Stockhausen

The news of Stockhausen's death on Wednesday (surprising news, as his health had always been so robust) is a moment to recall that he was no stranger to alternative intonations. From _Studie II_, using the 25th-root-of-five, to the just intonation _Stimmung_ and _Sternklang_ (which were, arguably, the results of his encounters with the music of La Monte Young and Harry Partch, respectively -- Sternklang is based upon a 9-limit diamond, after all), to more recent and less systematic microtones in the solos _Xi_ and _Ypsilon_, worlds of tonal relationship beyond 12tet were not exotic to the composer. Stockhausen was a strange figure and his historical status is generally unclear; he was decidely not an easy personality to get along with, but this handful of pieces surely belongs in any microtonal landmark list.

Daniel Wolf

--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

Perceptions are always different as i just the other day his name came
up with someone who had spent time with him and was saying how easy he
was to be around, always cordial and helpful, at least in the early
70's.the use of the subharmonic series in Mixtur is also quite
interesting with ring modulators.
I feel and have for some time that he has been given a bad rap . Some
others who seem to have sworn better really don't have a certain
broadness he did have, even if it was often a springboard on the work
of others.
In a way the same can be said of Picasso who was great and taking
the language of others and ,yes sometimes doing it better.
Hymnen is a monumental work that as i mentioned elsewhere explored
some interesting sublimital approaches and for all the people who used
shepards tones, he has to be one of the few that placed it in some
poetic context. as opposed to all this scientific expositions that
frankly leave me cold if not might i say superficial

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel Wolf" <djwolf@...> wrote:
>
> The news of Stockhausen's death on Wednesday (surprising news, as his
> health had always been so robust) is a moment to recall that he was no
> stranger to alternative intonations. From _Studie II_, using the
> 25th-root-of-five, to the just intonation _Stimmung_ and _Sternklang_
> (which were, arguably, the results of his encounters with the music
of La
> Monte Young and Harry Partch, respectively -- Sternklang is based
upon a
> 9-limit diamond, after all), to more recent and less systematic
microtones
> in the solos _Xi_ and _Ypsilon_, worlds of tonal relationship beyond
12tet
> were not exotic to the composer. Stockhausen was a strange figure
and his
> historical status is generally unclear; he was decidely not an easy
> personality to get along with, but this handful of pieces surely
belongs
> in any microtonal landmark list.
>
> Daniel Wolf
>
> --
> Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
>

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel Wolf" <djwolf@...> wrote:
>
> The news of Stockhausen's death on Wednesday (surprising news, as
his
> health had always been so robust) is a moment to recall that he was
no
> stranger to alternative intonations. From _Studie II_, using the
> 25th-root-of-five, to the just intonation _Stimmung_ and
_Sternklang_
> (which were, arguably, the results of his encounters with the music
of La
> Monte Young and Harry Partch, respectively -- Sternklang is based
upon a
> 9-limit diamond, after all), to more recent and less systematic
microtones
> in the solos _Xi_ and _Ypsilon_, worlds of tonal relationship
beyond 12tet
> were not exotic to the composer. Stockhausen was a strange figure
and his
> historical status is generally unclear; he was decidely not an
easy
> personality to get along with, but this handful of pieces surely
belongs
> in any microtonal landmark list.
>
> Daniel Wolf
>
> --
> Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:
http://www.opera.com/mail/
>

***To me, this almost seemed like part of the "end of an era..." I
always held his electronic music up as the ultimate paradigm...
especially _Kontakte_.... I fondly remember his lectures at
Darmstadt in 1973. Xenakis was there as well and he, of course, is
also now no longer with us.... and so Berio... Cage... that whole
cast of "Post 50's" luminaries...

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "banaphshu" <kraiggrady@...> wrote:
>
> Perceptions are always different as i just the other day his name came
> up with someone who had spent time with him and was saying how easy he
> was to be around, always cordial and helpful, at least in the early
> 70's.the use of the subharmonic series in Mixtur is also quite
> interesting with ring modulators.

Daniel Wolf wrote:
> > Stockhausen was a strange figure
> > and his
> > historical status is generally unclear; he was decidely not an easy
> > personality to get along with, but this handful of pieces surely
> belongs
> > in any microtonal landmark list.
> >
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Stockhausen
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3018939.ece

Dear mourners and friends of Karlheinz,

instead telling you here an verbosely funeral-oration,
just listen to some of his distinctive works:
http://www.stockhausen.org/stockhausen_multimedia.html
http://www.epitonic.com/index.jsp?refer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.epitonic.com%2Fartists%2Fkarlheinzstockhausen.html

once, some years ago, i had the pleasure to
enjoy from time to time to hear some of his
world premiere debut performances events at:

http://www.residenzfestspiele.de/schaupl/audimax.html
that is famous known for it's excellent acoustics
due to the inherent audiophile architecture that
inspired him to his unique comment about that room,
there would his:

"musical-spirit take of and fly around through
that concert-hall like a bird"

as he told us so after the event to the audience
concerning about his intensions:
that he would tryed to evoke also among the listeners too,
by his personal composition-style,
as far as i understood that master's remark.

