The Work of Karlheinz Stockhausen Volume 1 by Menezes, Flo;

Short description:

This three-volume work is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken, of the musical compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), one of the major figures of Post-World War II classical music in Europe. 

Long description:

This three-volume work is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken, of the musical compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007), one of the major figures of Post-World War II classical music in Europe. Stockhausen’s impact on global music-making was huge and he has been influential for a wide range of music makers in classical music and on music creators in various popular music traditions. Flo Menezes provides both in-depth analytical studies of Stockhausen’s works from his entire career and also places these into broader cultural, technological, and political contexts. The three volumes address the three most fundamental phases of Stockhausen's work: Serial Music, Intuitive Music, and Music by Formulas.

‘Anyone interested in the evolution of post-World War II music, particularly in terms of musical structure and thought, will find profound insight in the detailed analysis of the music of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Spanning three volumes, the analysis covers distinct phases of Stockhausen's work, from structural serialism, intuitive music, and moment-form, to his later development of formula-composition, culminating in the monumental work Licht, Stockhausen’s seven-day opera cycle. Flo Menezes, who personally knew several key composers of the second half of the 20th century, including Luciano Berio, Henry Pousseur, and Pierre Boulez, taught analysis classes at the Stockhausen Summer School in Kürten, Germany. Menezes even surprised Stockhausen by revealing structural insights in Studie 2 that the composer himself had not been aware of.

Although Menezes’ writings primarily focus on Stockhausen's work, readers will find it to be a profound treatise on composition in the second half of the twentieth century.’

Hans Tutschku, Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music, Harvard University

Table of Contents:

1 A period almost as long as the LIGHT 1.1 About the origins of this book 1.2 “Too many notes?” 1.3 The structure of the book 1.4 Writing criteria

Volume 1: Serial Music 11

2 PUNKTE

3 Mixtures

4 KONTRA-PUNKTE

5 STUDIE I 5.1 The frequencies and correlations of sound parameters 5.2 Regarding the groups 5.3 Regarding intensities 5.4 Regarding durations 5.5 Regarding the overall musical form and its balance 5.6 Sketches or score? 5.7 Rigor versus imponderability

6 STUDIE II 6.1 A Realisationspartitur? 6.2 Regarding frequencies and variants of “sound mixtures” 6.3 Regarding the simultaneity of sinusoidal sounds 6.4 The serial structure 6.5 Regarding the overall musical form 6.6 Regarding intensities 6.7 Is there subtractive synthesis in STUDIE II? 6.8 Regarding attack durations and distances 6.9 Are there mixtures in STUDIE II? 6.10 Remaking STUDIE II 6.11 A mixture is missing in STUDIE II! 6.12 A strange episode

7 KLAVIERSTÜCK VIII

8 GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE 8.1 The choice of text and its characteristic marks 8.2 The binary opposition at the interval level 8.3 Sound spatiality 8.4 Sprachkomposition (verbal composition) 8.5 Regarding timbres and intensities 8.6 Regarding the serial matrix 8.7 Regarding sound Textures 8.8 Concerning text intelligibility 8.9 Fixed time versus real time? 8.10 The restored Song

9 Phonemes

10 KLAVIERSTÜCK IX 

11 KLAVIERSTÜCK X 

12 KLAVIERSTÜCK XI 

13 Polysemias 

14 ZEITMASZE

15 GRUPPEN 15.1 Interlocution with Luciano Berio 15.2 Regarding the spatial distribution of orchestral groups 15.3 About the tone row 15.4 Regarding the tempos 15.5 Concerning the Global Form of the work 15.6 About the Groups and durations 15.7 About the Inserts 15.8 The three spatial chords 15.9 An “electronic” orchestral scripture 15.10 Regarding formantic structures 15.11 The many musics of GRUPPEN 15.12 Regarding spatiality

16 Virtualities 

17 ZYKLUS