COSMIC PULSES

No.93: KLANG 13th Hour: COSMIC PULSES
8-Channel Surround Sound Electronic Music
2006-2007 [32 min.]

Development
      COSMIC PULSES is the 13th "hour" of Stockhausen's originally-planned 24-part cycle KLANG ("SOUND") which is based on the 24 hours of the day.  This electronic work is composed of 24 layers of synthesizer-generated melodic material, with each layer having a different speed and pitch register.  The layers enter one by one, starting from the lowest/slowest layer, and go up in sequence to the highest/fastest layer.  After a period of several minutes where all 24 layers are active, the layers begin to individually drop out, again starting from the lowest layers and moving upwards (gradually leaving just the higher/faster layers).  This "draw down" is about twice as fast as in the "build-up".  

Form Structure
     Stockhausen's form scheme below describes the structure of COSMIC PULSES.  The time values along the top of the graph show the timing of the layers.  During the first 15 minutes and 20 seconds, Layers 24 up through 2 enter (from lowest/slowest to highest/fastest) with 40 seconds between entry of each new layer.  Then Layer 1 (the highest/fastest layer) enters, and all 24 Layers continue for 8 minutes and 40 seconds.  Starting at 24 minutes in, the Layers begin to drop out every 20 seconds (twice as fast as the build up), again starting from Layer 24 and going up to 1.  Layer 24 however, does return intermittently (as shown in the bottom right dashed line), and the piece ends with a duo between this, the lowest layer, and Layer 1, the highest Layer..
  • 23 Layers accumulate from lowest to highest (15' 20")
  • 24th Layer arrives and all layers active (8' 40")
  • 24 Layers dissipate from lowest to highest (8')
(©www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)
Layers
     Each Layer ("Schleife", column 5 in the above graph) is a looped pitch row with 1 to 24 unique pitches (some pitches receive an extra octave grace note, as seen in the cover to the PARADIES CD).  As shown in graph columns 1 and 2, the 24 "basic" durations of the notes are from 0.03" to 6.4", resulting in 24 "basic" loops from 0.15" to 2'33.6" (I characterize these values as "basic" because the loops are actually drastically manipulated in the Motion Models, see below).  The number of notes in each single loop is written in RED above the top-positioned music staff with the Layer numbers.  Each Layer is assigned 1 of 24 unique tempi (seen in graph columns 3 and 4: tempo 1 is slow, 24 is fast), and then also assigned 1 of 24 unique pitch ranges (which altogether spreads over 7 octaves).  The pitch range for each Layer loop is also shown in the staff at top (except Layer 2 of course, which is just a 1 note loop).

     One thing which is not really shown is that the synth sounds for the Layers, "realized" by Antonio Pérez Abellán, are not all the same.  For example, Layer 6 has a loud high overtone element, Layer 5 has a parallel oscillation timbre, Layer 4 has a metallic reverb effect, and Layer 3 has a counter-melody created from accents.  In general, the 24 timbres selected are somewhat similar to the ones Abellán used in HIMMELFAHRT, though there are many unique "treatments" to these which are not heard in that work.  One initial idea to enrich the loop Layers was to add a sub-layer of accent notes to each loop, though in the end this was only done with just a few loops (for example in Layer 3 as mentioned previously).  Finally, the initial pitch of each loop is one of the notes in the KLANG pitch row (in fact, all of the staff notes are based on the KLANG pitch row in various sequences).

     Below is a sketch for PARADIES (from the CD cover of Stockhausen CD 99, PARADIES) showing the shapes of the 24 ritornelli (repeating melodic loops) in the 24 Layers of COSMIC PULSES (with some octave and register shifts).  For example, reading backwards from the last measure, Layer 1 has a repeating 5-note loop, Layer 2 is just a 1-note tremolo, Layer 3 is a 6-note loop ritornello with a lower octave grace note before the first note, etc...  The circled notes are the lowest note in that measure, which is used as a central tone in the flute part of the work PARADIES.
www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)
     The table below gives an idea of how the loops change in number of notes and tempo.  The table at left shows that the number of notes changes irregularly for each new loop entry, but the tempo gradually increases for each new arrival.  The sequencing of loop entries is based on pitch register (see Jerome Kohl's note below).  The table at right is useful for comparing the 24 loops (excerpts of each are included on the CD) as they increase in the number of notes.
     (The "+" or "++" symbols following the numbers mean that there are 1 or 2 additional octave grace notes in the loop - ie - the first loop, Loop 24 actually has 26 pitches).

