Stockhausen - Aus den sieben Tagen

This post was somewhat inspired by my earlier Michael Portal posts and by the fact that he participated in the original recording of this multiple-part work back in 1968. The original version, transferred to cd, can be ordered from the Stochausen Verlag alongside his entire discography which runs close to one hundred works. The idea behind "Tagen" was to produce instinctive music, made up on the spot, not in any way preconceived, though certain instructions were given by Stockhausen, not about what to play, but what mental states to reach and inhabit in order to play as instinctly as possible, as attuned to the inner microcosmos and the outer macrocosmos as possible. The result was, and is, astounding, forty years later. The grainy, slightly murky sound of the highly closeted environment still stands out, the room having an aural ambiance of its own.

As for this performance, it's hard to say and to judge whether this is a recreation or reinterpretation of the original work, though the text below indicates that some of the prior instructions were indeed followed. This was recorded and uploaded by former contributor Tantris, so a big thanks for that. His accompanying info file is reproduced below. On a personal note, I'm happy to say that I've witnessed two of the performers upfront over the last year or so, Phil Minton and Maja Ratkje, both here tending to vocal duties. Special performers, both of them!

Basic info:

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Aus Den Sieben Tagen

BBC Radio 3, Hear and Now,
1st/8th November, 2008

Robert Worby presents a rare performance of pieces from Stockhausen's Aus Den Sieben Tagen, recorded at the 2008 Cut and Splice Festival in London. These text pieces from 1968 are performed by leading new music interpreters including Maja Ratkje, Phil Minton, Aleks Kolkowski, David Behrman, laptop quartet 2021 and Apartment House ensemble.

The first piece is performed by Neil Luck and Matthew Knowles, who will prepare, as instructed by the composer, by fasting and remaining solitary for four days beforehand.

01 Gold Dust (5:13) - Neil Luck (guitar), Matthew Lee Knowles (piano)

02 Meeting Point (8:12) - Seth Josel (guitar), Phil Minton (vocals), Maja Ratkje (vocals)

03 Unlimited (20:27) - Twentytwentyone (Laptop quartet)

04 Connection (15:19) - Frank Gratkowski, Ian Mitchell, Dave Ryan, Andrew Sparling (bass clarinet) Robin Hayward (tuba)

05 Intensity (15:11) - Reinhold Friedl (inside Piano), Phil Minton (vocals), Mark Wastell (perc), Marc Weiser (electronics), Seth Josel (guitar), Michael Vorfeld (perc), Nikos Veliotis (cello), Maja Ratkje (theremin), Aleksander Kolkowski (violin), Dave Ryan, Ian Mitchell, Andrew Sparling, Frank Gratkowski (bass clarinet), Gordon MacKay, Patrycja Kujawska, Mai Kawabata, Sara Hubrich (stroh violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (stroh cello), Robin Hayward (tuba), Twentytwentyone (laptop quartet)

06 Arrival (5:03) - All Performers

07 Upwards (12:08) - Cranc (violin, cello, harp), Mark Wastell (tamtam, objects), Reinhold Friedl (inside piano), Michael Vorfeld (percussion )

08 Communion (13.34) - Onstage: Reinhold Friedl (inside piano), Michael Vorfeld (percussion ), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Gordon MacKay, Mai Kawabata, Lina Lapelyte (laptop), Patricia Kujawska, Alex Kolkowski (Stroh violin)

In Gallery: Bass clarinet quartet: (Frank Gratkowski, Andrew Sparling, David Ryan, Ian Mitchell), Robin Hayward (tuba), Phil Minton, Maja Ratkje (voices), Seth Josel (e. gtr)

09 It (9:59) - Frank Gratkowski (sax), Robin Hayward (tuba), Rhodri Davies (harp), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), David Berhman (violin & laptop), Arturas Bumsteinas (laptop)

10 Set Sail For The Sun (22:12) - All Performers

http://www.cutandsplice.com/2008/

http://www.cutandsplice.com/2008/aus-den-sieben-tagen/

http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco2/Rec/Stockhausen/14.html

Lineage
BBC Radio 3 - Cablecom - Yamaha HD1300 - CDR - Flac (XAct)

Stockhausen Day - 2008 Proms

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stockhausen Day
Royal Albert Hall, London
Saturday 2nd August, 2008

BBC Prom 20
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Details from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/whatson/0208.shtml#prom20

One of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, Karlheinz Stockhausen would have turned 80 this year.

