CDXX. STOCKHAUSEN, Karlheinz (1928-2007)
For choir, Hammond organ, and four ring modulators.
The work is composed of 33 "moments," duration according to the Fibonacci series.
The work is composed of 33 "moments," duration according to the Fibonacci series.
The text is from Helmut Heißenbüttel's "nonsense" poem, Einfache grammatische Meditationen. Stockhausen redistributes its 44 lines over the 33 moments "in a manner congenial to the poetic principal of the text."
The choir consists only of high and low voices: two sections each of sopranos and basses, who sit in an arc with their backs to the audience, facing the Hammond organ player at the back of the stage. Each section is picked up by a microphone and the signal is fed into one side of a ring modulator; the organ's outputs are played back over four groups of loudspeakers, but the degree of modulation is controlled by potentiometers in order to produce gradations of transformation. Occasionally there are transitions from natural to artificial sound, or the reverse, at which points "sound windows" open, through which recorded excerpts from three of Stockhausen's earlier vocal compositions are played over a fifth loudspeaker group. These include Gesang der Jünglinge [see Post CXVIII), Carré and Momente.
Stockhausen remodels Heißenbüttel's text still further by the addition of interpretive directions for the singers, such as "solemn Levite chant," "à la jazz, cool, almost like a plucked double-bass, gradually tranformed into: like a conceited snob," "like a baby," "like drunkards, sometimes bowling, with hiccups."
Stockhausen remodels Heißenbüttel's text still further by the addition of interpretive directions for the singers, such as "solemn Levite chant," "à la jazz, cool, almost like a plucked double-bass, gradually tranformed into: like a conceited snob," "like a baby," "like drunkards, sometimes bowling, with hiccups."
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