In order of Appearance
Loop
Nr.
Nr. of
Notes
Relative
Tempo
24   24++ 1
23   10+ 2
22   8 3
21   9+ 4
20   19++ 5
19   23++ 6
18   17+ 7
17   13+ 8
16   18++ 9
15   3 10
14   2 11
13   4 12
12   11+ 13
11   7+ 14
10   12+ 15
9   21+ 16
8   20+ 17
7   22++ 18
6   16+ 19
5   14+ 20
4   15++ 21
3   6+ 22
2   1 23
1   5 24
spafghfghfgfghce
In order of Nr. of Notes
Nr. of
Notes
Relative
Tempo
Loop
Nr.
  1 23 2
  2 11 14
  3 10 15
  4 12 13
  5 24 1
  6+ 22 3
  7+ 14 11
  8 3 22
  9+ 4 21
  10+ 2 23
  11+ 13 12
  12+ 15 10
  13+ 8 17
  14+ 20 5
  15++ 21 4
  16+ 19 6
  17+ 7 18
  18++ 9 16
  19++ 5 20
  20+ 17 8
  21+ 16 9
  22++ 18 7
  23++ 6 19
  24++ 1 24

     Some additional observations about the loop melodies from Jerome Kohl:
     Stockhausen extracted 24 different note-segments to treat as loops for continuous repetition at different speeds and in different registers. They are made by progressively selecting one note (E), two notes (C and F), three notes (D,C#, D#), and so on, wrapping back to the beginning of the row and continuing up to a segment consisting of all 24 notes, which happens to start with the 13th member of the original series, D#. There are therefore 300 notes in all. However, these segments are not presented in order of size, but rather according to the numbers of the registral position of the successive members of the original row. Therefore, the highest layer, 1, is assigned the five-note segment; layer 2 has the one-note segment, layer three the six-note segment, and so on. There is an exception with the 24-note segment, however, which according to this scheme would be layer 21. Stockhausen moved it to the 24th layer probably so that he could start the composition with the complete 24-tone row, at the slowest speed, in the lowest register...Almost every loop has one note displaced downward by one or two octaves.  Loop 23, already in a very low register, has its ninth note, D#, taken down three octaves. This is the lowest “note” in Cosmic Pulses - at 9.724 Hz. This cannot be heard as a pitch, but can quite clearly be heard as a rhythm.

Motion Models
     Each group of 3 consecutive layers (24-22, 21-19, 18-16, etc...) is assigned a unique sequence of 8 "Motion Models" (indicated in thick multicolored circles) which are used to create sometimes drastic variations in loop tempo and pitch (Stockhausen actually characterizes them as "quite narrow glissandi", but I suppose it's all relative).  There are actually 10 Motion Models, but Motion Models 9 and 10 are only used for Layers 1-3 (from 16:00 to 21:00).  In any case, the Motion Models have 2 parts: a RED line indicating tempo manipulation, and a BLUE line indicating pitch-shifting of the loop (naturally, the higher the line, the faster the tempo/pitch transposition, and the lower, etc..).  The tempo variation range goes from 12 times slower (1/12) to 12 times faster.  The pitch shifting interval range (starting from original pitch) was from a major 3rd in the lower Layers (24-19), up to a major 10th in the highest Layers (3-1) (the ranges are indicated by the "Gliss." notations with brackets).  The number and timing of these Motion Model variation shapes were aleatory (freely distributed) within the indicated Motion Model time periods (each lasting 3 minutes for the first 24 minutes, and then 1 minute afterwards).  The manipulations in this case were done by Kathinka Pasveer.
COSMIC PULSES' Motion Models (1 through 10).
The RED-outlined waves are the shape of the tempo adjustments to the Layer loop in that section.
The BLUE-outlined waves show the same for pitch-shift adjustments.
The Motion Models are applied independently to 3 consecutive Layers for each section.

