On Originale by Mark Bloch

The 33 year old composer Karlheinz Stockhausen was transformed by his meeting with John Cage in Darmstadt, Germany in
1958. The result was more graphic scores and a more theatrical
direction for his music. The score for Originale (Originals) was created rapidly during a visit to Finland in July 1961 by Stockhausen.
He was responding to a commission for a theatrical work from
a theater producer in Cologne. He used as his point of departure
Kontakte (1960), a piece he had recently completed for electronic
four-channel tape and piano/percussion duo. The underappreciated staging of Originale at its Cologne premiere in Fall 1961
resulted in funding drying up two days into the twelve-day run
which Stockhausen, artistically satisfied, made other arrangements to complete.

Nevertheless, Kontakte and Originale were both important for

many reasons. Kontakte was probably the first true quadraphonic composition ever. To surround the audience with sound,
Stockhausen used a turntable with a rotating loudspeaker surrounded by four microphones to enable the re-recording of
spinning sounds. Then, Kontaktes live piano, percussion and
the quad tape combined with live actors to create Originale.
Kontakte, even without the theatrical component, was one of the
first pieces of its kind to combine pre-recorded sound and live
instrumentation, with the goal of presenting the entire range of
sound from noise to tone. For Stockhausen, it also signaled the
beginning of his next work, the open form composition Momente,
a moment score approach, rather than a progression.
For Originale, the language and action by the performers was
introduced as elements in a score just as musical instruments
would be. Eighteen sets of instructions for the actors were placed
in time boxes. Each characters actions were carefully timed
according to the score. These actions were grouped into seven
structures to be performed alone or up to three at once.
The reason the work was called Originals was because performers were playing themselves. A painter played The Painter,
an actor played The Actor and a poet played The Poet. They did
what they would originally do. Cinematographers, gaffers and
models also went about their work on stage.
These activities, occurring all at once, created the complex
texture of the piece which is why it was such a natural for the
Happenings genre that was popular at this time. The forms creator, Allan Kaprow was brought in to stage the
production in New York. A scaffolding was constructed and elements such as a loose chimpanzee and a goldfish swimming in a bowl hanging from the ceiling added to the chaotic feel of the piece.
In addition to the bedlam and ambient noise created by the performers going about their business,
Stockhausens Kontakte provided the musical soundtrack of Originale. A film camera, a tape recorder and a
stage manager shouting instructions accompany a pianist and a percussionist (playing themselves) performing
Kontakte. A few minutes into the score, the players stop and the tape of their performance and the shouts of
the stage manager is then played. In this way the notion of originals playing themselves is further complicated.

At the same time, the composer specified by name in his

score that a special performer
he encountered at Darmstadt
in Germany, who was not
an original, create action
music: the artist Nam June
Paik would perform bizarre
actions inspired by what
Stockhausen had previously
seen him do.
In 2003, for the occasion of a
screening of Peter and Barbara
Moores film of the NY event,
Stockhausens Originale:
Doubletakes, (16mm, black
and white, sound, 32 minutes,
1964-93), Andy Ditzler wrote
that Paik performs three of his
own pieces during Originale,
including Simple (1961), in
which he covers himself with
shaving cream, flour, and rice,
and climbs into a tub to wash
off, then drinks the water out of
his own shoe.
In summer 1964, cellist
Charlotte Moorman was putting together her 2nd Annual
New York Avant Garde Festival.
Moorman had never heard
of Paik, who went on to be a
Fluxus performer and invent
the Video Art genre, but it was
the start of an artistic collabora- Left to right, top: Robert Delford Brown, Charlotte Moorman, and Allan Kaprow.
Middle row: Nam June Paik (with basin), Gloria Graves, Allen Ginsberg. On ground:
tion between the two that would
David Behrman (with headphones) Olga Kluver, Jackson MacLow, and Max Newhouse.
last for decades and be a center16mm and using available light, Moore documented
piece of both of their lives.
two nights of the run, and took still photos at the
The NYC venue for Originale was Judson Hall,
remaining shows. The films subtitle, Doubletakes,
across from Carnegie Hall at 165 West 57th Street,
reflects the fact that the film was shot during two
which is no relation to the downtown Judson
successive evenings, so different views of the
Church, off Washington Square Park, where much
onstage events are seen in the film.
avant garde activity was to follow in the next few
years. The two names are just a coincidence. The
Art historian and Moores wife Barbara, who was
performances played on September 8th, 9th, 11th,
present, recalls that the camera used to shoot
12th and 13th as part of the festival.
Doubletakes was borrowed from the filmmaker and
video artist Ed Emshwiller... Ms. Moore also noted
Andy Ditzler writes the following about the film:
that the onscreen presence of Brown as The Painter
Peter Moore (1932-1993)... was commissioned by
indicates that Peter Moore shot the film during the
theater producer Rhett Brown, wife of artist Robert
early nights of the run, since Brown was soon kicked
Delford Brown (who appeared as The Painter in
out of the performance after a disagreement with
Originale) to produce a film of the event. Shooting in
Kaprow about his approach to the role.

