Stimmung

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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 (Toop 2005, 39; Stuppner 1974). It was precedented by an unfinished work from 1960 titled Monophonie (Toop 2005, 39).

Stimmung is in just intonation. The German word "Stimmung" has several meanings, including "tuning", "mood", "emotive state", "atmosphere", and "(public) opinion". The closely related word Übereinstimmung means "concord", or "agreement" (Die Stimme = voice; stimmen = harmonize, be correct). The primary sense of the title "implies not only the outward tuning of voices or instruments, but also the inward tuning of one's soul" (Hillier 2007, 4). Six singers amplified by six microphones tune to a low B♭1 drone, inaudible to the audience, and expand upwards through overtone singing, with that low B♭'s harmonics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 (B♭2, F2, B♭3, D3, A↓♭3, and C4) becoming in turn fundamentals for overtone singing. It is composed using what the composer calls moment form, and consists of 51 sections (called "moments"). It is "the first major Western composition to be based entirely on the production of vocal harmonics" (Rose and Ireland 1986) or, alternatively, the first "to use overtones as a primary element" (Rose and Emmerson 1979, 20). An additional innovation is "the unique kind of rhythmic polyphony which arises from the gradual transformation/assimilation of rhythmic models" (Toop 2005, 48).

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 rhythmic models and the distribution of the poems and "magic names" are decided by the performers, but the sequence of pitches in the 51 moments is fixed (Stuppner 1974; Rose and Emmerson 1979; Rigoni 1992). Though the 1968 "Paris version" used by the Collegium Vocale Köln at the world première has been published (as No. 24½ in Stockhausen's catalog), the 1977 "Singcircle version" has been well documented in Rose and Emmerson 1979, and both versions have been performed throughout the world. Singcircle's performance at the 2005 City of London Festival was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now on 20 August 2005. In 2003, Paul Hillier made a "Copenhagen version" for the Theatre of Voices, which he directs. This version, too, has been performed on tour, and a recording has been released on CD. Other groups that have performed Stimmung include the London Sinfonietta Voices, Ensemble Belcanto, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Aquarius Consort, and the Dunedin Consort, according to the performance database of Universal Edition.

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.

Stimmung has been cited as an important influence on the French spectralists, such as Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey (Rigoni 1992, 83).

[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).
    • The above two recording together have been rereleased on CD in the Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 12 A-B (2 CDs).
  • Stockhausen: Stimmung (Singcircle Version). Singcircle, directed by Gregory Rose (recorded 1983). Hyperion CDA66115.
  • Stockhausen: Stimmung (Copenhagen Version). Theatre of Voices: Else Torp, Louise Skovbæch, Clara Sanabras, Wolodymyr Smishkewych, Kasper Eliassen, Andrew Hendricks; Ian Dearden, sound diffusion; directed by Paul Hillier (recorded 2006). Harmonia Mundi CD HMU 807408.

[edit] Sources

  • Cott, Jonathan. 1973. Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Hillier, Paul. 2007. Liner notes to Harmonia Mundi CD HMU 807408.
  • Rigoni, Michel. 1992. "Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stimmung: Six chanteurs en quête d’harmonie”. Analyse Musicale 4e trimestre:75–83.
  • Rose, Gregory, and Simon Emmerson. 1979. "Stockhausen 1: Stimmung". Contact, no. 20 (Autumn): 20–25.
  • Rose, Gregory, and Helen Ireland. 1986. Liner notes to Hyperion CDA66115.
  • 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. "Stimmung". In Richard Toop, Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002, 39–71. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag. ISBN 3-00-016-185-6

[edit] External links