The Work of Karlheinz Stockhausen Volume 3 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 twentieth 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:

30 Enchantments

31 MANTRA 31.1 Composition by formula (formel-komposition) 31.2 The formula of MANTRA 31.3 The structure of the formula 31.4 The Scales and Formula projections: profile
composition 31.5 The ring modulation 31.6 The structural constellation of the global form of MANTRA 31.7 The use of antique cymbals and wood blocks 31.8 “Morseing”: the fascination for aperiodicity 31.9 The inserts in MANTRA 31.10 Flaw or deviation? 31.11 Theme and variations? 31.12 The place of MANTRA in Stockhausen’s work 

32 TRANS 32.1 The oneiric function and the lights in TRANS 32.2 The spatial arrangement of the instruments: between visuality and acousmatics 32.3 The transcendental meditation has a color 32.4 The form of TRANS 32.5 Inserts in TRANS: the beginning of Scenic Music 32.6 Unusual aspects of the writing (notation) and musical scripture of TRANS

33 “Am himmel wandre ich . . .” (Indianerlieder)

34 Melodies

35 INORI: “Vortrag über HU” 35.1 When the analysis becomes a work 35.2 The Urgestalt or INORI Formula 35.3 The arrangement of the musicians on stage 35.4 The scales of dynamics in INORI 35.5 The strict link between gestures of solo mimes and sounds 35.6 Unraveling the Formula 35.7 The tempos and the projection of the Formula in global form 35.8 Analysis of INORI’s Main Parts 35.8.1 Rhythmus 35.8.2 Dynamik 35.8.3 Melodie 35.8.4 Harmonie 35.8.5 Polyphonie 35.9 Polyphony or heterophony? 35.10 Against the grain of history? Mystique, rigor, and delicacy in INORI

36 MUSIK IM BAUCH: TIERKREIS: SIRIUS

37 HARLEKIN: DER KLEINE HARLEKIN 37.1 Intertextualities and militant didacticism 37.2 Regarding form and its development 37.3 HARLEKIN’s Formula 37.4 Directional profile projection 37.5 DER KLEINE HARLEKIN: a rare gesture of temporal contraction

38 JUBILÄUM 38.1 In contrast to melody: a chordal formula 38.2 The intervals under the magnifying glass 38.3 Musical scripture by layers and global form

39 IN FREUNDSCHAFT 39.1 A Formula that unfolds: from melody to latent polyphony 39.2 Form and its deconstructive Introduction 39.3 The trill as a metaphor for coitus and the three layers of the piece 39.4 The Cycles and their concentric directionality 39.5 The interchangeability of Cycles and the irregularities as a compositional strategy 39.6 The Explosions: How one Insert emancipates itself within another 39.7 Eroticism at scriptural level

40 DER JAHRESLAUF: JAHRESLAUF 40.1 The illuminated access door to LICHT 40.2 An agonistic view of Nature 40.3 Multiple temporalities and the scenic arrangement of the work 40.4 Theater music 40.5 The formal scheme 40.6 A music without formula evoking past formulas 40.7 A very simple writing for a very complex scripture

41 Introduction to LICHT – die sieben tage der woche 41.1 Thematic of LICHT 41.2 The influence of the Urantia Book 41.3 Dantesque roots 41.4 A polysemic structuring of the Joycean type 41.5 Recontextualizing the Opera 41.5.1 The authorship of the libretto and the relationship with operatic arbitrariness 41.5.2 The absence of a story and its apotheosis 41.5.3 The choice of leading characters 41.5.4 Multiple spaces: theatrical music everywhere 41.5.5 Multiple architectures? 41.6 LICHT’s scenes as the apogee of Moment-Form 41.7 The LICHT Superformula: themes and variations? 41.8 The Superformula unraveled in its intervallic and directional structure 41.9 The Superformula in its final matrix configuration and the projection technique 41.10 Criticism of the omnipresence of the Superformula 41.11 DONNERSTAG aus LICHT (1978–1980) 41.12 SAMSTAG aus LICHT (1981–1983) 41.13 MONTAG aus LICHT (1984–1988) 41.14 DIENSTAG aus LICHT (1977; 1987–1991) 41.15 FREITAG aus LICHT (1991–1994) 41.16 MITTWOCH aus LICHT (1995–1997) 41.17 SONNTAG aus LICHT (1998–2003)

42 Introduction to KLANG – Die 24 stunden des tages 42.1 Farewell to formulas 42.2 From Love to Sound...and to every Moment 42.3 LICHT’s synesthesia in the Hours strand 42.4 The KLANG Series of 24 notes 42.5 The 21 Hours of KLANG 42.6 The first four Hours of KLANG 42.7 The 5th Hour of KLANG, HARMONIEN, and the 1st Subcycle 42.8 COSMIC PULSES and the farewell to Sound 42.9 The 2nd Subcycle and the arrival at PARADISE 42.10 KLANG: Stockhausen’s Requiem for himself

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