Stockhausen's Spaceship

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

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San Antone

Karlheinz Stockhausen ~ Refrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4akQvvKd2Ug

Refrain (1959) for three players (piano with woodblocks, vibraphone with alpine cowbells, and amplified celesta with antique cymbals).

Pessoa

What a lovely open concert hall Fundaçao Gulbenkian has in the heart of town!

NorthNYMark

#662
I listened to a Stockhausen work for the first time last night--Gruppen, performed by the Berlin Phil and Abbado (RIP).  I read some Amazon reviews of the CD, and it seems to be considered a relatively poor performance.  Nonetheless, I found it to be breathtaking!  I can only imagine what it must be like to experience this work in a live setting.  I will definitely be exploring more Stockhausen in the weeks to come.  (Kurtág's Stele, from the same album, was also gorgeous, in a very different way).

ritter

Quote from: James on January 26, 2014, 03:36:11 AM
New book...

[asin]3795707722[/asin]

It contains the 1977 commenced opera cycle "LICHT - the 7 days of the week," with a detailed history and photos to the premieres of the individual operas and numerous pages of score & analysis of very complex musical structures. The second part of the book covers the cycle "KLANG - the 24 hours of the day" which occupied the composer to the end, some of which were premiered with Stockhausen but the cycle remained incomplete before his death in 2007. 

Very interesting....Frisius' first two volumes offer a wealth of information on Stockhausen's oeuvre...good to see that his now gone beyond 1977 and on to Licht and klang.. :)

But these Schott volumes are a bit on the pricey side, alas...  :(

Pessoa

I can´t stand all that Urantia cosmic stuff lying behind Klang. I`d rather he had chosen to deal with daily things such as buying a red kettle or picking up the children from school.

snyprrr

Quote from: Pessoa on January 30, 2014, 02:07:36 AM
I can´t stand all that Urantia cosmic stuff lying behind Klang. I`d rather he had chosen to deal with daily things such as buying a red kettle or picking up the children from school.

Buuut... you get to lease your own planet!! :o

Mirror Image

Another masterful post from the King of Copy-and-Paste!

Karl Henning

Quote from: snyprrr on January 30, 2014, 05:21:59 AM
Buuut... you get to lease your own planet!! :o

Leave it to our snypsss to find the economic upside!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

San Antone

Chöre für Doris (1950)

From Wiki:

During his third year of music-education studies at the Cologne Conservatory, free stylistic exercises in composition were part of the programme of training.  Along with fugues, chorale preludes, sonatas, and song arrangements in various traditional styles, and a scherzo in the style of Paul Hindemith, Stockhausen wrote a number of choral pieces for the school choir in which he himself sang.  Amongst them were these three Chöre nach Verlaine (Choruses after Verlaine), later retitled Chöre für Doris. The first and third choruses were completed on 3 and 1 August 1950, respectively. The exact date of composition of the second is unknown. Stockhausen, who had not considered himself a composer up to this point, decided shortly after finishing these choruses to attempt something a little more ambitious for the first time, and wrote the Drei Lieder for alto voice and chamber orchestra (Kurtz 1992, 27; Maconie 2005, 32; Stockhausen 1978, 32).

All of these student works and a number of later ones remained unpublished until 1971, when Stockhausen rediscovered his early work Formel for chamber orchestra, and noticed affinities with his then-just-completed Mantra for two pianos and electronics. When Maurice Fleuret asked for a new piece to be performed at the Journées de Musique Contemporaine, Stockhausen offered Formel, and filled out the programme with a selection of other early compositions, including the Drei Lieder and the Sonatine (Stockhausen)Sonatine for violin and piano. On this same programme, on 22 October 1971 at the Théâtre de Ville in Paris, Marcel Couraud's chamber choir sang the Chöre für Doris for the first time, together with the contemporaneous Chorale ("Wer uns trug mit Schmerzen") (Kurtz 1992, 184). The Chöre für Doris are the earliest of these works that Stockhausen allowed to be published (Frisius 2008, 15).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8nDESd_DA

Oclock

Kathinka Pasveer wrote on Facebook: For all those who want to discuss different topics about Stockhausens works...

www.stockhausen-forum.de


???

snyprrr

Quote from: James on February 12, 2014, 09:57:11 AM
Cool. And its got some expert Stockhausen chroniclers as members. i.e. Robin Maconie, Thomas Ulrich.

