''Sirius'': eight-channel

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

, and bass is a music-theatre composition by

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, 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 Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

, clothed as a science fiction story". While not described by the composer as an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, it is nevertheless a musical drama, in which four emissaries from a planet orbiting the star

Sirius Sirius is the list of brightest stars, brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek language, Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinisation ...

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 file:Kürten - Waldfriedhof - Stockhausen 01 ies.jpg, 275px, Karlheinz Stockhausens grave with the score to LICHT . ''Licht'' (Light), subtitled "Die sieben Tage der Woche" (The Seven Days of the Week), is a cycle of seven operas composed by Kar ...

(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 Canis Major is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin fo ...

, which was in his mind because he had just finished composing ''

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 th ...

'' ("Star-sound", 1971). Shortly afterward, he chanced upon a passage in a book by

Jakob Lorber Jakob Lorber (22 July 1800 – 23 August 1864) was a Christian mystic and visionary from the Duchy of Styria, who promoted liberal Universalism. He referred to himself as "God's scribe". He wrote that on 15 March 1840 he began hearing an " inne ...

describing Sirius as the sun at the center of our universe, and this fired his imagination:

Other snippets of vitally important information then came to me through a couple of revelatory dreams. Crazy dreams, from which it emerged that not only did I come from Sirius itself, but that, in fact, I completed my musical education there.

Stockhausen never explained these dreams in detail, maintaining that "It would lead to misunderstanding and false interpretation". In the composer’s imagination, for beings from the planets of the Sirius system, "everything is music, or the art of co-ordination and harmony of vibrations. ... The art is very highly developed there, and every composition on Sirius is related to the rhythms of nature ... the seasons, the rhythms of the stars." Stockhausen’s composition therefore is based on "the cycles and rhythms of nature—of the seasons—with all of their characteristics, and to the planets, animals, and to the twelve main characters of human beings". ''Sirius'' was commissioned by the West German government to celebrate the United States bicentenary, and is dedicated to the "American pioneers on earth and in space". Composition was begun in 1975, and the first performance was given before an invited audience at the opening of the Albert Einstein Spacearium in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, on 15 July 1976, though only the "summer" section had been completed by then. The "autumn" portion was added in time for performances later that year in Japan, France, Germany, and Italy. After interrupting work in order to compose the second part of his choral opera ''

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 pe ...

'' and the orchestral ''

Jubiläum ''Jubiläum'' (Jubilee) is an orchestral composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, work-number 45 in the composer's catalogue of works. History ''Jubiläum'' is a relatively short work of about 15 minutes duration, written in 1977 on commission fo ...

'', Stockhausen finished ''Sirius'' and the première of the complete form took place on 8 August 1977 at the

Aix-en-Provence Festival The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumenta ...

Form and content

''Sirius'' is Number 43 in the composer's catalog of works, and consists of three main parts: "Presentation", "The Wheel" (subdivided into four sections, corresponding to the four seasons), and "Annunciation". The words were written by Stockhausen, except for a text by

used in the Annunciation. The musical material consists of the twelve

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

melodies of Tierkreis, Nr. 41½ (1974–75), originally composed for music boxes in connection with the

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

sextet ''Musik im Bauch'' (Music in the Belly), Nr. 41 (1975). Four of these melodies are principal, each associated with one of the protagonists, and are subjected to a variety of transformations, not merely by superimposition even of metamorphosis through a system of cross-fertilization processes in which "one melody progressively assumes the features of another, as a series of mists and frosts 'borrowed' from winter will gradually transform the autumnal aspect of October from summer nostalgia into winter foreboding". The remaining eight melodies serve a subsidiary role. In the Presentation, the four characters introduce themselves and their attributes. They are: * North (bass): Earth, Man, Night, Winter, Seed * East (trumpet): Fire, Youth, Morning, Spring, Bud * South (soprano): Water, Woman, Midday, Summer, Blossom * West (bass clarinet): Air, Friend/Beloved, Evening, Autumn, Fruit. The main, central "wheel" lasts over an hour, and can be rotated, according to the season of the performance, to produce four different forms: * Winter version, beginning with " Capricorn" * Spring version, beginning with "

Aries Aries may refer to: *Aries (astrology), an astrological sign *Aries (constellation), a constellation of stars in the zodiac Arts, entertainment and media * ''Aries'' (album), by Luis Miguel, 1993 * ''Aries'' (EP), by Alice Chater, 2020 * "Aries" ...

" * Summer version, beginning with "

Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

" * Autumn version, beginning with "

Libra Libra generally refers to: * Libra (constellation), a constellation * Libra (astrology), an astrological sign based on the star constellation Libra may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Libra'' (novel), a 1988 novel by Don DeLillo Musi ...

". The total duration of ''Sirius'' is 96 minutes. The eight-channel electronic music was realized in the Electronic Music Studio of WDR,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

in 1975–77, using an

EMS Synthi 100 The EMS Synthi 100 was a large analogue/digital hybrid synthesizer made by Electronic Music Studios, London, originally as a custom order from Radio Belgrade for what was to be the Radio Belgrade Electronic Studio, largely thanks to contact betw ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

. The electronic music can be performed by itself, without the four soloists, and there are also three excerpted versions, each for a soloist with a specially prepared version of the electronic music: ''Aries'', for trumpet (Nr. 43½, 1980), ''Libra'', for bass clarinet (Nr. 43⅔), and ''Capricorn'', for bass voice (Nr. 43¾).

Discography

* ''Aries'', for trumpet and electronic music.

Markus Stockhausen Markus Stockhausen (born May 2, 1957) is a German trumpeter and composer. His recordings and performances have typically alternated between jazz and chamber or opera music, the latter often in collaboration with his father, composer Karlheinz Sto ...

, trumpet. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 33 (with '' Klavierstück XIII: Luzifers Traum'', as piano solo). * ''Capricorn'', for bass voice and electronic music.

Nicholas Isherwood Nicholas Isherwood is a Franco-American bass singer, who specialises in contemporary and baroque music. Notable roles include "Lucifer" in the world premieres of Stockhausen’s '' Montag'', '' Dienstag'', and '' Freitag'' from '' Licht'' at L ...

, bass. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 59 (with ''Rechter Augenbrauentanz'' for clarinets, bass clarinets, percussionist, synthesizer player). * ''Libra'', for bass clarinet and electronic music.

Suzanne Stephens Suzanne Stephens (born July 28, 1946) is an American clarinetist, resident in Germany, described as "an outstanding performer and tireless promoter of the clarinet and basset horn". Biography Suzanne Stephens was born in Waterloo, Iowa, the dau ...

, bass clarinet. In ''Music for Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Basset-horn''. 3-CD set. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 32. * ''Sirius'', electronic music with trumpet, soprano, bass clarinet and bass voice (Summer version). Markus Stockhausen, trumpet; Annette Merriweather, soprano; Suzanne Stephens, bass clarinet;

Boris Carmeli Boris Carmeli (23 April 1928 – 31 July 2009) was a Polish operatic basso profondo known for his "fervent rich hued tones" and extensive repertory of more than 70 operas and 60 oratorios. During his long career, he appeared regularly at La Sca ...

, bass. Deutsche Grammophon 2-LP set 2707 122 (1980). Reissued on 2-CD set, Stockhausen Complete Edition, CD 26. * ''Sirius'', electronic music in 4 versions: Spring version, Summer version, Autumn version, Winter version) 8-CD set, Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 76.

References

Cited sources

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External links