Karlheinz Stockhausen

*2022 Stock. Includes a 32-page booklet in German and English.* Bassetsu-Trio / Mittwochs-Abschied, the Stockhausen Edition no. 55 contains additional works from Mittwochs Aus Licht (Wednesday from Light). Bassetsu-Trio (1997) für Bassetthorn, Trompete und Posaune is a version of the last section of the 4th scene ("Michaelion") of Mittwoch Aus Licht. It was recorded and mixed at the Sound Studio "N" (for Nedeltschev), December 1999 (Cologne, Germany). Mittwochs-Abschied (1996) für elektronische …

*2022 Stock. Includes a 116-page illustrated booklet in German and English.* The choral action of Michaelion is first heard against a textural synth background, interspersed with melodic fragments in various instrumental timbres. Shortly afterwards, the live synth textures of Mittwochs-Gruss support the vocal and instrumental interaction. The bass soloist's shortwave radio part is actually a performance of Kurzwellen (representing his "language"). The other vocal soloists' noisemaker toys are us…

*2022 Stock. Includes a 100-page booklet.* Helikopter-StreichQuartett (Helicopter String Quartet, 3rd scene of Wednesday from Light) for string quartet and 4 helicopters (1992/93). The 3rd Scene from the opera Mittwoch Aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) is centered on a string quartet piece, accompanied by the sounds of close-miked helicopter rotor engines, and interrupted throughout by shouted numbers in German (by the string quartet players). In a staged concert, members of the string quartet ar…

*2022 Stock. Includes a 32-page booklet in German and English.* Orchester-Finalisten is the 2nd Act of Mittwoch Aus Licht (Wednesday from Light), the 6th-completed Licht opera. This piece has no vocal text, but instead features 11 different orchestra instruments performing short auditions one after another against a background tape of musique concrete (environmental field recordings). Each solo is also accompanied by a single 5-chord orchestral figure, cued by the soloist (the instrumentation fo…

*2022 Stock. Includes a 32-page booklet in German and English.* Welt-Parlament Vom Mittwoch Aus Licht (World Parliament, 1st scene of Wednesday from Light) for choir a cappella (1995). Welt-Parlament is the 1st Scene from the opera Mittwoch Aus Licht (Wednesday from Light). After the introduction (which includes some incidental hand percussion and a forest of clicking metronomes), 12 vocal groups and soloists engage in a dynamic dialogue, representing a world congress in polyphonic "song-babble"…

*2022 Stock.* This 4 CD set contains the complete staged version of Freitag Aus Licht (Friday from Light), with all three layers presented: Weltraum (ambient background sound textures), the 12 Sound Scenes" created from the Paare vom Freitag (electroacoustic/concrete vocal duets) and the 10 "Real Scenes" (live performances with vocals, choir, children's choir, bassett-horn, flute, synth). This electro-acoustic opera especially stands out for it's use of  opposing children's choir groups. - Stock…

*2022 Stock.* Elektronische Musik Mit Tonszenen Vom Freitag Aus Licht, this 2 CD set contains the dark ambient electronic music (Weltraum, or "Outer Space") from the opera Freitag Aus Licht (Friday from Light), combined/mixed with the Paare vom Freitag (Couples of Friday) "Sound Scenes" (heard as isolated duets on Paare vom Freitag, The Stockhausen Edition no. 48). In other words, this is the "tape" parts of the opera without the live performers. The electronic music is also used as the ambient …

*2022 Stock.* Paare Vom Freitag (Couples of Friday) with soprano, bass, electronic instruments (signal processing and samples) (1992/99). The Stockhausen Edition no. 48 contains 99 tracks of the isolated electro-acoustic/concrete vocal duets from the opera Freitag aus Licht (Friday from Light). In the opera these brief duets are sequenced and layered into 12 "Sound Scenes" spread throughout the opera, but on this disc they are presented as isolated events. These short vocal duets featuring the v…

*2022 Stock.* Hymnen - Elektronische Musik Mit Orchester is the premier recording of a specially-adapted version of the 3rd Region of the massive electronic/tape work Hymnen. Commissioned for a 1971 concert with the New York Philharmonic, Stockhausen scored a new orchestral accompaniment to this particular quadrant (the other 3 Regions were accompanied in this concert by the electro-acoustic Stockhausen Group, employing intuitive strategies). This orchestra and tape version also includes a solo …