So you'll fit in perfectly! :laugh:

"James E. Coyote... Soooper Stockhausen Chronicler" m-beep beep

Ascend Willingly!

San Antone

Inori, adorations for one or two solists and orchestra (1973/1974)

https://www.youtube.com/v/RytjvycKMYI

RHYTHMUS

I. Genesis
II. Evolution [07:24]
III. Echo [10:41]
IV. Orchesterpause [12:27]

DYNAMIK

V. Genesis [14:07]
VI. Genesis [16:57]
VII. Evolution [20:30]
VIII. Echo [26:40]
IX. Orchesterpause [29:38]

MELODIE

X. Genesis [30:10]
XI. Genesis [31:08]
XII. Genesis [33:12]
XIII. Orchesterpause [36:02]

HARMONIE

XIV. Präsenz [37:05]
XV. Orchesterpause [38:21]
XVI. Echo [40:39]

POLYPHONIE

XVII. Evolution 1 [47:25]
XVIII. Evolution 2 [52:13]
XIX. Spiral [55:36]
XX. Adoration [1:00:56]
XXI. Orchesterpause [1:05:23]

Elizabeth Clarke e Alain Louafi, solisti
Suzanne Stephens, Japanese rin
Maria Bergmann, pianoforte

The Symphony Orchestra of the Southwest German Radio directed by Karlheinz Stockhausen

San Antone

Sonatine (1951)

https://www.youtube.com/v/3dyOg4dfw6I

Sonatine, for violin and piano (1951)

I. ♩=50 | ♩=92-100 | ♩=50
II. ♩=46 (2:13)
III. ♩=120 (6:05)

Saschko Gawriloff, violin
Aloys Kontarsky, piano

Stockhausen composed the Sonatine as the second of two "free works" required for his final examinations at the Cologne Conservatory. The piano part of the first movement was composed originally as a separate work, titled Präludium, and the violin part was then superimposed. The manuscript of the completed composition is dated 19 March 1951. It was premiered by Wolfgang Marschner, concertmaster of the NWDR Symphony Orchestra, with the composer at the piano, in a broadcast recording transmitted for the first time on 24 August 1951. The first performance before a live audience, however, did not occur until twenty years later, when Saschko Gawriloff and Aloys Kontarsky played it on 22 October 1971 at a concert of the SMIP in Paris.

The work is not so much an integrated composition as three disparate style exercises, related only through the use of a common twelve-tone row in which thirds and perfect fifths predominate. Together with the Drei Lieder for alto and chamber orchestra, composed the previous summer, the Sonatine is the most significant example of Stockhausen's employment of classical Schoenbergian twelve-tone technique, but at the same time both compositions integrate this technique with aspects of neotonality and stylistic features associated with neoclassicism.

The first movement is lyrical and restrained in character, similar in character to a three-part invention in which rhythmic motives join with row transformations to produce the structure. On the other hand, it also resembles a small sonata-allegro form, beginning with the polyphonic superimposition of three different forms of the row (prime and retrograde in the right and left hands of the piano, inversion in the violin), all beginning on the same pitch, C5. The opening, slow section functions as an exposition. The middle section, in a faster tempo, is a sort of development section, and the final section returns to the opening tempo and material as a recapitulation.

In contrast to the polyphonic texture of the first movement, the second is more homophonic, with a slow boogie-woogie rhythm in the bass. The violin is muted throughout, and becomes separated from the increasingly heavy piano part as it floats upward. The movement is through-composed with an overall slowing process which Stockhausen described as "incredibly meditative, like Stimmung", and ends with the violin playing sextuplets against quadruplets in the piano.

The finale is dominated by polytonal chords, which accumulate into dense layers. The movement ends with a three-note chord, duplicated in the two hands of the piano as well as the violin, consisting of the notes C, D♭, and A♭. These notes were the predominating melodic notes at the beginning of this movement, as well as at the start of the first movement, and constitute the first trichord of the prime form of the basic row, which dominates all of the Sonatine. [wikipedia.org]

Oclock

New release, but anything new:



http://www.wergo.de/shop/en_UK/3/show,308909.html

Momente

Version 1965
studio reihe

composer: Karlheinz Stockhausen
interpreter: Alfons Kontarsky - Martina Arroyo - Aloys Kontarsky
booklet writer: Karlheinz Stockhausen
choir: Kölner Rundfunkchor
chorus master: Herbert Schernus
conductor: Karlheinz Stockhausen
orchestra/ensemble: Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester

