Stockhausen's Spaceship

Started by Cato, September 21, 2007, 06:24:19 AM

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Oclock

The question is... Which group will rise in the helicopter? Ardittis?  ::)

CRCulver

#441
With the planners admitting that this will be put on with public funding, but refusing to specify how much, I think we're in for a huge firestorm in the British press (or at least the Comments section of newspaper websites) about how the government is "wasting money on this music no one wants to hear". Some such controversy has accompanied all big Stockhausen performances in the UK, and I have no reason to believe it won't happen again (which is this case will be too bad, because in Holland the Helicopter String Quartet proved appealing to a wide audience that doesn't generally follow contemporary music).

snyprrr

Quote from: James on March 14, 2012, 03:17:38 PM


That is why he prayed daily

because its message is about love and collaboration and shows a united humanity dealing with problems common to every single member of this human family.


Hear, mankind: in our part
– voice of the Intuition–
it says to sing love forever
through solicitous formula music
in praise of GOD:
HU!


So, what religion was KS?? I mean, frankly, it seems like he spent a loooot of time concerned about 'Lucifer'. Is he one of those who thinks that 'Lucifer' is God and 'Jehovah' is the devil? Is this just Urantia?

It's just that I hear this type of Utopian stuff from dotty old ladies who have no solid teaching. It's all this 'hopey changey' stuff that I think got us where we are now (what kind of 'work of art' do you think KS would declare the mortgage backed securities fraud?).

'Light', itself, is what the Freemason seek,... the phrase 'more Light', and so on,...

Is this just KS's The Magic Flute?


Signed,

The Church Lady ;D


Sorry, I'm sure I'll get a firestorm here, but, I guess.... what's my point?,... what is it that KS is missing from his worldview? Probably a real 'Savior'?

Ack, it's too early,... alright, I'll Post and take the heat. :(

canninator

I've signed up for notifications.  Even Birmingham is not enough to keep me away from this. Been playing Samstag and Montag today to get me all worked up (although I suspect I may be peaking too early).

petrarch

Quote from: Il Furioso on March 17, 2012, 11:08:22 AM
I've signed up for notifications.  Even Birmingham is not enough to keep me away from this. Been playing Samstag and Montag today to get me all worked up (although I suspect I may be peaking too early).

And Mittwoch is sonically quite different than the other days (sparse, atmospheric, more musique concrète than electronic music). I would travel to the UK to attend the premiere, but London is going to be brutal cost-wise because of the Olympics.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

snyprrr

Quote from: James on March 17, 2012, 06:49:26 AM
Hop aboard old lady ..



Trust me, I'm not knocking the spectacle of it all. (btw- that IS a cool scary helicopter!) If ever one were ever to drop one more hit of four way windowpane,... I'm sure you'd get KS's approval, no? :D

Vut I just prefer to sit on the Helikopter Quartet sidelines. I like the glissandos of the frenetic middle section, but I just find the whole thing Babylonian. Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity! 8)

But, once again, I agree,...what can stand to the sheer scope of this event?



I still say God will be wroth and an earthquake will swallow the opera house whole! ;)

canninator

Interestingly, my nine year son's favourite composer is Stockhausen. He is completely drawn into the sound world and, in my completely uncontrolled experiment, I like to think he is yet to be contaminated by the otherwise conventional musical structures he will be exposed to every day of his life (and piano lessons). Today he is enjoying Hymnen although he did announce it was no Spiral.

I am trying to finger Teirkreis for guitar at the moment but ease of playing means dropping some of the notes in the harmony. This is permissible according to KHS in the score rubric but not satisfactory. There is a super version for lute duo available that has to be my favourite.

springrite

I was just telling a friend the other day that if there is only one more opera I could see LIVE, I'd pick Wednesday from LICHT. Now that it is here, I am afaid that it lies outside of my budget. What a shame, though!
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

snyprrr

James, do you have the 'string trio'? How is that?

snyprrr

Quote from: James on March 31, 2012, 06:44:44 AM
It's a beautiful work. I have a live broadcast recording of it, I haven't bought the Verlag CD (yet).



Samples here > http://www.stockhausencds.com/Stockhausen_Edition_CD89.htm

The String Trio (Hoffnung "Hope") is a work that is generated from musical material of the 5th hour of the Klang cycle .. one in  a series (hrs. 6 to 14) of works that are 'trios'  that are spawn of that 5th hour (but ultimately the whole cycle is generated from a 24 note, all-interval, 2 octave series) .. it's all very non-idiomatic writing Art of Fugue-ish in concept. Tonal looping smooth melodic feel with many, many tranformations, it's about the raw notes/rhythms rather than the sonic 'clothing'. I like listening to them.

