Stockhausen: Sounds in Space: EVAs ERSTGEBURT

MONTAG AUS LICHT
Greeting MONTAGs- GRUSS	Act 1 EVAs ERSTGEBURT	Act 2 EVAs ZWEITGEBURT	Act 3 EVAs ZAUBER	Farewell MONTAGs ABSCHIED

Score Cover (© www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)

No. 56: EVAs ERSTGEBURT
(EVE's First Birth-Giving) for 3 sopranos, 3 tenors, bass, vocal actor, choir (GEBURTS-FEST, live or tape), boys’ choir, 3 synthesizers, percussion, tape (Sound Scenes), staged with 21 actresses

The First Act of
MONTAG AUS LICHT (MONDAY from LIGHT)
1987 [93 min]

Additional Works:
No. 56 Extract 1: GEBURTS-FEST (Festival of Birth)
for Choir with tape (Sound Scenes) [68'30"]
Separately as:

QUELLE DES LEBENS (Spring of Life): extract from IN HOFFNUNG / HEINZELMÄNNCHEN / Erste & Zweite GEBURTS-ARIE [38'30"]
KINDERSPIEL (Child's Play): extract from KNABENGESCHREI [19']
TRAUER MIT HUMOR (Lament with Humor): extract from DAS GROSSE GEWEINE [approx. 11'30]

No. 56 1/2, 2/3 (ie 56.2, 56.3): IN HOFFNUNG (Expecting), HEINZELMÄNNCHEN [27']
     No. 56 1/2 Extract 1: FLAUTINA for flute, piccolo and alto flute [6']
No. 56 3/4 (ie 56.4): GEBURTS-ARIEN (Birth Arias) [17']
     No. 56 3/4 Extract 1: Erste GEBURTS-ARIE (1st Birth Aria) [9']
     No. 56 3/4 Extract 2: Zweite GEBURTS-ARIE (2nd Birth Aria) [9']
No. 56 4/5 (ie 56.5): KNABENGESCHREI (Boy's Hullabaloo) [26']
No. 56 5/6 (ie 56.6): LUZIFERs ZORN (Lucifer's Fury) [22']
No. 56 6/7 (ie 56.7): DAS GROSSE GEWEINE (The Great Weeping) [10'30]

Introduction
     EVAs ERSTGEBURT (EVE's First Birth-Giving) is the 1st Scene of Stockhausen's dramatic music work MONTAG AUS LICHT (MONDAY from LIGHT), which was the 3rd-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 into conflict, face temptation and finally come into union. The music is almost entirely based on a "super-formula", which is a 3-layered melodic-thematic representation of the 3 characters. These formula-themes are together and separately threaded throughout the opera's vocal and instrumental fabric. Story-wise, actors and narrative can (and often do) change from scene to scene, and the libretto text is sometimes made up of non-traditional grammar (or even purely phonetic sounds).

     MONTAG (Monday) is EVE's Day and a celebration of birth and the rebirth of humanity. The main element connected with MONTAG is water. The 3 Acts in MONTAG AUS LICHT are EVAs ERSTGEBURT, EVAs ZWEITGEBURT (EVE's Second Birth-Giving) and EVAs ZAUBER (EVE's Magic), and they are preceded and followed by MONTAG'S GRUSS (Monday Greeting) and MONTAG's ABSCHIED (Monday Farewell) respectively. In EVAs ERSTGEBURT, a giant EVE figure gives birth to 7 Animal-Boys and 7 Heinzelmännchen (gnomes), who are celebrated by a trio of EVE sopranos and and a trio of tenor "sailors". However, after a reckless carriage race, LUCIFER arrives and expresses his disdain, commanding the children to return to the womb so that a 2nd birthing process can be attempted. This Act has 6 Scenes:

IN HOFFNUNG ("Expecting")
HEINZELMÄNNCHEN (named after gnome-like creatures from Cologne folklore)
Erste GEBURTS-ARIE & Zweite GEBURTS-ARIE ("1st and 2nd Birth Arias")
KNABENGESCHREI ("Boy's Hullabaloo")
LUZIFERs ZORN ("LUCIFER's Fury")
DAS GROSSE GEWEINE ("The Great Weeping")

     The main soloists in EVAs ERSTGEBURT are a trio of sopranos and later, a boys' choir of 7 "animal-boys" and 7 mythical gnome-like creatures, known as "Heinzelmännchen". Additionally, in the 3rd scene's "2nd Birth Aria", a tenor trio is featured, and in the 5th scene, "LUCIFER's Fury", a bass vocalist and a vocalizing actor are featured. The 3 synthesizers mostly comment on and shadow the vocal elements, using drones and modulating timbres. One of the synthesizers usually provides some additional static background environmental sounds, such as rushing water, the beach at dawn, raining, etc... The percussionist has 28 "sound events" which he conceives himself and are semi-freely distributed throughout the Act.

