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Formula Composition
Formula composition is a serially derived technique encountered principally in the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, involving the projection, expansion, and ''Ausmultiplikation'' of either a single melody-formula, or a two- or three-voice contrapuntal construction (sometimes stated at the outset). In contrast to serial music, where the structuring features are more or less abstract and remain largely inaccessible to the listener's ear, in formula composition the musical specifications of pitch, dynamics, duration, timbre, and tempo are always directly evident in the sound, through the use of a concisely articulated melodic tone succession, the formula, which defines the large-scale form as well as all the internal musical details of the composition. Stockhausen's music Though foreshadowed in Stockhausen's once-withdrawn '' Formel'' ("Formula") of 1951, the technique made its first appearance in '' Mantra'' in 1970, and became the central focus of Stockhausen's music up to 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of post-tonal thinking. Twelve-tone technique orders the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, forming a row or series and providing a unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. Other types of serialism also work with sets, collections of objects, but not necessarily with fixed-order series, and extend the technique to other musical dimensions (often called "parameters"), such as duration, dynamics, and timbre. The idea of serialism is also applied in various ways in the visual arts, design, and architecture, and the musical concept has also been adapted in literature. Integral serialism or total serialism is the use of series for aspects such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alphabet Für Liège
''Alphabet für Liège'', for soloists and duos, is a composition (or a musical installation) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 36 in the composer's catalog of works. A performance of it lasts four hours. The fundamental idea underlying ''Alphabet'' is the notion that sound vibrations can affect both living beings and inanimate matter. There are thirteen ''scenes'', or ''musical images'', each illustrating the physical effects of sound, ranging from making acoustic vibrations visible to a demonstration of Asian mantra techniques. These ideas were developed in conversations with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration Jill Purce, who also called Stockhausen's attention to the work of Hans Jenny. In a radio interview three months before the premiere, Stockhausen explained his purpose was to show "how sound waves always change the molecules, even the atoms of a being who listens to music, making them vibrate. And that is what we want ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York Höller
York Höller (; born 11 January 1944) is a German composer and professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. Biography Höller was born in Leverkusen. Between 1963 and 1970 he studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with and Alfons Kontarsky, and orchestral conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer. Parallel to this, he studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Cologne. He did further musical studies at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt with Pierre Boulez, and in 1967 sat his examination in music education. Höller was active for a short time as a répétiteur at the Staatstheater Bonn. At the Electronic Music Studio of WDR in 1971–72, he "continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen" or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen's invitation, to realize works of his own". In any case, the technique he developed at this time—a form of exten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rituel In Memoriam Bruno Maderna
''Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna'' (1974–75) is a composition for orchestra in eight groups by Pierre Boulez. Biographer Dominique Jameux wrote that the piece has "obvious audience appeal", and that it represented a desire to establish "immediate, almost physical contact with the public". Jameux also noted that ''Rituel'' represents one of the few examples of repetitive music written by Boulez. Author Jonathan Goldman wrote that, of Boulez's works, ''Rituel'' is the one that "most evokes... the sound worlds of non-Western musical ensembles, be they Indonesian, African or South American." History ''Rituel'', commissioned by BBC London, was written a year after the death of Boulez's friend and fellow composer/conductor Bruno Maderna in December 1973. It was first performed in London on 2 April 1975 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Boulez. Following the premiere, Boulez revised the score, removing optional, "open" features due to concerns regarding the ability of a larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Montbrison in the Loire department of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Olivier Messiaen, and privately with Andrée Vaurabourg and René Leibowitz. He began his professional career in the late 1940s as music director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. He was a leading figure in avant-garde music, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism (in the 1950s), controlled chance music (in the 1960s) and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time (from the 1970s onwards). His tendency to revise earlier compositions meant that his body of work was relatively small, but it included pieces regarded by many as landmarks of twentieth-century music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amour (Stockhausen)
''Amour'' is a cycle of five pieces for clarinet by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in 1974–76. The composer thought of each piece as a gift for a close friend. The cycle is given the number 44 in Stockhausen's catalogue of works. History The first piece of the cycle was composed in 1974 while Stockhausen was vacationing in Senegal, at Ngor, a beach resort near Dakar; the rest were composed during a week in December 1976, in Kürten, Germany, as Christmas gifts for family members and close associates. * "Sei wieder fröhlich" ("Cheer up", 12 December 1974) :Composed for clarinetist Suzee (Suzanne) Stephens, who worked with Stockhausen on a number of projects, including ''Herbstmusik ''Herbstmusik'' (Autumn Music) is a music-theatre work for four performers composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1974. It is Nr. 40 in his catalogue of works, and lasts a little over an hour in performance. History ''Herbstmusik'' was written in M ...'' (1974), '' Harlekin'' (1975), '' In Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tierkreis (Stockhausen)
