Stockhausen's Spaceship

[nathanb]

It is with much shame that I tell you all that, although Stockhausen is pretty much my favorite composer, most of my Stockhausen collection (nearing ~120 hours of his music on my iPod) is downloaded. The Verlag is just...expensive and inconvenient.

But it is with much rejoicing that I tell you all that, last night, I made my first direct purchase from the Stockhausen Verlag! At a certain point, I suppose, a fanatic must offer some proof out of his wallet.

[nathanb]

It is with much shame that I tell you all that, although Stockhausen is pretty much my favorite composer, most of my Stockhausen collection (nearing ~120 hours of his music on my iPod) is downloaded. The Verlag is just...expensive and inconvenient. I've bought some of his recordings on Wergo and other labels, but that's as far as I've gone.

But it is with much rejoicing that I tell you all that, last night, I made my first direct purchase from the Stockhausen Verlag! At a certain point, I suppose, a fanatic must offer some proof out of his wallet.

[nathanb]

Same for me but I have Donnerstag, Gruppen, Klavierstucke and the Zodiac stuff on CD. I can honestly say to that site (which is not applicable for any other composers to me) that their prices are impossible and unrealistic.

And yet, my intent is to begin buying regularly from their site once I have a much higher income in roughly one year Just ordered the Dienstag DVDs for now. I nerded out so hard when Kathinka Pasveer sent my confirmation email!!!

[snyprrr]

Your suffering... it... it's DELICIOUS!!

[Mandryka]

I dug this out today. I'd forgotten how wonderful Rzewski's performance of Klavierstuck x is. Anyway I thought I'd post this for those who don't know it - it is well worth finding and hearing, it breaths, it's alive, the juxtaposition of silence and sounds.

[Karl Henning]

I'm listening to some of Monday from Licht, it's so good 

I'm enjoying the range of your listening.  Carry on 

[nathanb]

I'm listening to some of Monday from Licht, it's so good 

It is, but every time I listen to either Montag or Freitag without stopping, I gotta say, it is exhausting. Possibly as exhausting as Tristan Und Isolde or Les Troyens.

(I listened to Freitag consecutively on Tuesday. I decided that it probably edges out Montag in difficulty because it is the least modular of the seven operas.)

[nathanb]

Do it. Or simply set yourself a time, when you will listen to the cycle in its entirety before seeking out other music. I've had a couple of weeks where I listened to Montag on Monday, Dienstag on Tuesday, etc... There was one time when I really jumped the gun and listened to the entire 29 hour cycle in 4 days. Listening to even one act or scene per day would also be good. Preferably in some sort of order consistent with the work, which, admittedly, could go Montag to Sonntag, or Dienstag to Montag, or whatever; Stockhausen left the spiral open for interpretation, I believe.

This is how I do a lot of my listening, Stockhausen or not. I set myself goals. Sometimes I make myself little "playlists" of albums and set myself a rule (i.e. you can't listen off the list until you listen to everything on). I just finished a big personal project where I compiled every monographic album I had in my library from any composer ever appearing on the Donaueschingen compilations 1990-2014, and listened nearly exclusively to those albums for probably two months.

[nathanb]

It's something that I may start this week!!  I will take it scene by scene at first, the one I feel the most familiar with so far is Donnerstag. but of course I've heard many pieces in isolation many times, such as luzifers abschied.

What would you say are the highlights of Licht to you?

Luzifers Tanz, Luziferz Abschied, Michaels Reise, Invasion/Explosion, and Der Jahreslauf are surely the most popular pieces from LICHT (ok, those and the helicopters) and are certainly favorites of mine. I guess Michaelion is super awesome. And the other scenes from Samstag. Samstag is probably my favorite overall. I want to say something from Sonntag but...it's kinda my least-listened one thus far so I need to listen to that like...in the next week or so...just to make sure of some things. Honestly it's my least-listened only because my "in order" listens tend to start with Montag so it's obviously the most likely to get forgotten if life gets busy that week.

My overall impressions tend to yield this ranking: Samstag > Dienstag > Donnerstag > Mittwoch > Sonntag > Montag > Freitag

But as with ranking component operas of the Ring cycle... being last in the chain still means pure love.

[GioCar]

I am familiar with Donnerstag since I have it on LP



I was so lucky to attend the premiere of both Donnerstag and Samstag, many years ago, and of Montag as well.
I was so struck by Samstag that I went to see it a second time after few days.

Unfortunately I have never listened to the others. One day I'll take courage and buy them from the Verlag.

[James]

I ended up getting most of the Verlag editions during my exploration of his later music a few years back. The LICHT operas get better and increasingly more complex as they go along, though it is overlong and indulgent, beneath the waves of counterpoint .. his music itself became more accessible in terms of harmony and melody.. and the surfaces more expert and beautiful .. having spent virtually years exploring this massive and complicated work (the largest and most ambitious ever by a composer in the history of music), my highlights would be ..