     MONTAG AUS LICHT is the most choral-oriented of the first 3 LICHT operas. In EVAs ERSTGEBURT there are parts for 3 choral groups: female choir (SA), male choir (TB), and children's choir (boys' voices). In a stage production, the male and female choral parts, collectively known as GEBURTS-FEST, can be projected from an 8-track tape, similar to the way the choral UNSICHTBARE CHÖRE was projected for the staging of DONNERSTAG AUS LICHT. GEBURTS-FEST is also similarly released on a separate CD (Stockhausen Edition 37). Throughout the Act, 15 taped "Sound Scenes" (brief field recordings of nature, human voices, environments, animals, historical broadcasts, etc..) also surface which either provide the sound effect for a stage action, or comment on the proceedings, or both - usually to humorous effect.

Narrative:
       The stage production of EVAs ERSTGEBURT (and for all of MONTAG AUS LICHT for that matter) is very elaborate, and a text synopsis really can't do justice to all of the many rich visual elements. The CD recording is an excellent studio representation of the opera's musical elements and so here I will mainly concentrate on that. The booklet (book, actually) that comes with the MONTAG AUS LICHT CD has much more detailed descriptions, photographs, libretto and score excerpts.

   In the descriptions below I sometimes identify a structure as being based on the EVE, MICHAEL or LUCIFER formulas (or the EVE Nuclear formula), but in this particular Act this is somewhat more academic than readily audible on initial listens. Unlike perhaps some of the scenes from DONNERSTAG and SAMSTAG AUS LICHT, seeing these melodies in their original form is I think less necessary (of course even in those operas, knowing the LICHT melodies is not required to enjoy them, they just make it easier to further appreciate certain motifs). In any case, at this point in the LICHT opera cycle, one can probably just appreciate these "embryonic" formula versions on their own without reference to their original form. However, the full formulas can be found on the page here on the LICHT super-formula. In the next Act of MONTAG AUS LICHT, "2nd Birth-Giving", the "matured" formulas will take on a much more recognizable form.

(All photos on this page
© www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)

Scene 1: IN HOFFNUNG ("Expecting")
A giant statue of EVE, sitting on a beach with her legs drawn up and facing away from the audience, is approached by a group of women who begin to prepare her (from head to foot) for a celebration of birth. 3 sopranos are positioned at the throat of the giant EVE. Over 9 cycles several things occur: a searchlight pans across the sky, the women slowly turn EVE to face right, a moon arcs across the sky (waxing fuller each cycle), an image of an embryo projected in the sky matures, a glowing embryo between EVE's legs similarly matures, and the sky gradually turns to dawn. In the 7th month a LUCIFER trombone and bass briefly flit across the scene before disappearing. In the 9th month a women sets off an explosion between EVE's legs, and a train carrying 7 pairs of children's eyes in its windows flies across the sky through the projected embryo image. During these 9 cycles the contours of the EVE formula develop through the singing of a female choir (mimed by the women washing and preparing the giant EVE statue).

Choir text sample (leaving out various names of cosmological beings, or "EVE's secret names"):
"Holy be Eve...hot is the start of the week...Small is the Earth, small is her universe in the infinite number of universes. Thank you EVE, for your help at the first birth and the rebirth of Man. We ask for a new paradise for the perfection of mankind. GOD, you eternal immeasurable intelligence, beauty...You have manifested yourself in children. We sing and play for YOU. (etc...)"

Trk.

Dur.

Cycle

Soprano Trio

Choir

Sound Scenes

3 Synthesizers

1:13

Central Pitches

Staggered C pitches
(1st EVE tone)

Bass drones on G with modulating vowel timbres
(1st LUCIFER tone).

Seashore sounds begin and continue for the entire Act.

S3 plays EVE Nuclear tones.

1:13

Nuclear Formula

Staggered E pitches
(2nd EVE tone)

SA (female choir): EVE Nuclear formula, glissandi

S1 follows female choir.
S2 follows 3 sopranos.
S3 follows male choir.

1:01

1st Month

In each of the 9 months, the sopranos polyphonically center around C and add ornamentation from brief EVE formula elements.

SA: In each month cycle, EVE formula fragments are sung with glissandi, tongue clicks, toneless singing, etc... The fragments start ambiguously, and slowly develop until they "mature" in the 9th month.

TB (male choir): Tonal center on G with ornamentation and harmonization

A cock crows at the beginning of each Month.