Martina Arroyo: soprano / Aloys Kontarsky: Hammond organ / Alfons Kontarsky: Lowrey organ / Kölner Rundfunkchor / Herbert Schernus: choral director / members of the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester / Karlheinz Stockhausen: conductor

Order number: WER 67742   18.50 €    Add to basket

Price including VAT and plus delivery
As early as the 1960s WERGO made a name for themselves as a contemporary music label with outstanding recordings released under the title of "studio reihe neuer musik". Now WERGO releases these gems from their early years, these highlights of 20th-century music history, in an excellent sound quality on CD for the first time.

"studio reihe" now continues with a work by Karlheinz Stockhausen:

His "Momente" [Moments] for soprano, four choral groups, and thirteen instrumentalists have not been designed as a fixed work with a clearly defined beginning, formal structure, and ending but as a composition of independent events with multiple meanings: For example, the individual groups of moments should be combined for certain performances of the work in such a way that they form their own version – in accordance with the given duration of programme and sound means. As soon as the arrangement of the moments has been determined and the performance material been set accordingly, certain moments are to be "inserted" in their neighbouring moments as well, to "remember" earlier ones or "announce" moments still to come.

Premiered on 21 May 1962, the composition underwent some changes in the following years which led to several variants, with this CD presenting "Version 1965".

The recordings were originally published on LP in 1967 (WERGO, WER 60024).

Momente
for soprano, four choral groups and thirteen instrumentalists (Version 1965)
dedicated to Mary Bauermeister

snyprrr

Quote from: James on February 14, 2014, 03:02:17 AM
Friday, February 28th
Oldenburg, Ort und Zeit der Konzerte werden über die
Tagespresse und die elektronischen Medien noch bekanntgegeben
(Information: http://www.klangpol.de / www.ohton.de)

KLANG 13. Stunde / 13h Hour –COSMIC PULSES Electronic Music
HALT for trumpet and double-bass
Xi for flute
VIBRA-ELUFA for vibraphone
SUKAT for basset-horn and alto flute
KONTRABASS (DOUBLE-BASS) for double-bass and electronic music
ZYKLUS (CYCLES) for a percussionist
MISSION UND HIMMELFAHRT (MISSION AND ASCENSION) for trumpet and basset-horn
KLANG 13. Stunde / 13h Hour –COSMIC PULSES Electronic Music




Here's my problem: when was the last time someone released a nice, varied Stockhausen programme such as above (or are the pieces too long?). I mean, I think there's no string music in KHS is there?, really?, I mena, that 'Sonatine' was unique,... and there's a lot of wind in KHS, and percussion,... but you should be able to put together a nicely filled cd with solos, duos, trios, and such, of varying timbre, with maybe bass clarinet and basset horn, or trumpet flugel, some flute, maybe sprinkled with the shortest Piano Pieces, maybe if there's a shortish percussion piece? I mean, there's not that maybe KHS 'recital' recordings, is there (I'm aware of what's been available, including the bass clarinet recital (but those are always the same pieces for different instruments) and --ot trumpet--- the  'Zyklus'Refrain'Kontackt' cds (probably that Koch cd is the echt-KHS cd?).

waaah, does everything have to be so long? :'(

Karl Henning

The music ends long before the piece is over . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Not an actual comment on the composer of the thread . . . just a (Stravinsky, I think?) bon mot which snypsss's plaint brought to mind.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Quote from: karlhenning on February 28, 2014, 08:59:59 AM
The music ends long before the piece is over . . . .

Indeed, but that's Stockhausen for you. One long empty note after another with nothing in-between.

not edward

Good to see the 1965 version finally make it onto CD: I'm not sure why it took so long.

It has documentary value as well as musical value, given the work's tangled (almost Boulezian) history of revisions. The DG recording was of the 1972 version, which is about twice the length and contains large amounts of new material as well as revisions of existing material. I've never been convinced this was entirely to the benefit of the work as it sacrifices tautness and stylistic continuity.
"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

snyprrr

Is 'Inori' available? If so, do you know who what where when and how? It's what, 2-3 cds complete? This is the kind of KHS release I need to get the juices going.