the most original musical minds of our time. In this volume, scholars from three continents come together to explore Kurtág?s music and its shifting contexts. Some of the articles deal with theoretical questions. How can his music be placed within the framework of the 21st century? How does the concept of ?lateness? or ?Central Europe? define the nature and reception of his works? How can philosophical concepts such as Deuleuze and Guattari's ?rhizome?, or social theorist Manuel Castells' "space of flows", contribute to our understanding of Kurtág?s music? And how can we understand Kurtág?s unique relationships with performers and, more generally, with performance? Other articles focus in depth on particular historical periods in Kurtág?s life such as the early Romanian years, and communist Hungary in the 1950s. There are also fresh discussions of specific genres, namely unaccompanied solo vocal pieces, and the series of short piano pieces referring to a phrase that is now emblematic in Kurtág's universe, ?Virág az ember? (Flowers we are). TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Rachel Beckles Willson ? Gergely Fazekas Performers and Performances Translating Kurtág into Kurtág: From Practice to Product Rachel Beckles Willson Extrovert or Internal Performativity? Tactile Gestures in Kurtág?s Four-Hand Works Cecilia Oinas Who is Miyako? Explorations of the ?Virág az ember?? Series and the Significance of ??Mijakónak? Nobuhiro Ito Past and Present György Kurtág?s Time in Romania and Its Impact on His Personality and Work Iulia Mogo?an The ?Order of Composers? and Its Reluctant Member, György Kurtág: Social and Institutional Aspects of Composition in State Socialist Hungary Lóránt Péteri Difference and Repetition in György Kurtág?s Petite musique solennelle en hommage à Pierre Boulez 90 (2015) Julia Galieva-Szokolay Lenses on Lateness: Style, Form and History in György Kurtág?s ?concertante? Mark Hutchinson ? Martin Scheuregger Kurtág and the Twenty-First Century Tim Rutherford-Johnson The Drama of Languages The Unaccompanied Voice in the Works of György Kurtág Peter Laki Story Time: Towards György Kurtág?s Fin de partie Anita Rákóczy Kurtág?s Music and the Concept of Central Europe Gergely Fazekas Abstracts and Biographies Index of Names