*2022 Stock.* Solo includes new recordings of vintage-era variable-form solo chamber works involving shortwave radio or delay processing. A unique version of Solo (accompanied by excerpts from Hymnen Region 2) was previously recorded by trombonist Vinko Globokar for Deutsche-Grammaphon, but this is its first proper appearance on the Stockhausen label. Earlier electro-acoustic noise versions of Spiral can be found on The Stockhausen Edition no. 15. Both of these works feature an element of perfor…

*2022 Stock. Includes a 128-page booklet.* Markus Trompete Stockhausen features Markus Stockhausen performing Licht-related chamber works highlighting trumpet, piccolo trumpet, and flugelhorn. This CD also includes tracks created for a newly-recorded television broadcast presentation of Examen (from Act 1 of Donnerstag aus Licht). - Stockhausenspace.blogspot.com

*2022 Stock. Includes a 192-page booklet in English.* Dienstag Aus Licht is the complete staged 4th opera of the Licht cycle, Dienstag Aus Licht (Tuesday from Light). This opera has a prelude Greeting, followed by two Acts. The first is a new arrangement and recording of Der Jahreslauf (The Stockhausen Edition no. 29). Besides being newly-arranged for Stockhausen's 2nd generation electro-acoustic ensemble, this version also has additional opening and closing character sequences to put it in cont…

*2022 Stock.* Stockhausen conducts Haydn and Mozart contains 3 concertos from the classical repertoire, featuring Stockhausen's primary soloists performing new cadenzas written by Stockhausen himself (between 1978 and 1985). Markus Stockhausen, Kathinka Pasveer and Suzanne Stephens are backed by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Stockhausen), rec. 1985/86. Stockhausen's cadenzas are largely idiomatic, although sometimes approached with a more pensive "new music" perspective. - St…

*2022 Stock.* The Stockhausen Edition no. 38, Geburts-Arien / Mädchenprozession mostly contains excerpted highlight scenes from the 1st and 2nd Acts of the opera Montag aus Licht, with some additional arrangements for a cappella girls' choir and solo piano. The first 16 tracks are the two "Geburts-Arien" (Act 1, Scene 3, also found on The Stockhausen Edition no. 36b). Tracks 34-53 contain the "Mädchenprozession", "Befruchtung mit Klavierstück", and "Wiedergeburt" scenes from Act 2 (found on the …

*2022 Stock.* Geburtsfest = Festival Of Birth presents the mixed choir layer of the entire first Act of the opera Montag aus Licht (with some embedded musique concrète elements). This a cappella version, the "Geburtsfest", allows the listener to experience a specific facet of the opera without the soloists. Waves of choral voices can be heard, layered in various renditions/atomizations of the Licht super-formula. - Stockhausenspace.blogspot.com

*2022 Stock.* Montag Aus Licht is the 5 CD, fully-staged version of the 3rd Licht opera, Montag aus Licht (Monday from Light). This massive work is comprised of 3 Acts and framed by 2 electro-acoustic installation pieces ("Begrüßung" and "Abschied"). In contrast to Samstag aus Licht (which was highly instrumental in nature), this opera is structured around mixed vocal combos and choir groups. The work features vocalist Nicholas Isherwood, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the WDR Cologne Choir, the…

*2022 Stock.* The magic of works by Stockhausen is their inherent possibility for new interpretations. There is a richness of expression hidden inside these works, which has to bloom in different instrumental and interpretational guises for it to realize its own charged splendor. There is no way you can exhaust this music’s inherent goldmine of musical and existential aspects through one version and one version alone. The version of “Oberlippentanz” which opens this CD is a reduced version of ap…

*2022 Stock.* Samstag aus Licht is the second opera written for Licht, Samstag aus Licht. This is a darkly humorous 4 act opera on 4 CDs, featuring flute, piano, wind (jazz) band and male choir. The 3rd Scene is presented in both the complete version and as the aborted strike version. In the latter case, the performance is halted before its completion by a revolt from the wind band members (for playing past contracted working hours). If you only get one Licht opera, this is the one I'd recommend…

*2022 Stock.* Aries - Klavierstück XIII contains two long works featuring Markus and Majella Stockhausen (in separate performances). Aries is essentially the Spring quadrant of Sirius (the Stockhausen Edition no. 26) with the electronic tape accompanied by only Markus Stockhausen's trumpet part (in effect a live electro-acoustic work). The other work is Majella Stockhausen's traversal of Klavierstück XIII, a solo piano work later adapted with vocal parts into Scene 1 from the opera Samstag Aus L…