Brown responded in 2008, There are many versions of

what happened in the past. I never had a disagreement with
Kaprow.
Indeed, the Stockhausen scholar Volker Staebel has mentioned other historical conflicts: (Actor Jackson) Mac Low
stated that (Conductor Alvin) Lucier abandoned the set time
frame for the duration of the performance by Paik, which
Lucier does not remember. Lucier does remember, however,
that Allan Ginsberg wanted to give his performance undisturbed by other activities.

Meanwhile, adding to the turmoil, outside the concert

hall, several New York artists, including Henry Flynt,
Tony Conrad, and George Maciunas protested against
Stockhausen as a cultural imperialist. Stockhausen had
reportedly disparaged jazz at a conference at Harvard in
1958. According to the book, Fluxus Codex, he said jazz
(Black Music) is primitive...barbaric...beat and a few simple
cords...garbage... The group declared: The First cultural
task is publicly to expose and fight the domination of white,
european - U.S. Ruling class Art!
All in all, it was a landmark event in the development of
the avant garde in New York and for Fluxus in particular.
Alliances were formed,
others were shaken.
It also marked an
important turning point
in the life of Robert
Delford Brown.
Andy Ditzlers valuable writings for the Karlheinz Stockhausen: Music and
Film event in 2003 at Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA can be found at
http://andel.home.mindspring.com/stockhausen_notes.htm
A History Of Spatial Music by Richard Zvonar, PhD is at
http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/Multichannel/spatial_music.html
The Volker Staebel site is http://www.straebel.de/praxis/index.html?/praxis/
text/t-musikperf_e.htm
Henry Flynt, Ben Vautier, George
Maciunas and Takako Saito protesting
Originale. Photo by Peter Moore.

Midomi is a music site with insightful writings on individual recordings at

http://www.midomi.com/index.php?action=main.album&album_id=5afa095d
61b9401a02b50fbe4e15166c&from=artist_bio

Above: Time magazine coverage of Originale. Right: Parts

of Stockhausens score from
http://www.medienkunstnetz.
de/werke/originale/

Robert Delford Brown recalls being

one of the first one to suggest Charlotte Moorman use nudity in her art,
something she did for decades after
Originale, mostly in her collaborations
with Nam June Paik, who was also in
Originale. It was the Avant Garde
Festival and I was the one that said
Charlotte should go topless, Brown
remembered. She kept saying, What
could I do? I said, Take your clothes
off, Charlotte, take your clothes off. So
she took her clothes off, and she was a
topless show. She was asking everybody, What could I do? What could
I do? This was in Originale, and she
took her clothes off, and she was playing the cello. Moorman was wrapped
in semi-transparent gauze.

Below: Allen Ginsburg and

Robert Delford Brown in
Stockhausens Originale.