Spatial Movement
     The 24 Layer tracks are also given spatial movement trajectories over an 8-speaker octagonal surround sound system.  Each of the 24 Layers goes through 8 to 12 unique trajectory "shapes" (labeled from 1 to 241, though some shapes repeat), with each shape associated with a Motion Model.  The trajectory shapes of all the active layers collectively change at the same time when a new Motion Model is reached.  The shapes for a layer tend to progress from 3 or 4  "corners" to the maximum of 8 corners (see below).  The shapes also have a range of 24 rotation speeds from as long as 1 shape circuit per 16 secs to as fast as 16 rotations per 1 second (!), with the tempo generally increasing as the Layers rise in pitch register.  Apparently, the length of the shapes does not correlate with the length of the loops in each Motion Model (that would have been insanely hard to do anyways, considering all of the tempo variations).  Finally, additional Layer volume mixing to accentuate certain loops and textures was done by Stockhausen during the final mixdown (this from a conversation with Kathinka Pasveer).
These are Layers 17 to 24 (circled numbers at left), and correlate with the bottom 8 Layers in the form scheme earlier.  Each of the "Motion Models" is given a box above showing the shape which is created by the spatial movement of the sound.  Each box has a beginning and ending time indicated, but basically for the first 24 minutes, every 3rd minute the trajectories for all active layers change en masse, and from then on to the end, the trajectories collectively change every 1 minute. The numbers in diamonds enumerate the 241 different trajectory shapes.
(©www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)
       OKTEG software was developed by collaborators at the Experimental Studio for Acoustic Art in Freiburg (Joachim Haas and Gregorio Karman) which was used to spatialize the 24 layers according to Stockhausen's 241 spatial trajectories.  The initial layers were created by Antonio Pérez Abellán on synthesizer.
Time Chart - Stockhausen's form scheme above (and included in the CD booklet) is fairly easy to follow the music with, but the table below may make a few things clearer...




Time


Layer
Entry
Layer
24
Motion
Model
0:00 24 1





0:40 23
1:20 22
2:00 21
2:40 20

3:00 2





3:20 19
4:00 18
4:40 17
5:20 16
  -------  



Time


Layer
Entry
Layer
24
Motion
Model
6:00 15 3






6:40 14
7:20 13
8:00 12
8:40 11

9:00 4






9:20 10
10:00 9
10:40 8
11:20 7
  -------



Time


Layer
Entry
Layer
24
Motion
Model
12:00 6 5






12:40 5
13:20 4
14:00 3
14:40 2

15:00 6

15:20 1



18:00 7
21:00 8
  
-------



Time


Layer
Exits
Layer
1
Motion
Model
24:00 every 20 secs
(3 per min) starting from Layer 24 and moving upwards
7
25:00 6
26:00 5
27:00 4
28:00 3
29:00 2
30:00 1
31:00 8





Sound Impressions
     This is one Stockhausen work which I think is both very easy to get into and very hard, and I assume it probably has a divided audience.  On one hand I find it very easy to just "enjoy the ride" and experience the waves of melodic loops building and subsiding like a "statistical" tidal wave.  On the other hand, I could attempt to listen to the 24 accumulating loops with an ear to picking out the looping pitch rows and following the polyphonic tempo and pitch modulations - but frankly that's pretty hard, and even Stockhausen stated that a prodigious amount of "lucidity" would be required to follow all of the orbits (and of course, an 8-channel surround sound system would be necessary once the loops became denser).  Either way it's a challenging work, which brings additional rewards on repeated listenings.  Admittedly, the synthesizer timbres may lack the warm, rough, analog texture of the early tape pieces (KONTAKTE, etc...), but the spacial element seems to be the aspect that Stockhausen was most excited about, and COSMIC PULSES is easily his most spatially complex work.  On CD there are only 2 channels so of course much of the 8-channel surround motion is lost, but some listeners have reported that the spatial motion is so dense and complex that even in an 8-channel surround projection, the motions can only be gleaned in a "sidelong" manner.