*2022 Stock.* Musik Für Klarinette, Bassklarinette Und Bassethorn is a collection of works for clarinet, bass clarinet, and basset-horn featuring the artistry of Suzanne Stephens (also previously featured on In Freundschaft (the Stockhausen Edition no. 27). This 3 CD set includes recordings from 1989 to 1994 of compositions spanning 1974 through 1994. Many of these works are derived or arranged from Licht (reduced for independent concert recital). 7 works are for solo basset-horn, with the remai…

*2022 Stock.* Unsichtbare Chöre features a tape piece made up of 16 layers of a cappella choir tracks, employing a variety of massed vocal approaches, including the use of percussive and whispered noises, joined by a couple brief, hypnotic multi-tracked clarinet sequences. This tape is used as a textural background layer in Act 1 of the opera Donnerstag aus Licht (the Stockhausen Edition No. 30). In Act 3 the same tape is reused, but with the channels reversed. Although some of this material can…

*2022 Stock.* Der Jahreslauf features a pre-Licht work, although this piece would later be reworked as the opening Act to the Licht opera Dienstag aus Licht (on CD 40). Commissioned for Japanese Gagaku orchestra, Der Jahreslauf is essentially Stockhausen's take on the very slow-changing, web-like textures of this ancient ceremonial music form. As the Gagaku orchestra proceeds through various poly-textural wind and string arrangements, several interruptions arrive in the form of comic skits (usua…

*2022 Stock.* Musik Für Flöte features the artistry of Kathinka Pasveer on 2 CDs, performing solo works for flute, piccolo flute, and alto flute. In addition to the flute arrangements of Amour and In Freundschaft, it includes several solo arrangements of works from the Licht opera cycle. This set also notably includes the electro-acoustic version of Kathinkas Gesang, a piece performed with percussionists in the opera Samstag aus Licht, but here in a later version with electronic music created at…

*2022 Stock.* In Freundschaft features Suzanne Stephens performing three solo works for clarinet and basset-horn (alto clarinet). In Freundschaft (a 3-layer polyphony arranged for a single soloist) is a popular recital work, and has been arranged for many different instruments. It was written as a clarinet solo for woodwind player Suzanne Stephens for her birthday and was first premiered by her in 1978, though a flute version was performed earlier during Stephens' actual birthday celebration. In…

*2022 Stock.* Harlekin / Der Kleine Harlekin features the clarinet and dance of woodwind player Suzanne Stephens. These two pieces for soloist are each based on a single formula theme, but with elements and limbs of the theme expanded and transformed at length in different textural explorations. An over-arching narrative theme enfolds the works in a dramatic scenario. Harlekin is a work for a costumed solo clarinetist with a substantial element of performer movement in its score (dance and mime …

*2022 Stock.* Atmen Gibt Das Leben is a semi-theatrical choral work, with the second half accompanied by orchestral background textures. The melodic vocal elements here have a somewhat humorous, folk-like feel to them. Atmen Gibt Das Leben (Breathing Gives Life) is essentially written for a capella mixed choir, but Stockhausen also includes a somewhat secondary orchestra part (usually played as a tape accompaniment) which is used to color the unaccompanied choir. There are 2 sections to this wor…

*2022 Stock.* Inori is a large scale work for orchestra which portrays the formation of a theme, one parameter at a time (rhythm - dynamics - melody - harmony - polyphony). Essentially, slow-moving sound masses in the beginning evolve into dramatic, complex gestures by the end. Two dancer-mimes are listed as soloists, but obviously they can't be heard on the CD. Inori is a further development of the formula concept Stockhausen first began exploring in Mantra,and would eventually be fully explore…

*2022 Stock.* The Stockhausen Edition 21st CD features 2 performances of the open-form work YLEM, which musically portrays the birth and death of the universe through the progressive motion of handheld instruments through a performance space (or in this case, the stereo field). The word "ylem" ("eye - lum") comes from a 1940's science term for "matter", specifically the sub-atomic plasma initially created at the Big Bang which continues to spread outwards forming the boundaries of the universe. …

*2022 Stock.*  "Am Himmel Wandere Ich..."documents a cycle of 12 mystical male-female vocal duets based on traditional American Indian song texts. Am Himmel Wandre Ich's text-influenced melodies could possibly be viewed as Stockhausen's version of the madrigal tradition, mixed with ancient ritual and a glorification of nature (I suppose the fact that they are typically performed between a man and a woman makes them come across as love songs as well). The idea of having almost innumerable possibl…

