![Planisphæri Coeleste de Wit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Planisph%C3%A6ri_Coeleste_de_Wit.JPG)
''Sternklang'' (Star Sound), is "park music for five groups" composed in 1971 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-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...
, and bears the work number 34 in his catalogue of compositions. The score is dedicated to his spouse,
Mary Bauermeister
Mary Hilde Ruth Bauermeister (born 7 September 1934) is a German artist who works in sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, and music. Influenced by Fluxus artists and Nouveau Réalisme, her work addresses esoteric issues of how informati ...
, and a performance of the work lasts from two-and-a-half to three hours.
History and concept
![Parc saint-cloud](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Parc_saint-cloud.jpg)
''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
''Stimmung'', for six vocalists and six microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale Köln. Its average length is seventy-four minutes, and it bears the work nu ...
''". From a technical point of view, it tackles and solves the problem of coordinating independent harmonic groups.
Although ''Sternklang'' was first conceived in 1969, it was only composed two years later, on a commission from
Sender Freies Berlin
Sender Freies Berlin (; abbreviated SFB ; ) was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003. On 1 May 2003 it merged with Ostdeu ...
. The first performance took place from 8:30 to 11:30pm on 5 June 1971 in the Englischer Garten of the
Tiergarten, Berlin, near the
Akademie der Künste. The performers were the
Collegium Vocale Köln, an expanded version of Stockhausen's touring ensemble,
Hugh Davies and his group, The Gentle Fire from London, and
Roger Smalley
John Roger Smalley (26 July 1943 – 18 August 2015) was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary ...
and
Tim Souster
Tim Souster (29 January 1943 – 1 March 1994) was a British composer and writer on music, best known for his electronic music output.
Biography Education
Born Timothy Andrew James Souster in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, Souster was educated ...
's ensemble, Intermodulation, from Cambridge. About four thousand people attended the performance. Despite the unusually difficult performance requirements, there have been a number of subsequent performances:
* 29 and 31 August 1972, at the
Englischer Garten
The ''Englischer Garten'' (, ''English Garden'') is a large public park in the centre of Munich, Bavaria, stretching from the city centre to the northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 by Sir Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814), later Count ...
in Munich during the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
* 8 September 1972, in the Parc Delgosha as part of the
Shiraz Arts Festival
The Shiraz Festival of Arts ( Persian: جشنواره هنر شیراز) was an annual international summer arts festival, held in Iran bringing about the encounter between the East and the West. It was held from 1967 to 1977 in the city of Shiraz ...
in Iran
* 2 July 1974, in the Parc Franck-Delmas at the
La Rochelle
La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...
Festival
* 20 and 22 June 1975, in the
Parc de Saint-Cloud
The Parc de Saint-Cloud, officially the ''Domaine National de Saint-Cloud'', is a ''domaine national'' (national estate), located mostly within Saint-Cloud, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, near Paris, France.
The park, which covers , was a natu ...
in Paris-St. Cloud
* 26 and 27 July 1980, in the
Beethovenhalle
The Beethovenhalle () is a concert hall in Bonn. It is the third hall in that city to bear the name of Bonn-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
History
The first Beethovenhalle was a temporary structure built in 1845 during the inauguration of ...
, Bonn
* 18 and 19 June 1984, as part of the
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
Arts Festival of Contemporary Music, Los Angeles
* 23 November 1988, as part of the
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has feature ...
. Performers from five British universities prepared by Peter Britton and supervised by the composer
* 14 July 1992, in
Cannon Hill Park
Cannon Hill Park is a park located in south Birmingham, England. It is the most popular park in the city, covering consisting of formal, conservation, woodland and sports areas. Recreational activities at the park include boating, fishing, bowls ...
, Birmingham (UK), performers from the
Birmingham Conservatoire
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides professional education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly res ...
, the
Midlands Arts Centre
MAC (stylized as mac) (formerly Midlands Arts Centre) is a non-profit arts centre situated in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It was established in 1962 and is registered as an educational charity which hosts art exhibitions ...
,
Anglia Polytechnic
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...