     A third way (and my preferred way) in which to experience this work (on headphones) is to first pick a texture to concentrate on.  Before long, it fades and some new texture surfaces which one can latch onto.  This listening style of "hopping from stone to stone" I feel is just as rewarding, and may even be encouraged due to the seemingly deliberate mixing of various sound-textures surfacing and submerging.  In my personal listening experience, the design of the 24 tandem layers is not as intimidating as it might sound (no pun intended), since I can only really perceive a few layers at a time, even during the densest part (usually the "higher" layers).  But it goes without saying that this work should be played at the loudest possible volume without causing actual discomfort :).

(from COSMIC PULSES CD booklet)
     Jerome Kohl wrote an interesting report on the Stockhausen Forum of his experience with the work, which jibes with my last paragraph in some respects:
     "...in any case, I find COSMIC PULSES a daring piece of music, the effect of which depends largely upon the subjective results of the sonic overload. Only a little of this can be perceived in the stereo mix, and even this depends in part on knowing what to listen for, as a result of having previously heard the "real thing". To start with, every performance has been quite literally an entirely different piece. This is because there is so much sonic information that the ears are forced to select what to listen to at every moment.  One aspect of this is that certain peculiar effects, such as the well-known "whispering voices illusion", may occur at different points and in different registers (men's voices, women's voices, mixed voices), for longer or shorter periods of time. Similarly, there is a sensation of the sound rising and falling in space (even though there is no vertical dimension to the physical sound movement), and this, too, occurs at different points in time and to different degrees of intensity—even in the same hall using the same playback setup (I heard it three times straight through, in the Sülztalhalle at the courses in 2008). Different halls of course produce different senses of space for any piece of music, and this is, if anything, even more true for COSMIC PULSES because it depends so heavily on spatial relationships for its audible effect. From time to time, you can just detect familiar melodic fragments from the KLANG row against the dense background, but they vanish like ghosts or elves as soon as you notice they are there.  More difficult to describe (and consequently also harder to remember from one performance to the next) are the constantly changing timbres within the swirling walls of sound, like glittering, intermixed flecks of colour within which similarly hued groups momentarily coalesce into patches that evaporate again—Gregorio García Karman aptly describes these as "where the perception of movement leads to audible modulation range effects, binding a connection between space and timbre." This is certainly the most unusual and unforgettable feature of COSMIC PULSES."

        The CD track for COSMIC PULSES is one long track and not divided into sections as is usually done on Stockhausen Complete Edition CDs.  Also there is no 9 second silence preceding the start.  This is probably so that it's easier to follow the timing on the form scheme.  The CD also includes the first 90 seconds of each of the 24 Layers, with a brief introduction by Stockhausen.  With these, one can more easily hear how the Motion Models are applied to each Layer.  The 8 remaining works in the KLANG cycle (Hours 14-21) use sets of 3 consecutive Layers as "background material" (such as was done with OKTOPHONIE, UNSICHTBARE CHÖRE, etc...) for solo compositions (4 for voice and the remaining for basset horn, flute, horn and soprano sax).  These CDs also each provide the 3-Layer sets without the soloist, so one could even listen to those tracks to "learn" to hear the intricacies of COSMIC PULSES before tackling the full experience.

     At the 2015 Stockhausen Courses and Concerts in Kuerten, I was able to finally experience COSMIC PULSES in a properly projected spatial environment.  The experience is pretty indescribable, so I won't really try, but I can share one bit of advice which I learned:  Since the speakers are typically mounted high above the audience, if one is able to listen while looking straight up at the ceiling (preferably from the center of the room), the spatial trajectories can be more easily perceived and visualized as following the spatial diagrams above....