*2022 Stock.* The Stockhausen Edition No.19 contains two recordings of the enigmatic orchestral work Trans, which highlights sometimes comic soloists playing against a backdrop of percolating winds and slowly-modulating strings. The imagery and general sonic characteristics of Trans came to Stockhausen in a dream he had in 1970. The result was an orchestral work where the most active members of the orchestra are hidden from view, and a slow-moving wall of string players hosts several comically b…

*2022 Stock.* Sternklang features a roaming studio recording, documenting the five spacially-separated electro-acoustic chamber groups of Sternklang, a harmonically-modulating piece structurally similar to the all-vocal Stimmung. Some soloists are also highlighted in the mix as they migrate from one group to another. This 2 CD recording features members of the English new music groups Intermodulation and Gentle Fire, as well as Annette Meriweather (vox), Harald Bojé (synth), Michael Vetter (vox,…

*2022 Stock.* Für kommende Zeiten is a relatively contemporary recording of some intuitive music pieces from Stockhausen's second collection of text scores, recorded by the Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar (Michael von Hintzenstern (piano/harmonium), Matthias von Hintzenstern (cello), Hans Tutschku (synthesizer), Daniel Hoffmann (trumpet)) on May 28, 2005. During a period of personal upheaval and crisis, Stockhausen wrote a set of texts, Aus Den Sieben Tagen, which are essentially verbal inst…

*2022 Stock. Includes 124-page booklet in German and English.* “Stimmung” was a commission from the City of Cologne, for an ensemble at the Rheinische Musikschule; Collegium Vocale Köln. It was written early 1968, in February and March, in a house on Long Island Sound in Madison, Connecticut, where Stockhausen and his wife Mary Bauermeister and their children lived a couple of months. This commission for a vocal work took on a completely new direction when Stockhausen – out of consideration for …

*2022 Stock. Includes 32-page booklet in German and English.* On volume no. 5 in the ongoing Stockhausen Edition we meet large-scale orchestral works for the first time in the series. The first piece on this CD originates in a commission that Stockhausen received from the WDR, but nobody – perhaps not even Stockhausen – could foresee the kind of music that would eventually come out of this commission. The end result was no less than revolutionary, in its totally new concept of music moving in sp…

*2022 Stock.* The best, most efficient way to hear Stockhausen's works is through his official record label and publishing house. The Stockhausen Edition CDs are meticulously assembled with often voluminous booklets in English and German, filled with sketches and other documentary artifacts. Almost all of the recordings originally released on Deutsche Grammophon, Wergo, Nonesuch and other labels were reacquired by Stockhausen, and then remastered and repackaged under the Stockhausen Edition cata…

Four revolutionary orchestral works from 1951-52 showcase Stockhausen's bold transition to large ensemble writing. Featuring Formel, innovative Schlagtrio, theatrical Spiel, and the composer-conducted Punkte, this collection captures his pioneering experiments with orchestral pointillism and percussive techniques.

Karlheinz Stockhausen's pivotal 1950-51 works reveal his transition from traditional forms to revolutionary serialism. Featuring Chöre für Doris, Drei Lieder, Sonatine, and groundbreaking Kreuzspiel, this collection captures the composer's systematic deconstruction of harmonic language while pioneering new approaches to musical time and space.

'Composed in 1970, Mantra, for two pianos and ring modulation, was one of the decisive turning points in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s career. The 70-minute piece not only signalled a break with the text-based intuitive works, relying heavily on improvisation, that had come to dominate his output towards the end of the previous decade and a return to fully notated scores, but also introduced the idea of melodic formulae, the “mantra” of the title, which Stockhausen would eventually develop into the or…

Kontakte is a Stockhausen classic from 1959, for electronics, percussion and piano (played here by David Tudor). One of his "moment form" compositions, which "...lead up to no climax, nor do they have prepared, and thus expected, climaxes, nor the usual introductory, intensifying, transitional, and cadential stages which are related to the curve of development in a whole work; they are rather immediately intense and -- permanently present -- endeavor to maintain the level of continued 'peaks' up…

*2022 stock* The origins and technical content of Strahlen (‘Rays’), a work left incomplete at the time of Stockhausen’s death, are complicated. It’s best to watch the documentary about the work before hearing it through, so that your mind’s eye is tuned in to what is going on, and what lies behind the concept and techniques used in its realisation. Part of the genesis of Strahlen was a desire to create a ‘virtual vibraphone’ with the ability to play extended notes, dynamic crescendos and freaki…