,
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College is located in Highgate, Birmingham, England (1 Belgrave Road, Birmingham B12 9FF, UK). The College offers a wide range of A-level and BTEC programmes. It also has an adult education provision. It is located ...
, and
Birmingham University
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
, with the university's electro-acoustic sound system, BEAST, under the composer's direction
* 7 September 2010, in the
Killesbergpark
The Killesbergpark (Höhenpark Killesberg) is an urban public park of half a square kilometre (123 acres) in Stuttgart, Germany. It is just north of the state capital, where Killesberg is a quarter of the borough of ''Stuttgart-Nord'' (North).
...
, Stuttgart, by the ensembles of the Netzwerk Süd:
ascolta, gelberklang, , and Suono Mobile, under the auspices of Sounding D—Neue Musik in Deutschland
* 16 September 2016, in
Ekebergparken, Oslo. Part of the
Ultima Festival, performers from Nordic Voices and the
Norwegian Academy of Music
The Norwegian Academy of Music (Norwegian: ''Norges musikkhøgskole'', NMH) is a university-level music conservatory located in Oslo, Norway, in the neighbourhood of Majorstuen, Frogner. It is the largest music academy in Norway and offers the co ...
.
* 27 August 2022, in Schlosspark Brühl, Brühl (Germany). Part of the
Acht Brücken Festival, performers from Nordic Voices, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Das Neue Ensemble, with musical direction by Stephan Meier.
The two Bonn performances in 1980 had been planned for outdoor performance in the . The loudspeaker towers were scheduled to be set up in the park on 21 July, five days before the first performance, but by that time uninterrupted rain had been falling for a week with no improvement in sight, so the decision was made to relocate the performance indoors, into the large auditorium of the
Beethovenhalle
The Beethovenhalle () is a concert hall in Bonn. It is the third hall in that city to bear the name of Bonn-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
History
The first Beethovenhalle was a temporary structure built in 1845 during the inauguration of ...
. Stockhausen found that there were certain advantages to an indoor venue (better auditory contact among the performers, improved control of the
just tuning of the harmonies, etc.), and so decided henceforth to authorise such performances and drew up special instructions for those conditions. In connection with this extension of performance practice Stockhausen decided also that even a single group out of the five specified in the score, or any combination of two to five groups may perform freely selected excerpts from ''Sternklang'' in concert.
Analysis
![Bootes & Coma Berenices](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Bootes_%26_Coma_Berenices.gif)
''Sternklang'' creates a sense of "non-progressive or circular time by blurring complex relationships between pitch and rhythm based on the overtone series so that the structure is perceived as inexhaustible and thus appears static". The entire composition is based on five just-intoned harmonic sounds, each containing eight tones corresponding to the second through ninth partials of the
overtone series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a ''fundamental frequency''.
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator su ...
. One of these tones in each chord is the E above middle C, tuned to 330 Hz. In the first chord this functions as the ninth partial, in the second chord as the eighth partial, and so on to the fifth chord, where it is the fifth partial. Compositionally, the harmonic structure fluctuates between an extreme situation in which all five groups share the same chord and the opposite extreme where each group's chord is different.
The rhythms, tone colours, and pitch intervals in the "models" are directly derived from star constellations observed in the sky and integrated as musical figures.
The self-similarity of the time and pitch structures recalls the same composer's ''
Gruppen
''Gruppen'' (german: Groups) for three orchestras (1955–57) is amongst the best-known compositions of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 6 in the composer's catalog of works. ''Gruppen'' is "a landmark in 20th-century mu ...
''.
Reception
At the Birmingham performance in 1992, the composer observed members of the audience: The overall response of the audience attending was described by another observer:
Discography
* ''Karlheinz Stockhausen: Sternklang''. Group 1 (Intermodulation): Peter Britton (synthesizer),
Tim Souster
Tim Souster (29 January 1943 – 1 March 1994) was a British composer and writer on music, best known for his electronic music output.
Biography Education
Born Timothy Andrew James Souster in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, Souster was educated ...