That's very smooth. I like this the best so far,... very 'tonal', yet there is virtuoso, very much Bach-ish but all KHS. Closest it reminds me of is Goeyvaarts (in the soft 'Dutchness'), though more involved.

Mirror Image

Hey James did Stockhausen actually compose anything that didn't require an electronic piece of crap? Second question in two parts: did he actually compose anything that's melodically beautiful or is basically his entire output just a bunch of hot circuits air.

eyeresist

Haven't you heard of Stimmung?

Mirror Image

#452
Quote from: James on April 12, 2012, 08:12:47 PM
Are you angry? You seem so.

Stockhausen is one of the main composers of the 20th/21st century; electronics, electroacoustics, technology .. all important door opening musical realities that are widely used & explored these days .. you should really explore his massive output to bring yourself up to speed, enrich/broaden your mind & ears .. and find out the answers to the naive questions you ask.

No, I'm not angry. I just asked some simple questions which apparently weren't answered. So I'll just leave it as he worked in a completely inaccessible medium where you have to have some obsession with technological advances in music in order to understand or comprehend. So I guess a machine going "Bleep...bleep...bleep" wasn't enough for Stockhausen. :)

CRCulver

#453
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 12, 2012, 07:45:52 PM
Did Stockhausen actually compose anything that didn't require an electronic piece of crap?

Come on, you know the answer to that is yes.

QuoteSecond question in two parts: did he actually compose anything that's melodically beautiful...

If anything, the problem for me with Stockhausen's post-1970 output is that it is too melodic, too pretty, to the detriment of other aspects of music. Tierkreis is nothing but one melody after another. Some of the LICHT scenes are a fairly simple melody that just goes on and on.

Looking back, the unmelodic Stockhausen -- either Darmstadt pointillism, random improv, or a swirling electronic mess -- is actually the shorter part of his career.

Mirror Image

Quote from: James on April 13, 2012, 02:34:23 PM
Tierkreis and Licht clearly illustrate his musical prowess in spades .. he could take a motif, theme, melodic phrase, tune, contrapuntal snapshot, ((heck .. a single tone, chord, sine-wave, radio signal, click .. practically anything from the entire firmament of sound)) ..and from these smallest of musical seeds - generate and compose an almost inexhaustable OVERWHELMING diversity of music that exhausts & unifies all the parameters in a very highly distinctive, refined and musical way.

::)

Said Stockhausen's biggest fan.

canninator

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 12, 2012, 07:45:52 PM
Hey James did Stockhausen actually compose anything that didn't require an electronic piece of crap? Second question in two parts: did he actually compose anything that's melodically beautiful or is basically his entire output just a bunch of hot circuits air.

The 2CD Complete Edition vol 28: Music for Flute has some stunningly beautiful music. Admittedly, one piece Kathinka's Gesang does contain electronics but is all the more effective for it.

Lisztianwagner

Quote from: James on April 05, 2012, 03:04:34 AM
Karlheinz Stockhausen composed his cycle LIGHT, an opera for each day of the week. End of June 2013 in Munich will be the German premiere of his opera SATURDAY - in three programs, in seven events. As Hopp says, the opera blends well into the "Wagner" year, as Stockhausen's opera cycle is often seen as a continuation of the musical theater by Richard Wagner.

By Richard Wagner, really? It sounds quite interesting!! ;D

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Lisztianwagner

Quote from: James on April 19, 2012, 02:59:37 AM
When Stockhausen first started composing he was very heavily influenced by Webern (Webern was largely responsible for reducing most of the traditional musical parameters to intervallic relationships; so, basically a music built on the relationship between two sounds.), and his idea to take these ideas forward was actually to compose the sounds themselves. This led to much of his pioneering work with electronic music. One could write several doctoral theses on the significance of Stockhausen in different areas of music, but suffice it to say that he made break-through after break-through, revolutionizing the worlds of aleatoric music, spatial elements (he was one of he pioneers of the surround-sound we're all now so accustomed to, for one small example), formula composition, instrumental theater, etc. LICHT alone solidifies his genius to just about anyone who has taken the time to get to know it.

I understand; thanks for the explanation, James. :)
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Scion7

Desert island music!

Leave it on the island, speed away in the boat.

  ;D
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

not edward

Quote from: Scion7 on May 04, 2012, 04:35:24 PM
Desert island music!

Leave it on the island, speed away in the boat.

  ;D
You might have just come up with a desert island quote there...
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music