Contemporary Music

Playlist

1. Himmelfahrt
2. Harmonien
3. Klavierstücke 1-4

Barbara Zanichelli (soprano), Hubert Mayer (tenor), Antonio Pérez Abellán (synthesizer) (1)

Fie Schouten (bass clarinet) (2)

Pi-Hsien Chen (piano) (3)

If you do not know the name of Karlheinz Stockhausen, you have to wonder if you are really a fan of Contemporary Music. Not only did this man largely define the Course of Things in post-war music, his influence extends far beyond composed music. He is even called the ‘Godfather of Techno’ and that is not entirely absurd, because without his pioneering work in electronic music, there would never have been such a thing as ‘dance’.

In music history we mostly see his early work from the 1950s and 1960s. Stockhausen is at the forefront of serialism at the time, with electronics (both on record as live), with random elements and what not. Outside textbooks, Light has also attracted attention: a magnum opus of seven operas in which he is not too shy about having singers soar through the air or instrumentalists fly around in helicopters.

Only few people know his very last work: Klang. After he set the seven days of the week to music in Light, he now wanted to do the same with the twenty-four hours of the day. After that he wanted to continue with the sixty minutes of the hour, and the seconds in the minute. Unfortunately, death disturbed all those great plans: late 2007, Stockhausen died at the age of 79.

At his death, he had completed twenty-one of the twenty-four hours. Something tells us that he already knew he was ill, as he started to play out of tune from the fifth hour. He created derivative works from the hours already completed and, entirely against his custom, labelled these as separate works. That way, he presumably hoped to get to twenty-four works before his time came.  The cycle thus consists of the following parts:

* Four completely separate composed hours: 1. Himmelfahrt; 2. Freude; 3. Natürliche Dauern; 4. Himmelstür

* Hour 5-12: Harmonien and seven derivative works

* Hour 13-21: Cosmic pulses and eight derivative works

Today, we will hear two of the twenty-one hours. Firstly, we will hear (fitting for this time of year) Himmelfahrt, for soprano, tenor and synthesizer. Stockhausen, who had done pioneer work in electronic music for years, was not too shy about taking on an instrument from pop music himself this time. At the same time, Himmelfahrt is also a return to the faith of his youth. Stockhausen was deeply spiritual his whole life, but had focused on New Age ideas for years. In the first two hours, the Catholic faith comes to the fore again, as Freude also honours a Christian holiday at Whitsun.

Then we will hear the fifth hour, Harmonien. As mentioned, the basis of no less than seven other hours. What they share is the combination of solo instruments and sound control. In a way, they remind us of the works the composer composed for various solo instruments in the 1970s.

Finally, we will hear a few of Stockhausen’s early works: the first four Klavierstücke. These works are among the least accessible he made. It shows how much his style had changed in fifty years.