Links
COSMIC PULSES samples and CD ordering 
COSMIC PULSES May 7th 2007 in Rome Premiere concert program
COSMIC PULSES Wiki Entry
Stockhausen live interview 2007 discussing COSMIC PULSES (Vimeo)
Studio Report: Spatialization of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s COSMIC PULSES (Gregorio García Karman)
Gregorio García Karman's site
Youtube Clip of COSMIC PULSES
Nicholas Collins' review of the German premiere at the 2007 Stockhausen Courses
Sonoloco Review

KLANG: Hours 14-21, An Overview

CD Covers (© www.karlheinzstockhausen.org)
Work No. 94 - KLANG - 14th Hour: HAVONA (Bass, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 1-3)
Work No. 95 - KLANG - 15th Hour: ORVONTON (Baritone, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 4-6)
Work No. 96 - KLANG - 16th Hour: UVERSA (Basset Horn, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 7-9)
Work No. 97 - KLANG - 17th Hour: NEBADON (Horn, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 10-12)
Work No. 98 - KLANG - 18th Hour: JERUSEM (Tenor, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 13-15)
Work No. 99 - KLANG - 19th Hour: URANTIA (Soprano, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 16-18)
Work No. 100 - KLANG - 20th Hour: EDENTIA (Soprano Sax, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 19-21)
Work No. 101 - KLANG - 21st Hour: PARADIES (Paradise) (Flute, w. Cosmic Pulses Layers 22-24) (2007) 

Introduction and COSMIC PULSES
     Before talking about the compositions listed as Hours 14 through 21 of Stockhausen's KLANG cycle,  a brief description of their electronic layers is important, since these works are basically solo chamber works with accompanying electronic music.  This electronic element is derived from COSMIC PULSES, the 13th Hour of Stockhausen's originally-planned 24-part cycle KLANG ("SOUND") which is based on the 24 hours of the day.  COSMIC PULSES is composed of 24 "Layers" of synthesizer-generated melodic material, with each Layer having a different speed and pitch register.  The Layers enter one by one, starting from the lowest/slowest Layer, and go up in sequence to the highest/fastest Layer.  After a period of several minutes where all 24 Layers are active, the Layers begin to individually drop out, again starting from the lowest Layers and moving upwards (gradually leaving just the higher/faster Layers).  This "draw down" is about twice as fast as in the "build-up".  The 8 compositions written as Hours 14-21 in the KLANG cycle each use different sets of 3 consecutive Layers as "background material" (such as was done with OKTOPHONIE, UNSICHTBARE CHÖRE, etc...) for solo compositions (4 for voice and the remaining for basset horn, flute, horn and soprano sax).  ORVONTON, the 15th Hour, for example, is a work for solo baritone, accompanied by Layers 19, 20 and 21 from COSMIC PULSES.


 The KLANG 24-note pitch row.
The numbers above the staff indicate the chromatic scale value starting from middle C.
The numbers under the staff indicate the steps from one note to the next.
The 1st bar is an "ascending" figure. The 2nd bar is in retrograde (backwards) of the 1st bar and transposed higher.
The 3rd bar is a tritone higher from the 2nd bar (with some octave shifts). The 4th bar is a tritone lower from the 1st bar (with some octave shifts).
Form Structure
     The soloist's part of each of these 8 works is divided into roughly 24 sections named "Moments" (an independent functional section, used as a compositional technique in many Stockhausen works like CARRÉ, MIXTUR, MOMENTE, etc...).  Each of these 24 Moments uses a different note from the 24-note KLANG pitch row (above) as a "central" pitch (sometimes described by Stockhausen as a tone on which the vocalist "halts for a while") which is expressed in different ways.  In general, the assigned KLANG central pitch acts as a kind of "tonic note" (or "key") for that Moment, and often dominates the beginning (or ending) of a Moment.  In some Moments, the KLANG note is expressed as a drone note and/or as a center-line pitch surrounded by different kinds of ornamentation.  In other Moments the KLANG note may be expressed as a lowest-note "ground bass" element, such as in PARADIES (Paradise).  The remainder of the melodic material of the soloist's part is created from variations of parts of the 24-note KLANG pitch row.  In some of these works where there are more than 24 Moments, the last KLANG note(s) may be repeated as single held tones.

