Zodiac: 12 Melodies of the Star Signs

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Zodiac: 12 Melodies of the Star Signs

CD (recording) released in 2003

piece composed in 1975

Performers:

Wolfgang Fernow - double bass
Stefan Hussong - accordion
Michael Kiedaisch - drums and vibraphone
Michael Riessler - bass clarinet
Scott Roller - cello
Mike Svoboda - trombone, music boxes and musical direction

The astrological zodiac is a construct based on observations of the heavenly bodies that people of earlier ages and various cultures used to project the circumstances of a macrocosm beyond human influence onto the microcosm of earthly life. The observation of the stars and the derivation of events on earth and the fates of human beings from the old divinities that guide them could not only become a more or less direct plan of action as well as a form of legitimation of control over others but could also satisfy a search for the meaning of existence. The zodiac is - as an expression of the recurrence of time - not only an expression of the immutability of natural life processes and human existence but also a way of ensuring the stability of cosmic and human relationships.

At first it may seem surprising that Karlheinz Stockhausen - a composer who until that time had been one of the first champions of a particular informed, rationalist approach to the craft of composition and the musical material - would organize a composition around a culturally charged tradition such as this one. It is, however, understandable against the backdrop of a general turn from the rigor of serial composition in the early 1970s - a development that can be explained by reference to a crisis in European composition. It resulted in a new orientation for Stockhausen himself, who now turned to "intuitive" music and to a style of writing that - without seeking to deny that the roots of the approach were based on technical approaches to music - focused the act of composition on criteria such as intelligibility of musical texture and immediacy of aesthetic experience.

The twelve signs of the zodiac - which can be divided into fire, water, earth, and air signs or spring, summer, fall, and winter signs - represent a rationally organized whole that lends itself easily to serving as the foundation for a composition that (as a "composition on formulas") makes use of systematic organizational methods just as much as Stockhausen's earlier works did. The orientation of the twelve melodic shapes of Tierkreis: 12 Melodien der Sternzeichen [Zodiac: 12 Melodies of the Star Signs] (work no. 41 1/2) on the astrological zodiac also entails an orientation around the planets and mythological gods that are associated with them and the twelve basic human types that derive from them.
...
The twelve melodies - each of which is to be repeated at least three times in any realization - are marked by extreme conciseness, concentration, and beguiling simplicity. Each melody uses all the notes of the chromatic scale. The brief melodies, which differ in overall duration, tempos, and range, are completely free of motivic elaboration; they are almost totally indifferent to tonality. At the same time, they seem to have been stripped of any memory of the usual techniques of New Music, such as traditional methods or serial procedures. Stockhausen's compositional decisions were clearly occupied entirely with the desire to give each melody an unmistakable character. He himself described the melodies (of Sirius, which are identical with those of Tierkreis) as "neither diatonic nor tonal nor atonal. It [the melody for 'Libra'] is a new kind of centered twelve-tone melody." (Rolf W. Stoll)

recording contains two realizations" realization 1 for bass clarinet, trombone, accordion, percussion, cello, bass and music boxes: tracks 4 through 9 and tracks 16 through 21

realization 2 for six improvisors, music boxes and tape: tracks 1 through 3, tracks 10 through 15, and tracks 22 through 24

Tracklisting:

1. Capricorn {3:14}

2. Aquarius {3:17}

3. Pisces {3:22}

4. Capricorn {2:56}

5. Aquarius {2:54}

6. Pisces {4:22}

7. Aries {2:11}

8. Taurus {3:58}

9. Gemini {3:15}

10. Aries {3:00}

11. Taurus {2:58}

12. Gemini {3:24}

13. Cancer {1:50}

14. Leo {3:49}

15. Virgo {2:26}

16. Cancer {2:30}

17. Leo {3:01}

18. Virgo {2:02}

19. Libra {4:36}

20. Scorpio {4:41}

21. Sagittarius {2:18}

22. Libra {2:52}

23. Scorpio {2:33}

24. Sagittarius {3:48}

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