''Tierkreis'' (1974–75) is a musical composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. The title is the German word for Zodiac, and the composition consists of twelve melodies, each representing one sign of the zodiac. History Once described as "melodic naïveté" in the form of "cheerful, empty-headed little tune , who nevertheless soon changed his mind, ''Tierkreis'' has proved to be Stockhausen's most popular composition. ''Tierkreis'' was originally written for music boxes as a component part of a theater piece for percussion sextet titled ''Musik im Bauch'' (Music in the Belly), which has been interpreted variously as "a fairy tale for children" or else as "a ritual played out in Mexican Indian scenery". These twelve melodies (with or without their accompaniments) form an autonomous work which can be played by any suitable instrument, and exist also in versions to be sung. The striking simplicity of the melodies has led some writers to see them (together with other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atmen Gibt Das Leben
''Atmen gibt das Leben'' (''Breathing Gives Life''), is a choral opera with orchestra by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1974 and expanded in 1976–77. It is Number 39 in the catalogue of the composer's works, and lasts about 50 minutes in performance. History The first part of ''Atmen gibt das Leben'' was composed for a cappella choir during a composition seminar on 1 February 1974. This was in response to a request from the German Choral Association for a piece that could be sung by amateur choirs, and Stockhausen's original idea was that his students should each write a simple choral piece using a text from ''The Bowl of Saki'', by Inayat Khan, and then all the pieces would be published together in a single volume. Not all of his students reacted favourably, and so the piece he composed himself for the project became the first part of Stockhausen's choral opera. This part was premiered by the NDR Chor, the choir of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, in a public concert in Hamburg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ylem (Stockhausen)
''Ylem'' is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen for a variable ensemble of 19 or more players, and is given the work number 37 in his catalogue of compositions. History ''Ylem'' is " phoenix music", in that it represents the continual rebirth of the universe, according to the theory of the oscillating universe, which holds that the universe periodically explodes every 80,000,000,000 years. The title of the work is taken from the term '' ylem'', a word used in medieval Latin, the accusative of the borrowed Greek term ''hylē'' (ὕλη, "matter"), and adopted in the 1940s by the physicists George Gamow and Ralph Alpher to refer to the essential material of the universe, in the context of the "Big Bang theory. The subject of the composition is, in short, "the 'breath' of the universe". The score is dedicated to the composer's son Simon, who was five years old at the time of composition. It was composed in December 1972 for a tour with the London Sinfonietta, who gave the premier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trans (Stockhausen)
''Trans'' is a composition for orchestra and tape by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1971. It is Number 35 in the composer's catalog of works. ''Trans'' is as much a work of theatre as it is a musical composition. It has a somnolent, irrational look and feel, for the simple reason that it is the representation of a dream. Stockhausen regarded it as an important work for himself, a key work and a whole new beginning—a "transcendental piece". Origin The overall course of the entire piece came to Stockhausen in a dream during the night of 9–10 December 1970. In the morning, he had an early appointment, but took the time to jot down briefly in words what he had heard and seen: "Dreamt orchestral work ... orchestra sits in series ... sound wall opens with different intervals at periods of about twenty seconds, allowing music behind this wall to come through—brass and woodwinds mixed—and I hear low instruments that are the fundamentals; in timbres they're ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sternklang
''Sternklang'' (Star Sound), is "park music for five groups" composed in 1971 by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and bears the work number 34 in his catalogue of compositions. The score is dedicated to his spouse, Mary Bauermeister, and a performance of the work lasts from two-and-a-half to three hours. History and concept ''Sternklang'' is "park music", to be performed outdoors at night by 21 singers and/or instrumentalists divided into five groups, at widely separated locations. The sounds from each performer are separately amplified and projected over loudspeakers. "Sound runners" transport musical "models" from one group to another, while a percussionist stationed at a central position helps synchronise the groups to common tempos at ten points in the piece. The piece has been described as "a twilight fantasy … an extended outdoor '' Stimmung''". From a technical point of view, it tackles and solves the problem of coordinating independent harmonic groups. Although ''Sternklang'' was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirius (Stockhausen)
''Sirius'': eight-channel electronic music and trumpet, soprano, bass clarinet, and bass is a music-theatre composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed between 1975 and 1977. It is Nr. 43 in the composer's catalogue of works, and lasts 96 minutes in performance. History ''Sirius'' has been described as "a modern mystery play, clothed as a science fiction story". While not described by the composer as an opera, it is nevertheless a musical drama, in which four emissaries from a planet orbiting the star Sirius bring a message to earth. "This was to be the big leap into theatre proper. ... ''Sirius'' is the key work that leads to his magnum opus LICHT (LIGHT)". When Stockhausen's daughter, Julika (aged 5 or 6 at the time), asked for a dog, he obtained one for her and named it Sirius, after the star in the constellation Canis Major, which was in his mind because he had just finished composing ''Sternklang'' ("Star-sound", 1971). Shortly afterward, he chanced upon a passage in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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