Moment Transitions
Artistic images of the planets in the
Urantia belief system (Gary.Tonge).
Stockhausen used many concepts and
proper names taken from the Urantia Book
to create his vocal texts.
     The transitions between consecutive Moments are marked in one of two ways, depending on if the featured soloist is a vocalist or an instrumentalist.  For the 4 works which feature a vocal soloist, a new Moment is signaled by "accent" events.  These accent events are basically 1 to 6 rapid volume fluctuations (about 1 second for each "push") in the electronic music (the last accent of each accent event marks the beginning of the new Moment).  For the 4 works which feature an instrumental soloist, a sung-spoken soprano vocal part (included as part of the electronic layers) marks the end of one Moment and the beginning of the next, and in this case, the last syllable of each soprano phrase generally marks the beginning of the new Moment.  There are many exceptions though, so these are perhaps not as "cut-and-dry" for the listener (unless one knows the "cue" syllables).  The soprano vocal phrases leading into the end of a Moment are sometimes substantial, and in these cases they are spoken in tandem with the held, "halted tones" of the instrumental solo part.  A pause in the instrumental or vocal soloist's part also usually marks the end of a Moment.

Subgroups and Tone Forms
     For many of these works, a Moment is often made up of several different size "groups" (phrases with 1 to 8 notes), followed by articulated held tones.  The groups are generally made up of widely-spaced melodic pitches, but rhythmically and dynamically they are aleatory (freely interpreted by the soloist).  The score usually indicates that they "should not be sung/played too fast, but rather irregularly, with rubato".  The groups are separated from each other by brief pauses (with varying durations), which more or less makes them act as "phrases".  Oftentimes, after a sequence of these melodic groups, the remainder of a Moment consists of that Moment's KLANG central tone (the "halted" tone) which is articulated and scored in different ways using graphic notation and verbal imagery (such as irregular pauses ("morsing"), microtonal bending, sprechgesang, grace-note "yodelling", "psalmodically", etc...).  Some Moments have none of these melodic groups, but are basically a few held tones based on the assigned KLANG pitch row notes.  Because the ornamentation and melodic groups are substantially aleatory (free both rhythmically and dynamically), Stockhausen indicates that "the interpretation should always be full of surprises: by differentiated timbres, by imaginative shaping and above all, by beauty in every detail." 



     These excerpts from the sung text of Orvonton basically explain how the music works:

    "Layer 19 has 23 tones as sound loop…but in 9 sequences the tempo 
is varied manually with accelerandi and ritardandi according to patterns… 
Loops 19, 20, 21 are transposed upwards or downwards 
with glissandi according to the patterns.

"In 24 Moments I sing these explanations…  
Each Moment closes with a different pitch, has its own number of tones in groups, 
and on the last tone of each group I halt for awhile.  
The pitches of my melodies all originate from the 24-tone row of the work KLANG; 
but every moment begins with a different tone…
  
 "Art music is not honky-tonk, 
its number games need moments every now and then for the soul,
that touch, astonish: time stands still." 

     For some of these works, the Moments are not strictly groups and halted tones.  On many occasions the Moment structure is based on different coloration or melodic shapes.  In the summary table below, some of these differences in the Moments of each work are highlighted in the "Moment Structure" row.  Additionally, on the CD recordings the sound of soloists often also move around spatially (in stereo with reverb), sometimes as a representation of the sung text ("rotation...").

      Below is a summary of the individual works with some general descriptions for each of their structures. In the timings for the Moments on the CDs, each time marker indicates the final electronic accent (of the previous Moment) for vocal solos, or on the final syllable of a soprano phrase for instrumental solos. In the future, I'll probably add pages examining each work in more detail.