Donnerstag .. Michael's Journey Around the World (his trumpet concerto, prefer the scaled down version, see the ECM recording - so good)
Samstag .. Lucifer's Dance (a stunning, wild orchestral concerto for a massive wind band - feat. some great solos too (esp. trumpet), the recording of this opera is great)
Montag ... (way overlong, some beautiful choral/vocal writing in this one, harmonious, plenty of off-color humor too .. i like the brief piano piece from this one, the Wochenkreis cycle for basset horn 'n' synths .. and the final scene .. Abduction is a highlight, prefer the adaptation he did for soprano sax & electronics; some of the Verlag editions with fractals/scenes from this opera are stronger than the full presentation/box)
Dienstag .. (shorter opera, 1st act is fun .. Octophony is the best from this tho imo, a new breakthrough in his use of space, Pieta is wonderful too, groundbreaking stuff)
Freitag .. (shorter opera, again, I love the Electronic Music with Sound Scenes from this one more than all else, ridiculously overlong, but amazing and absorbing, love his use of synths here)
Mittwoch .. (crazy opera, all over the place .. the electronic opener is strong, refined, spacey .. Orchestra Finalists is fun, I can take or leave the Helicopter Quartet, pushing spatial exploration to extremes .. but musically it's monotonous after awhile, on disc it is .. but my favorite is World Parliament, a great and highly inventive choral work)
Sonntag .. (again way overlong, but the strongest and richest of all the operas imo, his grand celestial mass, Angel Processions is good modern choral edifice, the Greeting Light-Water is just about perfect (my highlight) ... the choral-orchestral work utilizing 2 different performance spaces simultaneously doesn't really come off on disc well, the quartet with ring modulation is a strong piece, but overlong  .. and the exit piece especially the adaptation for percussionist and 10-channel electronics is cool.)

It's hard to get his work out of your head once you've spent a lot of time with it.

[James]

Besides in Stockhausen's other work (eg. Mantra), have any other composers taken on the superformula and nuclearformula ideas?

LICHT is based on 3 melodies, he called them "formulas" sometimes. Stockhausen loved to apply his own terminology and lingo to his methods and thinking, which is often a mixture of things that came before him, but things that are unique to him also .. but the essence of what he was doing has been around for ages. That kind of organic blossoming of a central musical idea. Whether it be a motif, theme, melodic line, tone row, etc.  What he does with that seed material is the astonishing part.

[nathanb]

Wow, the solo violin version of Tierkreis is so beautiful. It's always been a hauntingly beautiful composition, but wow!!! 

I have not heard this version!! Can you link me? I have some 11 or 12 versions on my iPod but not that.

[nathanb]

I found it on YouTube, the recording isn't perfect but it brings out a vibe reminiscent of the Bach violin Partitas (to me at least)

https://youtu.be/m782LQ1CtMc

Wowza. Wish there was a commercial recording like this. Of course, I was also thinking just yesterday that I wish Stockhausen had a few more chamber works with prominent strings in general.

Have you had the pleasure of hearing Dominik Susteck's rendition for organ? All of Susteck's WERGO recordings are a treat, and this is no exception.

[GioCar]

Samstag is definitely my favourite so far! 

I have been following your comments on your listening adventure with Samstag with great interest - definitively I have to listen to it again, after many years. 

[James]

I'm not quite sure what Licht I'll listen to next, any suggestions? 

You should (at least once) go through each one in the order they were composed.

Donnerstag (Michael Melody) > Samstag (Lucifer Melody) > Montag (Eve Melody) > Dienstag (Michael Melody vs. Lucifer Melody) > Freitag (Lucifer Melody tempting Eve Melody) > Mittwoch (Eve, Michael & Lucifer melodies reconciled) > Sonntag (Michael Melody reunites with Eve Melody and ascends Heavenward).

[nathanb]

pretty hammered right now and listening to mittwochs-gruss and ye bach n mozart had nothing on this profundity

[snyprrr]

Pulled out Kontarsky/Klavierstucke since I was in the middle of the Cage thing (Etudes Australes). 1-4, then 5 6 7...

After all the Cage, KHS's use of... gasp... Structure was a welcome relief to the ears. KHS has a lot of configurations that just can't seem to occur in a Nondeterminist mode. However, at times, as I was losing focus, and would then hear the music again, there were a couple of times where it sounded just like the Cage and I thought I was hearing that. But, again, KHS will Determine to put something exciting at some point, so, if there is a section, well, there will be another one later...

I noticed Klav11 is the same year as Cage's last 'Music for Piano 84'. I don't know the stories, but I am starting to see how there could be camps at Darmstadt, and how Cage likely f-d up the status quo. I mean, KHS, Boulez, Nono... all very serious and I assume combustible fellows, lol, where does one hear the gossip???

[nathanb]

I haven't actually, I'll have a look for it! (unless you have a link?) 

I have MP3s and could easily arrange for a link to be made, but you might look around for it first, since I'm a rare breed of person that loves music and sound quality (via good recordings and good playback equipment, at least) but doesn't scientifically believe in the viability of bitrates. I convert my music down to 128 kbps so that I may carry and store as much music as possible, hence why you might look elsewhere if you're into that kind of thing.

[Mandryka]

Besides in Stockhausen's other work (eg. Mantra), have any other composers taken on the . . . nuclearformula ideas?

You may want to think about 17th century masses. L'homme arme works like a formula in Ockeghem.