György Ligeti was commissioned to write San Francisco Polyphony in1973-74, to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The composer discussed the work in an interview with Péter Várnai: “This is an orchestral work, neither symphony nor concerto, which is why I simply gave it the title Polyphony. Actually, this could be title of any of my works… In 1972, I spent six months with my family at Stanford University near San Francisico … While I was composing the San Francisco Polyphony, I believed that the atmosphere of the city determined the work, or at least the atmosphere was there in the work. When I then heard it, I noticed that it was far more Viennese, that there were many expressive melodies reminiscent of Alban Berg or Mahler. Perhaps the prestissimo tempo closing section, with its machine like freneticism, evokes an American big city. But please don't interpret it as programme music. Perhaps there is a feature which is valid as a programme. San Francisco is a very foggy city … There is a cluster at the beginning of the work, which is filled with the most different melodies, but you cannot hear them because they are woven together like vines. Then, one by one, each melodic idea, each clear pattern rises up, but then falls back into the eddy. I could say that this is the general constructive principle of this work. It is also characteristic that the emerging melodies pass from one instrument to another, and change thei tone  colours.”