HAVONA
14th Hr.
ORVONTON
15th Hr.
UVERSA
16th Hr.
NEBADON
17th Hr.
JERUSEM
18th Hr.
URANTIA
19th Hr.
EDENTIA
20th Hr.
PARADIES
21st Hr.
Electronic Music Layers 1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13-15 16-18 19-21 22-24
Soloist
 
Bass Baritone Basset-Horn Horn Tenor Soprano Soprano Sax Flute
Nicholas
Isherwood
Jonathan
dela Paz Zaens
Michele
Marelli
Christine
Chapman
Huber
Mayer
Kathinka
Pasveer
Marcus
Weiss
Kathinka
Pasveer
Length [25'12"] [24'17"] [22'52"] [21'50"] [21'12"] [19'55"] [18'53"] [18'11"]
Moment
Structure


 and



Transition
Type
Groups with Halted Central Tones of various ornamentation



Accent Events
Groups
with Halted Central Tones, sometimes featuring isolated octave leaps 



Accent Events   
Groups with intermittent wide interval leaps, tremoli, various degrees of vibrato, crescendi


  Soprano Accompaniment
Not every Moment has groups, but each articulates different "tone-forms": gliss., tremoli, muting, etc…
Soprano Accompaniment
Wide melodic groups, Halted central tones, some with grace notes



Accent Events 
Groups
with repeated final syllables (central tones) with free durations, pauses and reverb
Accent Events
Not every Moment has groups, each articulates texture/image described in the vocal text




Soprano
Accompaniment  
(see notes below this table)






 Soprano
Accompaniment
Vocal
Text





Urantian text using the names of the 14th - 21st hours of KLANG


Describes the musical structure of ORVONTON





Urantian text describing UVERSA's role in the universe




Proper names from Urantian texts, astronomical terms



"Universes
GOD's schools
JERUSEM
without end
joy to learn
marvel
thank
help
HIM"
"Rotations everywhere
Urantia in the cosmos
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
GOD"
(see below) Describes the musical structure of PARADIES





CD Timings of the Moments of each work on the Stockhausen Complete Edition
Moment HAVONA ORVONTON UVERSA NEBADON JERUSEM URANTIA  EDENTIA  PARADIES
1 0:07 0:07 0:07 0:07 0:07 0:07 0:07 Soprano
text
0:07
Entry of soloist 0:37 0:47 0:47 0:47 0:47 0:47 0:47 EDENTIA 0:47
2 1:07 1:27 2:07 1:27 1:27 2:07 3:27 constellation 1:27
3 2:07 2:07 3:07 2:07 2:07 3:37 4:07 in NEBADON 2:07
4 3:07 3:27 3:47 2:47 2:47 5:07 4:47 gardens of GOD 2:47
5 4:07 4:07 4:27 3:27 3:27 6:07 5:27 THOUSANDS OF LAKES 3:27
6 5:07 5:27 5:27 4:07 4:07 7:07 6:07 resurrection halls 4:07
7 6:07 6:07 5:47 4:47 4:52 8:07 6:47 SERAPHIM 4:47
8 7:07 7:07 6:27 5:27 5:37 8:52 7:27 The celestial musicians Morse… 5:27
9 8:07 8:07 7:07 6:07 6:22 9:37 8:07 play steep glissandi 6:07
10 9:07 9:27 8:07 7:07 7:07 10:22 8:47 red points 6:47
11 10:07 10:07 9:07 8:07 8:07 11:07 9:27 in EDENTIA triangles 7:27
12 11:07 11:27 10:07 9:07 9:07 11:43 10:07 circles circles 8:07
13 12:07 12:07 11:07 10:07 10:07 12:19 10:47 Edentic crossescrosses 8:47
14 13:07 13:07 12:07 11:07 11:37 12:55 11:27 limbs limbs 9:27
15 14:07 14:07 13:07 12:07 13:07 13:31 12:07 trillsrills 10:07
16 15:07 15:27 14:07 13:07 16:07 14:07 12:47 repetitions 11:07
17 16:07 16:07 15:07 14:07 16:37 14:47 13:27 concaves 11:47
18 17:07 17:27 16:07 15:07 17:07 15:07 14:07 tremoli 12:27
19 18:07 18:07 17:07 16:07 17:37 15:37 14:37 aleatoric 13:07
20 19:07 19:07 18:07 17:07 18:07 16:07 15:07 explosion 13:47
21 20:07 20:07 19:07 18:07 18:37 16:37 15:37 micro-intervals 14:27
22 21:07 21:07 20:07 19:07 19:07 17:07 16:07 groups of groups 15:07
23 22:07 22:07 20:47 19:47 19:37 17:37 16:43 sine-spirits 15:47
24 23:07 23:07 21:27 20:15 20:07 18:07 17:07 familyten 16:27
25 24:07 23:27 22:00
20:43 19:07 17:35 Edentians 16:57
26
23:47


