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3 X Refrain 2000
*2022 Stock.* This CD contains 3 X Refrain 2000 for piano with 3 wood blocks (Benjamin Kobler), sampler-celesta with 3 antique cymbals (Antonio Pérez Abellán), and vibraphone with 3 cow bells and glockenspiel (Andreas Boettger). This is essentially 3 "versions" of Refrain (originally composed in 1959, and recorded earlier on the Stockhausen Edition no. 6) with the indeterminate notation strip in 3 different orientations and with some minor additions to the coda. In a concert performance, all 3 v…
Litanei 97 - Kurzwellen
*2022 Stock.* This disc contains two pre-Licht pieces, one a modernized reworking of an intuitive text piece from Aus Den Sieben Tagen, and the the other an "historical/archival" release from the shortwave radio "Plus-Minus" series. Litanei 97 is basically a reworking of the piece Litanei (Litany) from Stockhausen's 1968 collection of intuitive text pieces, Aus Den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days), which generally uses verbal instructions to direct improvisational ensembles performances. In co…
Rechter Augenbrauentanz - Capricorn
*2022 Stock.* This disc has two longer electro-acoustic works. Rechter Augenbrauentanz (Right-Eyebrow-Dance) is a completely new arrangement of a theme from "Lucifer's Dance", and in Capricorn, Nicholas Isherwood sings the "Winter" portion of Sirius (originally recorded by Boris Carmeli on the Stockhausen Edition no. 26) over the Sirius electronic tape .- Stockhausenspace.blogspot.com
Lichter - Wasser
*2022 Stock.* Lichter - Wasser (Light-Waters) is the 1st Scene of Stockhausen's dramatic music work Sonntag Aus Licht (Sunday from Light), which was the last-composed entry of his 7-part, 29-hour opera cycle Licht (Light). Licht is a work for acoustic and electronic operatic forces, divided into the 7 days of the week (one opera for each day). This opera cycle revolves around 3 archetype characters, Michael, Eve, and Lucifer, and over the 29 hours each of these characters are introduced, come in…
Klavierstücke I-XIV
*2022 Stock. Includes a 86-page booklet.* Although several recordings of Stockhausen's cycle for solo piano have been recorded over the decades, notably by David Tudor and Aloys Kontarsky, this set is the definitive edition, with Ellen Corver presenting the first 14 Klavierstücke, working directly under Stockhausen's supervision and incorporating his latest corrections/additions. Stockhausen first started working with Corver in 1982, and these tracks were recorded in 1997/98. The 86-page booklet…
Michaelion
*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…
Orchester-Finalisten
*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…
Welt-Parlament Vom Mittwoch Aus Licht
*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"…
Chöre Für Doris - Choral - Drei Lieder - Sonatine - Kreuzspiel
*2022 Stock. Includes a 32-page booklet in German and English.* This first volume of the Complete Edition highlights voice-driven student works and two chamber works. Kreuzspiel (Crossplay) is probably Stockhausen's first "key work". Although these works were composed in the early 1950s, these premier recordings are comprised of performances from the 1970s. Listening to the first works being issued in the large-scale the Stockhausen Edition series, one might expect some give-aways as to a possib…
Formel / Schlagtrio / Spiel / Punkte
*2022 Stock.* Starting off with a merry, but very cautious fairytale melody, the little figures trip down a spiral staircase, then move in sudden rash movements across the stage, hide behind a tree or a rock, stick their heads out in a peek-a-boo-manner, look cautiously around with big apprehensive eyes, then dart forth again, to the next hiding spot – until they feel more at ease, and expose themselves center stage, holding hands or arms, dancing around, still looking and listening, in the spot…
Gruppen / Carré
*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…
Für Kommende Zeiten
*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…
Trans
*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…
"Am Himmel Wandere Ich..."
*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…
Inori
*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…
Atmen Gibt Das Leben
*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…
Harlekin / Der Kleine Harlekin
*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 …
In Freundschaft / Traum-Formel / Amour
*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…
Musik Für Flöte
*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…
Unsichtbare Chöre
*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…