The man went, but his work remains.

in black mourning
A.S.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Andreas Sparschuh" <a_sparschuh@...>

> Dear mourners and friends of Karlheinz,
>
> instead telling you here an verbosely funeral-oration,
> just listen to some of his distinctive works:
> http://www.stockhausen.org/stockhausen_multimedia.html

Stockhausen is surely a pioneer, particularly in electonic media.

However:
I listened/saw a video clip to a piano piece in called 'Natural
Rhythms' at the above link, and was decidedly unimpressed. It sounded
like a particularly mediocre avant-garde improvisation. So, for some
of his music, anyway, I fail to see what all the fuss is about.

> Stockhausen is surely a pioneer, particularly in electonic media.
>
> However:
> I listened/saw a video clip to a piano piece in called 'Natural
> Rhythms' at the above link, and was decidedly unimpressed. It sounded
> like a particularly mediocre avant-garde improvisation. So, for some
> of his music, anyway, I fail to see what all the fuss is about.

I've never heard any Stockhausen I liked or was even
impressed by. But I haven't heard terribly many.

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson" <aaron@...> wrote:
>Stockhausen is surely a pioneer, particularly in electonic media.
>
> However:
> I listened/saw a video clip to a piano piece in called 'Natural
> Rhythms' at the above link, and was decidedly unimpressed. It sounded
> like a particularly mediocre avant-garde improvisation. So, for some
> of his music, anyway, I fail to see what all the fuss is about.
Much ado about nothing else than electronically boosted noise?
>
>>Carl Lumma:
>>I've never heard any Stockhausen I liked or was even
>>impressed by. But I haven't heard terribly many.
You're not missing much!

probably,
because he usually tried to avoid any consonance in order
to get rid of harmonic sounds as far as however possible.
by distorting well sounding harmonic chords with
electronically bias in his personal strange way...

that's in more friendly spoken (politically-correct) terms:

http://home.earthlink.net/~almoritz/engelprozessionen.htm
"The harmonic transparency also allowed for individual elements of
consonance and dissonance to be heard simultaneously in a way I rarely
have experienced before in choral music."

...but also:
often he even prefered to produce simply bare noise
in order to emhasize his disered dissonance effects
as he frankly spoke out about his personal composition-technique
at the occasion of his last Darmstadt lecture
about his private style.

hence: never mind,
if his particular work left none remaining impression in yours ears,
due to missing the sytematically lacking harmonics

A.S.
who still prefers the harmonic sound of
of the just pure overtone-series

Andreas Sparschuh schrieb:
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson" <aaron@...> wrote:

> You're not missing much!

> who still prefers the harmonic sound of
> of the just pure overtone-series

... in which case a serious dismissal should explain why Stimmung isn't worth listening (I would cite the "libretto").

From Formel (early '50s) to Michaels Reise (mid '70s) and probably later, too, there is lot of fun (=serious) listening to be explored. And I'm no fan.

Actually, I would steer new listeners away from Momente and all the Licht pieces with vocals. Anything else potentially pleases.

Klaus

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Klaus Schmirler <KSchmir@...> wrote:
>
> Andreas Sparschuh schrieb:
> > --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson" <aaron@>
wrote:
>
> > You're not missing much!
>
> > who still prefers the harmonic sound of
> > of the just pure overtone-series
>
> ... in which case a serious dismissal should explain why Stimmung
> isn't worth listening (I would cite the "libretto").
>
> From Formel (early '50s) to Michaels Reise (mid '70s) and probably
> later, too, there is lot of fun (=serious) listening to be
explored.
> And I'm no fan.
>
> Actually, I would steer new listeners away from Momente and all the
> Licht pieces with vocals. Anything else potentially pleases.
>
> Klaus
>

***I've personally always found a lot in his work to
admire..._Gruppen_... I own the score... _Studie II_ which Wolf
mentions, although I forgot the specifics of the tuning, _Kontakte_
one of my *very* favorite pieces of electronic music, and a piece I
tried to emulate when I was in my 20's, if I can remember back that
far... _Hymnen_... certainly parts of that are very beautiful. I
always enjoyed _Microphonie I_ especially after I saw them wap and
bang the *ell out of a huge Tam-Tam at Darmstadt in 1973...
_Stimmung_... certainly a very fun piece to listen to... I thought
the piece with the two ring-modulated pianos was pretty neat,
_Mantra..._

Stockhausen's lectures were *amazing*, incidentally. At Darmstadt,
he lectured simultaneously in German, French and English. I'm not an
authority on French accents, but I believe anyone listening to the
YouTube video of his lecture on sound in English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPVc2Jvd0w

would have to admit that he hardly has *any* German accent at all.
It's an *English* accent.

Here's somebody with an *astonishing* interest and attention to
*sound*...

Joseph Pehrson