19:27



     The Moment structure for PARADIES is especially interesting, since it adds some additional aleatory elements to the structure itself.  Each Moment is generally made up of 1 ritornelli (loop) section in repeat brackets, and 1 unbracketed non-looped section. In each Moment, the player mainly plays the ritornelli loop, but may at any time insert the non-looped section, either during or in between loops (in this, Stockhausen's last original work, he still uses his signature "insert" technique!).  Melodically, a KLANG central tone is found in each ritornelli, dropped down an octave or two and often played as a brief, held fermata. 

Live Performance
EDENTIA (excerpts): Giovanni Nardi (soprano saxophone) with Francesco Giomi (sound projection)

Sound Impressions
     These last works of Stockhausen before his death are a fine capstone to his compositional body of work.  They include almost all of the concepts he explored, pioneered and developed over his entire career: serial sequencing, moment form, aleatory rhythmic and melodic articulation, spatial movement, insert technique, electronic and instrumental timbre modulation, etc... (the only major form not included is the formula technique, but with the 29-hour long LICHT opera cycle being based on a formula, I think it's acceptable!). These 8 works each navigate through the 24-note KLANG row in a way that could be considered Stockhausen's "Well Tempered Clavier" (with some poetic license).  In any case, when listening these works, I find it helpful to listen for the Moment transition signals (accents or soprano text) and treat each Moment kind of as a verse in a new key.  Of course, in the cases where the soprano vocal text describes a particular design, then those are more easily appreciated that way.  Kathinka Pasveer's interpretations of the texts are a very appreciated common thread through the instrumental solo works, since her vocal inflections give a welcome sense of playfulness to the dense 3-layered polyphony of the COSMIC PULSES loops.

     Because there is such substantial aleatory leeway in the rhythmic and timbral articulations of the soloists' melodic groups, many different interpretations are possible.  For the vocal pieces recorded so far, the performances are lively, yet respectful.  I can imagine other performances which might take greater chances (such as incorporating some vocal timbres used in MIKROPHONIE II or LUZIFERs ZORN).  The instrumental works are performed equally brilliantly in the established language of Stockhausen's wind and brass writing, but the great thing about the free nature of the notation is that it allows newly-developed timbres of the future to be incorporated into these works.  In this way, Stockhausen's works continue to live on well past his lifetime in the hands of future generations.  In fact, had Stockhausen lived longer, I would not have been surprised if he wrote adaptations for some of these works for other instruments, such as trumpet, trombone, or even double bass.

Stockhausen Complete Edition CDs
     One of the nice additions to the official CDs (besides the premiere recordings themselves), is that they include tracks for the electronic part without the soloist, presumably for personal rehearsals of the work.  One of the benefits of this is that one can hear 3 Layers of COSMIC PULSES outside of the COSMIC PULSES' full 24-Layer structure.  Due to the form design of COSMIC PULSES (slow accumulation of stacked Layers, and then after a period of maximum density, unstacking), the Layers becomes very hard to follow after a certain amount of time, and the entries of the individual Layers is hard to hear when there are so many previous Layers swirling around.  With the isolated sets of Layers, one can more easily appreciate the middle and higher register layers.  This is also true, of course, of the regular version with the soloist, but it's nice to have this as a "bonus".  The CD booklets also include the full sung text, just like almost all of the Stockhausen Complete Edition CDs.

Artistic images of the planets in the Urantia belief system (Gary.Tonge).