Karlheinz Stockhausen

Welt-Parlament (World Parliament) is the first scene of Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light). This opera was the sixth of the seven in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Licht cycle to be composed, and the scene is written for choir a cappella. Stockhausen composed it between 29 December 1994 and 5 March 1995 on a commission from the South German Radio in Stuttgart. It lasts about forty minutes, asks for a singing conductor, and can be performed alone as a concert work.

The scene presents a congress of the world's representatives who debate the subject of love. After an introduction with hand percussion and a field of ticking metronomes, twelve vocal groups and soloists enter into an exchange, and the work ends on a coloratura soprano solo. The Verlag score is printed in seven colours and won the 1996 prize of the German Music Publishers Society. The disc is a single track of 37:21 that Discogs divides into 40 cue points. It is sung by the Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart under Rupert Huber, who conducted the first performance on 3 February 1996 in the Hegelsaal of the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. The recording was made and mixed at the Süddeutscher Rundfunk in October 1995 and January 1996, with Stockhausen supervising the music and acting as recording director. Christian Leuschner was the recording engineer, Andreas Priemer the recording supervisor and Richard Sauer the recording technician. The scene was later absorbed into the staged opera, which was first produced by the Birmingham Opera Company in August 2012.

This is Stockhausen-Verlag, Stockhausen Edition no. 51, one CD issued in 1996 with a 32-page booklet in German and English.