(electric viola with synthesizer), Robin Thompson (bassoon with synthesizer),
Roger Smalley
John Roger Smalley (26 July 1943 – 18 August 2015) was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary ...
(synthesizer); Group 2: Annette Meriweather (soprano); Wolfgang König (trombone with synthesizer), Hans-Alderich Billig (bass), (electronium); Group 3: Helga Hamm-Albrecht (mezzo-soprano), Wolfgang Fromme (tenor), Helmut Clemens (tenor), Peter Sommer (trombone with synthesizer); Group 4 (Gentle Fire): Stuart Jones (violin with synthesizer),
Hugh Davies (clarinet with synthesizer), Graham Hearn (synthesizer), Michael Robinson (cello with synthesizer); Group 5:
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 with synthesizer),
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 ...
(clarinet with synthesizer), Atsuko Iwami (alto voice and recorder),
Michael Vetter
Michael Vetter (18 September 1943 – 7 December 2013) was a German composer, novelist, poet, performer, calligrapher, artist, and teacher.
Biography
Vetter was born in Oberstdorf in the Allgäu region of Germany, and received a conventional scho ...
(bass and recorder);
Richard Bernas (percussion, from Gentle Fire). 2-LP recording. Recorded in the Studio des Dames, Paris, June 24–26, 1975. Polydor 2612 031 (2335 116 and 2335 117).
ermany Polydor International; Deutsche Grammophon 2707 123 (2531 281 & 2531 282).
amburg Deutsche Grammophon, 1976. Reissued on 2-CD set, Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 18A–B. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 1992.
Filmography
* 1980. ''Omnibus: Tuning in with Stockhausen and the Sing Circle''. BBC TV.
ncludes excerpts from ''Sternklang''.
References
Cited sources
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Further reading
* Britton, Peter. 1989a. "''Sternklang''s Models: By What Criteria Are They Composed?" ''Ideas and Production'', no. 11:24–43 .
* Britton, Peter. 1989b "''Sternklang'': Timbral Organisation". ''Ideas and Production'', no. 11:19–22. .
* Frisius, Rudolf. 2008. ''Karlheinz Stockhausen II: Die Werke 1950–1977; Gespräch mit Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Es geht aufwärts"''. Mainz, London, Berlin, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto: Schott Musik International. .
*
Griffiths, Paul. 1974. "LaRochelle". ''
The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...
'' 115, no. 1579 (September): 777–778.
* Luciani, Maria Teresa. 2004. ''Musica mundi: Percorsi di ascolto'', introduction by Giulio Sforza. Country: Kappa Roma. .
* Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1989. ''Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews'', compiled by
Robin Maconie
Robin John Maconie (born 22 October 1942) is a New Zealand composer, pianist, and writer.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Maconie studied with Frederick Page and Roger Savage at the Victoria University of Wellington, receiving a Master of Arts in t ...
. London and New York: Marion Boyars. (cloth); (pbk).
* Ulrich, Thomas. 2001. "''Sternklang'': Karlheinz Stockhausens astronische Musik". ''Positionen: Beiträge zur Neuen Musik'', no. 46 (February): 25–28.
*
Toop, Richard
Richard Toop (1945 – 19 June 2017) was a British-Australian musicologist.
Toop was born in Chichester, England, in 1945. He studied at Hull University, where his teachers included Denis Arnold.
In 1973 he became Karlheinz Stockhausen's teac ...
. 2000. "Von der 'Sternenmusik' zur Musik des Weltraums: Karlheinz Stockhausens musikalischer Kosmos". ''
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834.
His ...
'' 161, no. 6 (November–December): 38–43.
External links
* Nordin, Ingvar Loco. n.d.
Stockhausen Edition No. 18 (''Sternklang''). Sonoloco Reviews (Accessed 14 February 2012).
* W., A. 1980.
Karlheinz Stockhausen: ''Sternklang''. ''
Gramophone'' (August): 44 (Accessed 14 February 2012).
{{Authority control
Compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen
20th-century classical music
1971 compositions
Serial compositions
Spatial music
Music dedicated to family or friends