Stimmung

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Stimmung is also the German word for 'mood'

Stimmung, for six vocalists and six microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale Köln. Its average length is seventy-four minutes, and it bears the work number 24 in the composer's catalog. It is at the same time a serial and a tonal composition (Stuppner 1974).

Influenced by LaMonte Young and long periods of practicing humming, the piece is in just intonation. Its title can have several meanings "tuning", "mood", "emotive state", "atmosphere", or "(public) opinion", and the closely related Übereinstimmung means "concord", or "agreement" (Die Stimme = voice; stimmen = harmonize, be correct). Six singers amplified by six microphones tune to a low B-flat drone, inaudible to the audience, and expand upwards through overtone singing, with harmonics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 also being used as fundamentals for overtone singing. It is in 51 sections (called "moments" by the composer) and is "the first major Western composition to be based entirely on the production of vocal harmonics" (Rose and Ireland 1986).

According to the 1986 Hyperion Singcircle liner notes:

In each section a new overtone melody or 'model' is introduced and repeated several times. Each female voice leads a new section eight times, and each male voice, nine times. Some of the other singers gradually have to transform their own material until they have come into 'identity' with the lead singer of the section...by adopting the same...tempo, rhythm and dynamics. When the lead singer feels that 'identity' has been reached, he or she makes a gesture to another singer who leads the next section. Each model is a set of rhythmic phonetic patterns, often with actual words used as their basis, such as 'Hallelujah' or 'Saturday'.
In 29 of the sections, 'magic names' are called out. These are the names of gods and goddesses from many cultures - Aztec, aboriginal and Ancient Greek, for instance - and have to be incorporated into the character of the model. The erotic and intimate love-poems that are recited were written by Stockhausen 'during amorous days' in 1967. (Rose and Ireland 1986)

The order of the sections and the "magic names" used are decided by the performing group, though the "Paris version" used by the Collegium Vocale Köln at the world première has been published (as No. 24 1/2) and performed throughout the world.

Stockhausen himself attributes a month spent walking among ruins in Mexico as his primary influence, Stimmung recreating that 'magic' space. On the other hand, he also describes the snow on frozen Long Island Sound in February and March 1968 (when he was composing Stimmung in Madison, Connecticut), as "the only landscape I really saw during the composition of the piece" (Cott 1974, 163). In a letter to Gregory Rose written on 24 July 1982 (printed in the liner notes to Hyperion CDA66115), he describes how, in the small house his wife Mary had rented it was only possible for him to work at night because their two small children needed quiet during the day. He could not sing aloud, as he had done initially, but began to hum quietly, listening to the overtone melodies.

[edit] Discography

  • Stockhausen: Stimmung (Paris Version). Collegium Vocale Köln: Dagmar Apel, Gaby Rodens, Helga Albrecht, Wolfgang Fromme, Georg Steinhoff, Hans-Alderich Billig (recorded 1969). Deutsche Grammophon 2543 003 (LP), and in Avant Garde Vol. 3 DG 2720 025(6LP boxed set).
  • Stockhausen: Stimmung (Paris Version). Collegium Vocale Köln: Dagmar von Biel, Gaby Ortmann-Rodens, Helga Hamm-Albrecht, Wolfgang Fromme, Helmut Clemens, Hans-Alderich Billig (recorded 1982). In Deutscher Musikrat: Zeitgenössische Musik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 7. Harmonia Mundi DMR 1019-21 (3LP boxed set).
  • These two recording together have been rereleased on CD in the Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 12 A-B (2 CDs).
  • Stockhausen: Stimmung (1986), performed by Singcircle directed by Gregory Rose, recorded 1983. Hyperion CDA66115.

[edit] Sources

  • Cott, Jonathan. 1973. Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Stimmung (overview) at allmusic.com
  • Rose, Gregory, and Helen Ireland. 1986. Liner notes to Hyperion CDA66115.
  • Rigoni, Michel. 1992. "Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stimmung: Six chanteurs en quête d’harmonie”. Analyse Musicale 4e trimestre:75–83.
  • Stuppner, Hubert. 1974. "Serialità e misticismo in Stimmung di K. Stockhausen". (Nuova) Rivista musicale italiana 8, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar.):83-98.
  • Toop, Richard. 2005. Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag. Lecture 2: "Stimmung", pp. 39-71.
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