Electronic Music

[Quarky]

OK - so can you give us a worthwhile list in ten minutes then? That would save the BBC the bother. Or alternatively suggest that the current contemporary music producers do as you suggest. Right now many people might be very prepared to just give KS a complete miss, if finding representative works to entice people to listen to his music is so problematic. I doubt that many people would be unduly worried, but let's assume that KS really is/was an artist worth hearing and knowing about. In that case there would have to be some persuasion I think to get more people to listen.

There is quite a number of "introductions" to Stockhausen's music available on the Web. From a brief search, there is for example a Guardian article, a Robert Worby / Barbican presentation, and an hour long interview with KHS by Charles Hazlewood from the BBC 4 Music Masters series (well worth watching).

[Dave2002]

There is quite a number of "introductions" to Stockhausen's music available on the Web. From a brief search, there is for example a Guardian article, a Robert Worby / Barbican presentation, and an hour long interview with KHS by Charles Hazlewood from the BBC 4 Music Masters series (well worth watching).

Ones with direct links to - say Youtube videos - might be the most helpful, which was a feature of the severely criticised article.

[Richard Barrett]

OK - so can you give us a worthwhile list in ten minutes then?

Of course I could. But happy new year in the meantime!

[Quarky]

Ones with direct links to - say Youtube videos - might be the most helpful, which was a feature of the severely criticised article.

Voila! Videos embedded:

The Guardian article:: https://www.theguardian.com/music/to...nz-stockhausen

Tom Service I find is much more digestible in the written word than as a presenter.

Robert Worby's presentation - very glossy:: https://sites.barbican.org.uk/stockhausen/

and Charles Hazlewood's interview :: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013s7xf - fascinating throughout!

.....his rotating turntable invention, the inspiration behind the Helicopter Quartet, his relationship to Sirius, his views on Boulez, Stravinsky.......

There are the two aspects to his music - the extreme precision and complexity in the composition, and the theatrical, light hearted form of the composition (IMV).......

[Dave2002]

Of course I could. But happy new year in the meantime!

OK - thanks.

Happy New Year to you too - you must be almost there. One of my friends is now about 5-6 hours in.

[Quarky]

Currently listening to Momente:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZES35Kcx-o&t=913s

""Stockhausen described it as '… practically an opera about Mother Earth surrounded by her chicks.' He always described this work as his most important and his own, personal favourite of all the works he composed.""

May be anticipating the work of Meredith Monk et al?

[Bryn]

Currently listening to Momente:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZES35Kcx-o&t=913s

""Stockhausen described it as '… practically an opera about Mother Earth surrounded by her chicks.' He always described this work as his most important and his own, personal favourite of all the works he composed.""

May be anticipating the work of Meredith Monk et al?

Ah yes, his 'happy-clappy' piece. Back in the early 1970s, I was lent a copy of that Nonesuch LP of the 1965 version. I have never quite got round to getting later, more complete, versions on disc. The Stockhausen Verlag pricing and ordering system are a couple of stumbling blocks.

[Richard Barrett]

Tis is what I could think of in ten minutes (hence no Youtube links but all of these should be easy to find)

Gesang der Jünglinge (1956) - the first fully realised (in poetic, structural and sonic terms) composition in the history of electronic music
Gruppen (1957) - the most radical step in orchestral thinking (and orchestration) since the Rite of Spring
Kontakte (1960) - a new post-instrumental flexibility and fluency applied to electronic sound
Klavierstück X (1961) - sound and form reimagined through the medium of the piano
Mixtur (1964-2003) for orchestra with ring-modulators transforming its sounds in real time
Hymnen (1967) - between exuberant collage of global utopia and internal disquiet - “journey to the centre of the head” to use François Bayle’s title
Stimmung (1968) - six voices meditate on a single chord for 70 minutes, a music of inner peace and optimism
Momente (1969 - the complete version) - a many-layered dramatic contemplation of love, maybe Stockhausen’s most complex work
Mantra (1970) for two pianists with modulators - the piece that initiated my interest in contemporary music at the age of 13
Trans (1971) - a dream of the beyond transcribed for orchestra
Inori (1974) - a vast unfurling of orchestral sound from a single tone to complex polyphony (passing close to Gershwin along the way)
Michael’s Journey (from Donnerstag aus Licht, 1978) - a staged trumpet concerto, as if an alien intelligence takes on influences from various Earth-music styles
Samstags-Gruss (from Samstag aus Licht, 1983) - a solemn and mysterious “overture” for four brass/percussion ensembles
Mittwochs-Gruss (from Mittwoch aus Licht, 1997) - another “overture” from the Licht opera acycle, this one for slow and glistening electronic timbres
Engel-Prozessionen (from Sonntag aus Licht, 2000) - seven groups of singers singing as many languages envelop the audience
Freude (2005) for two singing harpists (on the same text as the opening of Mahler 8!), Stockhausen characteristically exploring new musical worlds right until the end

[Joseph K]

Thank you for that Richard; especially since IIRC, someone had asked on the Stockhausen thread some time ago where might a good place to start with his music might be, or something like that.

[Richard Barrett]

Thank you for that Richard; especially since IIRC, someone had asked on the Stockhausen thread some time ago where might a good place to start with his music might be, or something like that.

Well, for someone like me who's been so involved with this music for so long, it's really hard to make a choice about where to begin. I don't think it really matters that much. Listeners who let their first impressions make their final decision, in the face of genuine enthusiasm from knowledgeable people, aren't doing themselves any favours!

[Bert]

Thank you for that Richard; especially since IIRC, someone had asked on the Stockhausen thread some time ago where might a good place to start with his music might be, or something like that.

I think one can start anywhere, but I'd say this is worth a listen ....


Details here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktophonie

[Richard Barrett]

I think one can start anywhere, but I'd say this is worth a listen ....

It is indeed (although it's somewhat crude in comparison to his subsequent electronic pieces). When I started teaching electronic music in 1996 or so I wrote to Stockhausen, told him that the curricula included numerous references to his earlier electronic music, but none to his more recent work, and asked him how I could find out more. By return I received a CD and score of Oktophonie and a printout of a lengthy article. In subsequent years we regularly exchanged scores and CDs, and met several times at performances of his work.

[Bert]

It is indeed (although it's somewhat crude in comparison to his subsequent electronic pieces). When I started teaching electronic music in 1996 or so I wrote to Stockhausen, told him that the curricula included numerous references to his earlier electronic music, but none to his more recent work, and asked him how I could find out more. By return I received a CD and score of Oktophonie and a printout of a lengthy article. In subsequent years we regularly exchanged scores and CDs, and met several times at performances of his work.

[Quarky]

Thank you for that Richard; especially since IIRC, someone had asked on the Stockhausen thread some time ago where might a good place to start with his music might be, or something like that.

Thanks for reminding me about the Stockhausen thread:: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-2007)-4-9-Jan

An entertaining thread, but I do find with the passage of time, many of my earlier posts are quite embarrassing!

[Richard Barrett]

The front cover of Oktophonie reminds me that we haven't really said much here about how it's such an important aspect of the composition and/or performance of the music under discussion that it's presented in its multichannel format, and that listening in stereo is more of a reduction than for example a recording of an orchestra, because in a multichannel presentation the sounds might be coming from far more directions, and, as in Stockhausen particularly, this "spatialisation" isn't a special effect but is integral to the composition. One reason why this is important is that it's possible to perceive far more simultaneous and different sounds in multichannel than in stereo - something that might sound impenetrably dense in stereo can sound clear and transparent when the sound-layers are separated as per the composer's intentions.