Kontakte (Stockhausen)

Kontakte ("Contacts") is a celebrated electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen, realized in 1958–60 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) electronic-music studio in Cologne with the assistance of Gottfried Michael Koenig (Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 109).

Work history

The title of the work “refers both to contacts between instrumental and electronic sound groups and to contacts between self-sufficient, strongly characterized moments. In the case of four-channel loudspeaker reproduction, it also refers to contacts between various forms of spatial movement” (Stockhausen 1964, 105). The composition exists in two forms: (1) for electronic sounds alone, designated "Nr. 12" in the composer's catalog of works, and (2) for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion, designated "Nr. 12½" (Frisius 2008, 132; Heikinheimo 1972, 115; Stockhausen 1964, 104; Stockhausen 1971, 384). A further, theatrical work, Originale (Nr. 12⅔), composed in 1961, incorporates all of the second version of Kontakte (Stockhausen 1964, 107).

Technique and form

According to the composer, “In the preparatory work for my composition Kontakte, I found, for the first time, ways to bring all properties [i.e., timbre, pitch, intensity, and duration] under a single control” (Stockhausen 1962, 40), thereby realizing a longstanding goal of total serialism. On the other hand, as one commentator says, "Kontakte is arguably the last of Stockhausen's tape pieces in which serial proportions intervene decisively at anything but the broad formal level" (Toop 1981, 189). The most famous moment, at the very center of the work, is a potent illustration of these connections: a high, bright, slowly wavering pitch descends in several waves, becoming louder as it gradually acquires a snarling timbre, and finally passes below the point where it can be heard any longer as a pitch. As it crosses this threshold, it becomes evident that the sound consists of a succession of pulses, which continue to slow until they become a steady beat. With increasing reverberation, the individual pulses become transformed into tones once again (Clarke 1998, 225).

Stockhausen also made advances over his previous electronic composition, Gesang der Jünglinge, in the realm of spatial composition, adding the parameters of spatial location, group type, register, and speed (Toop 2005, 170). Kontakte is composed in four channels, with loudspeakers placed at the corners of a square surrounding the audience. With the aid of a "rotation table", consisting of a rotatable loudspeaker surrounded by four microphones, he was able to send sounds through and around the auditorium with unprecedented variety (Maconie 2005, 208–209).

References

Cited in the text

• Clarke, Michael. 1998. "Extending Contacts: The Concept of Unity in Computer Music". Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 1 (Winter): 221–46.
• Frisius, Rudolf. 2008. Karlheinz Stockhausen II: Die Werke 1950–1977; Gespräch mit Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Es geht aufwärts". Mainz, London, Berlin, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto: Schott Musik International. ISBN 9783795702496
• Heikinheimo, Seppo. 1972. The Electronic Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen: Studies on the Esthetical and Formal Problems of Its First Phase. Translated by Brad Absetz. Acta Musicologica Fennica 6. Helsinki: Suomen Musiikkitieteellinen Seura. * Maconie, Robin. 2005. Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6
• Morawska-Büngeler, Marietta. 1988. Schwingende Elektronen: Eine Dokumentation über das Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln 1951–1986. Cologne-Rodenkirchen: P. J. Tonger Musikverlag.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1962. "The Concept of Unity in Electronic Music (Die Einheit der musikalischen Zeit)". Translated by Elaine Barkin. Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Autumn): 39–48.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1964. Texte 2: Aufsätze 1952–1962 zur musikalischen Praxis, edited and with an afterword by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1971. Texte zur Musik 3: 1963–1970, edited by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg. ISBN 3-7701-0493-5
• Toop, Richard. 2005. Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag.