Aside from the performance of Punkte ('Points') by the Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz on the actual day that would have been the composer's 80th birthday (Prom 48), this Stockhausen Day offers a fuller immersion into the work of this uniquely uncompromising creative force. This early-evening Prom contrasts a pair of Stockhausen's early works - Gruppen ('Groups'), which passes ideas between three spatially separated ensembles, and Kontakte, referring to 'contacts' between instrumental and electronic sounds - with two recent works - both of them excerpts from Klang, the large-scale sequence on which Stockhausen was working at the time of his death last December.

Disk1 (79.54)

24.36 Stockhausen Gruppen
02.54 Announcer
32.04 Stockhausen Klang, 13th hour - Cosmic Pulses (for electronics) (UK premiere)
02.45 Announcer
16.10 Stockhausen Klang, 5th hour - Harmonies for solo trumpet (world premiere) (BBC commission)
01.24 Announcer

Disk2 (79.12)

02.47 Announcer
34.58 Stockhausen Kontakte
14.07 Announcer > Stockhausen interview
24.45 Stockhausen Gruppen (repeat performance)
02.33 Announcer

Marco Blaauw trumpet
Nicolas Hodges piano
Colin Currie percussion

BBC Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson, conductor
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Pascal Rophé, conductor

BBC Prom 21
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Details from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/whatson/0208.shtml#prom21

In this Late Night Prom comes Stimmung for six amplified voices - the first work of Western music to be based on the harmonics, or overtones, that make up the sound-spectrum of a single note. Stimmung is a hypnotic piece for 'six singers and six microphones' that takes on a unique
atmosphere in live performance. Among the many influences which Stockhausen acknowledged when composing the work was a month spent wandering among the ruins in Mexico.

The Theatre of Voices - as adept in music of the Middle Ages as in new music - have made
something of a speciality of Stimmung, and Hillier's long association with the piece includes his
participation as one of the singers at a Proms performance 30 years ago.

Disk3 (79.57)

05.57 Announcer
71.54 Stockhausen Stimmung
02.02 Announcer

Theatre of Voices
Paul Hillier, director

This is a follow up to the Licht post made here earlier in which there has been much interest, judging from the number of downloads. Everything I have heard from Klang so far is sublime, not least Cosmic Pulses included here, and I have some other episodes if there is continued interest. I'd like to thank Tom Phillips who made this very high quality recording (demonstrating that digital radio can often exceed FM in quality) and seeded it on dime.

Stockhausen - Licht-Collage

 The German radio station SWR2 had a long association with Stockhausen, and broadcast over several years extracts from his enormous opera cycle - Licht - which has an opera for each day of the week. On 22nd August, it would have been the 80th birthday of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who died last year, and SWR2 broadcast a sequence of extracts from each opera, interspersed with commentary from Stockhausen himself in interviews with Reinhard Ermen. So, in the space of about 3 1/2 hours, a condensed version of this enormous cycle could be heard, including some of the more well-known episodes, such as Welt-Parlament and Helikopter-Quartett.

The commentary is in German, but is conversational and easy to follow, starting with an explanation of how the idea for the cycle came to Stockhausen in a temple in Kyoto after he had completed Sirius. Many of the ideas and themes which make up the mythology of Licht receive extended commentary. Moreover, I think you can get a sense of how Stockhausen began this with an idea rooted in a compositional framework he controlled, how a surrounding mythology emerged and entered his dreams and very being, his struggle with and acceptance of that and a final sense of weariness, relief and transcendence.

The picture above is Max Ernst's Birth of a Galaxy, which seems appropriate for something on this scale.