Spiral (Stockhausen)

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SPIRAL for a soloist is a process composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen . In the work, whichbears the number 27in the Stockhausen directory , the interpreter imitates, transforms or transcends events that hereceiveswith a shortwave receiver .

The composition was written in 1968 in Madison , Connecticut and was initially planned for the guitarist Michael Lorimer . However, this idea was rejected by the composer due to the lack of "enthusiasm [...] to try out the finger position with every chord in every passage". The interpreter is therefore free to use his or her voice and / or an instrument or several instruments.

composition

After Stockhausen moved further and further away from the deterministic composition techniques of the 1950s, so that initially the form of the composition could be designed variably, the role of the interpreter became more and more central in the late 1960s. The so-called process composition, from which a musical performance results, the course of which, along with the transcendent experience of the performer, may be more important than the sound material used or the duration of the performance, allows the performing musician a generous amount of freedom in the design of the musical details, as a result of the fact that the interpreter's reaction is dictated solely by instruction symbols in the score. Conventional notation is not used.

In addition to SPIRAL as a solo piece, the works KURZWELLEN for six players (1968), a quartet for Kurwelle devices and instruments, the duo POLE (1969) and the trio EXPO (1969) were also developed as a process with a comparable composition strategy.

Structure and technology

In addition to the radio, the soloist can use any instrument , multiple instruments, instruments and voice or just the voice. For spatial projection and amplification of the instrument or voice and shortwave receiver, microphones and min. requires two loudspeakers, which are operated by an assistant, so that the relationship between direct sound and loudspeaker sound is musically designed.

In the score of the work, a sequence of 206 events of indefinite length is specified, which are separated by pauses of different lengths and which are interacted with by means of the instruction symbols specified by the process composition.

In SPIRAL, plus and minus signs are used as instruction symbols:

  • Plus means do more than before in relation to what you did before.
  • Minus means, refer to what you did before, do the same, but less.

An event that is realized either simultaneously with shortwave receiver and instrument / voice or only with instrument / voice is recorded with several instruction symbols in the score, one above the other or next to one another, comparable to a conventional notation system without conventional notation , and separated by a bar line. The transformation of the previous event resulting from this instruction should be generated by changing the parameters duration , volume and density ( register and subdivision). A change in the event can also refer explicitly to a parameter.

The interpreter begins with the search for a suitable shortwave event, "which corresponds to the notated relationships of the pitch range." The first event must be realized with a wave receiver and instrument / voice. Its duration, position, volume and rhythmic structure are left to the interpreter. From the second event onwards, the interpreter is free to choose whether to combine the instrument / voice with or without a waveform receiver.

All other properties - timbre , proportions of the rhythmic structure, melody , harmony , vertical layering, etc., which result from a waveform event, should be imitated as precisely as possible with the instrument / voice or transformed depending on the instruction symbol.

To the title of the composition

Using the following instructions, Stockhausen chose the title SPIRAL for the composition:

“Repeat the previous event several times,
each time transposing it in all areas
and transcending it beyond the limits of
your previous playing / singing technique
and then also beyond the limits of
your instrument / voice
.
All visual, theatrical
possibilities are also addressed here.
From now on, keep what you have
experienced in expanding your limits
and use it in this and
all future performances of SPIRAL. "

Stockhausen saw a consciously designed sound process that arouses all intuitive, thoughtful, sensitive and creative abilities and thus lets the performer's consciousness increase in a spiral from performance to performance. Due to these textual playing instructions, the boundaries to Stockhausen's intuitive music are fluid.

performance

During the world exhibition EXPO 1970 in Osaka , Japan , SPIRAL, along with other compositions by Stockhausen, was part of the permanent repertoire in the ball auditorium of the German pavilion and was performed more than 1300 times in front of more than a million people in the period from March 14th to September 14th.

Discography (excerpt)

  • Bojé, Harald ; Eötvös, Péter : SPIRAL for a soloist (in 2 versions) / POLE for 2 , Edition no.15 , Stockhausen-Verlag Kürten.
  • Bojé, Harald: Elektronium and short wave receiver / Eötvös, Péter: zither, bamboo flute, reed flute, synthesizer and wave receiver, STOCKHAUSEN SPIRAL I & II - POLE - WACH - JAPAN - CYCLE - ZODIAC - IN FRIENDSHIP , EMI Records 2009.
  • Vetter, Michael : Electronic recorder and shortwave receiver, K arlheinz Stockhausen. Spiral for recorder and short waves / cycle for 1 percussionist / piano piece No. X , Hoerzu Black Label - SHZW 903 BL.

Web links

literature

  • Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Spiral" in: Introductions and projects, courses, programs, standpoints, secondary notes = texts on music 1963–1970 , vol. 3, ed. by Dieter Schnebel, Cologne 1971, pp. 135–141.
  • Vetter, Michael: “Karlheinz Stockhausen: SPIRAL for a soloist with a shortwave receiver. On the interpretation of the work “in: Composition and Musicology in Dialogue I (1997–1998) = Signals from Cologne. Contributions to the music of the time, vol. 3, ed. by Christoph von Blumröder and Imke Misch, Saarbrücken 2000, pp. 95–113.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Stockhausen, p. 135.
  2. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 137.
  3. ↑ Christoph von Blumröder: Serial music around 1960. Stockhausen's "Contacts". In: Werner Breig (Ed.): Analyzes. Contributions to a problem history of composing. Festschrift for Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht on his 65th birthday (= Archive for Musicology . Supplement 23). Stuttgart 1984.
  4. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 137.
  5. ↑ See Vetter, p. 100.
  6. ↑ See Vetter, p. 99.
  7. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 136.
  8. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 135.
  9. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 136.
  10. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 136.
  11. ↑ Stockhausen, p. 137.