Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)

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The 'Klavierstücke' (Piano Pieces) are a series of compositions by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen has said the Klavierstücke "are my drawings" (Stockhausen 1971, 19). Originating as a set of four small pieces composed between February and June 1952 (Blumröder 1993, 109–10), Stockhausen later formulated a plan for a large cycle of 21 Klavierstücke, in sets of 4 + 6 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 2 pieces (Toop 1983, 348). He composed the second set in 1954–55 (no. VI was subsequently revised several times and nos. IX and X were finished only in 1961), and the single Klavierstück XI in 1956.

Klavierstück XI is famous for its mobile, or polyvalent structure. It consists of 19 fragments spread over a single, large page. The performer may begin with any fragment, and continue to any other, proceding through the labyrinth until a fragment has been reached for the third time, when the performance ends. Markings for tempo, dynamics, etc. at the end of each fragment are to be applied to the next fragment. Though composed with a complex serial plan, the pitches have nothing to do with twelve-tone technique but instead are derived from the proportions of the previously composed rhythms (Truelove 1984 and 1998).

The pieces from XII to XIX are all associated with his opera cycle Licht (1977-2003), and appear not to continue the original organizational plan. Klavierstück XII (1979/83) is an adaptation of act 1, scene 2 ("Examen") of Donnerstag aus Licht, Klavierstück XIII (1981) with the addition of a bass singer becomes scene 1 ("Luzifers Traum") of Samstag, and Klavierstück XIV (1984) similarly, with the addition of a girls' choir, became act 2 scene 2 of Montag. Beginning with XV ("Synthi-Fou", 1991), which is part of the ending of Dienstag aus Licht, Stockhausen began to substitute the synthesizer (or elektronisches Klavier) for what he came to call the "stringed piano", since the German word Klavier can refer to any keyboard instrument (Stockhausen 1993, 137), and also began including an electronic part on tape. Klavierstück XVI (1995) is for either instrument, or both together, and uses a portion of the electronic music from Freitag aus Licht. Komet als Klavierstück XVII (1994/99) also uses electronic music from Freitag, and is performable only on synthesiser, as are XVIII "Mittwoch-Formel" (2004), which has no tape part, and XIX (2001/2003), which is a version of the "Abschied" (Farewell) from Sonntag aus Licht.

The dimensions vary considerably, from a duration of less than half a minute for Klavierstück III to around half an hour for Klavierstücke VI, X, XIII and XIX.

[edit] Sources

  • Blumröder, Christoph von. 1993. Die Grundlegung der Musik Karlheinz Stockhausens. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 32, edited by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • Boehmer, Konrad. 1967. Zur Theorie der offenen Form in der Neuen Musik. Darmstadt: Edition Tonos.
  • Frisius, Rudolf. 1996. Karlheinz Stockhausen I: Einführung in das Gesamtwerk; Gespräche mit Karlheinz Stockhausen. Mainz: Schott Musik International.
  • Henck, Herbert. 1978. Karlheinz Stockhausens Klavierstück IX: Eine analytische Betrachtung. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Verlag für Systematische Musikwissenschaft,.
  • ———. 1980. Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstück X: A Contribution toward Understanding Serial Technique: History, Theory, Analysis, Practice, Documentation. Authorized translation of the second revised and expanded edition by Deborah Richards. Cologne: Neuland Musikverlag Herbert Henck.
  • Kohl, Jerome. "The Evolution of Macro- and Micro-Time Relations in Stockhausen's Recent Music." Perspectives of New Music 22 (1983–84): 147–85.
  • ———. 1990. "Into the Middleground: Formula Syntax in Stockhausen's Licht." Perspectives of New Music 28, no. 2 (Summer): 262–91.
  • ———. "Time and Light." Contemporary Music Review 7, no. 2 (1993): 203–219.
  • Lewin, David. 1993 Musical form and Transformation : Four Analytic Essays. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Sabbe, Herman. 1981. "Die Einheit der Stockhausen-Zeit ...: Neue Erkenntnismöglichkeiten der seriellen Entwicklung anhand des frühen Werkens von Stockhausen und Goeyvaerts. Dargestellt aufgrund der Briefe Stockhausens an Goevaerts". In Musik-Konzepte 19: Karlheinz Stockhausen: ... wie die Zeit verging ..., ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, 5–96. Munich: Edition Text + Kritik.
  • Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1971. Texte zur Musik vol. 3, edited by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg (1963, 1964, 1971);
  • ———. 1993. "Clavier Music 1992". Perspectives of New Music 31 no. 2 (Summer): 136–49.
  • Toop, Richard. 1979. "Stockhausen's 'Klavierstück VIII". Miscellanaea Musicologica (Adelaide) 10:93–130 (Reprint: Contact no.28(1984): 4-19)
  • ———. 1983. "Stockhausen's Other Piano Pieces." Musical Times 124 no. 1684 (June): 348–52.
  • ———. 1991. "Last Sketches of Eternity: The First Versions of Stockhausen's Klavierstück VI." Musicology Australia 14:2–24.
  • Truelove, Stephen. 1984. "Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI: An Analysis of Its Composition via a Matrix System of Serial Polyphony and the Translation of Rhythm into Pitch." DMA diss. Norman: University of Oklahoma.
  • ———. 1998. "The Translation of Rhythm into Pitch in Stockhausen's Klavierstück XI." Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 1 (Winter): 189–220.
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