General references

• Blumröder, Christoph von. 1984. "Serielle Musik um 1960: Stockhausens Kontakte". In Analysen: Beiträge zu einer Problemgeschichte des Komponierens. Festschrift für Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Reinhold Brinkmann, Elmar Budde, and Werner Breig, 423–35. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 23. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3515036628
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963a. “Momentform: Neue Beziehungen zwischen Aufführungsdauer, Werkdauer und Moment”. In his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, pp. 189–210. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963b. “Erfindung und Entdeckung”, in his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, pp. 222–58. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 2009. Kompositorische Grundlagen Neuer Musik: Sechs Seminare für die Darmstädter Ferienkurse 1970, edited by Imke Misch. Kürten: Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik. ISBN 978-3-00-027313-1
• Toop, Richard. 1981. "Stockhausen's Electronic Works: Sketches and Worksheets from 1952–1967." Interface 10:149-97.

Further reading

• Austin, Kevin. 2010. "Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Four Channels.” eContact! 12.4 — Perspectives on the Electroacoustic Work / Perspectives sur l’œuvre électroacoustique (August). Montréal: CEC.
• Blumröder, Christoph von. 1993. “Karlheinz Stockhausen—40 Jahre Elektronische Musik.” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 50, no. 4:309–23.
• Dack, John. 1998. “Strategies in the Analysis of Stockhausen’s Kontakte.” Journal of New Music Research 27, pp. 84–119. ISSN 0929-8215
• Hansen, Finn Egeland. 1990. “Tropering: Et kompositionsprincip.” Festskrift Søren Sørensen: 1920. 29 September 1990, edited by Finn Egeland Hansen, Steen Pade, Christian Thodberg and Arthur Ilfeldt, 185–205. Copenhagen: Fog. ISBN 87-87099-32-2
• Huang, Zhenyu (黄枕宇). 2002. 从两部作品的比较看西方电子音乐早期发展(上)(下) [An Examination of the Early Development of Western Electronic Music through Comparison of two Electronic Compositions]. Zhongyang Yinyue Xueyuan xuebao/Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music 2, no. 87 (Summer): 58–67 and no. 88 (Fall): 58–67.
• Kirchmeyer, Helmut. 1963. “Zur Entstehungs- und Problemgeschichte der Kontakte von Karlheinz Stockhausen.” Liner notes for Stockhausen, Kontakte, David Tudor (piano and percussion) and Christoph Caskel (percussion). Wergo-Studienreihe für Neue Musik LP, WER 60 009. Reprinted in Neuland Jahrbuch 3 (1982–83): 52–176.
• Kramer, Jonathan. 1978. “Moment Form in Twentieth Century Music.” The Musical Quarterly 64, no. 2 (April): 177–94.
• Mackay, Duncan Maclean. 1983. “Concepts of Dualism in the Works of Stockhausen.” M.M. thesis. University of East Anglia.
• Marvin, Elizabeth West. 1995. “Generalization of Contour Theory to Diverse Musical Spaces: Analytical Applications to the Music of Dallapiccola and Stockhausen.” Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, edited by Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann, 135–71. Eastman Studies in Music 2. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 1-878822-42-X
• Mowitz, Michael. 2002. Die Form der Unendlichkeit: Aspekte der Momentform und der seriellen Struktur in Karlheinz Stockhausens Kontakte. Essen: Die Blaue Eule. ISBN 978-3-89924-000-9
• Pécquet, Franck. 1998. “Espace et représentation sonore.” In L’espace: Musique/philosophie: Paris, 1997, edited by Jean-Marc Chouvel and Makīs Solōmos, 187–94. Musique et musicologie: Les dialogues. Paris: L’Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-6593-5
• Schatt, Peter W. 1988. “Tendenzen des Materials in Stockhausens Kontakten”. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 45, no. 3:206–23.
• Skowron, Zbigniew. 1982. “Muzyka elektroniczna Karlheinza Stockhausena. II: Utwory z lat 1955–67” [Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Electronic Music II: Works from 1955–67]. Muzyka: Kwartalnik Poświęcony Historii i Teorii Muzyki 27, nos. 1–2:11–36.