Stimmung

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung

performed by Singcircle

What was important for the creation of Stimmung was the fact that I'd just come back from Mexico where I'd spent a month walking through the ruins, visiting Oaxaca, Merida, and Chichenitza, and becoming a Maya, a Toltec, a Zapotec, an Aztec, or a Spaniard - I became the people. The magic names of the Aztec gods are spoken in Stimmung. . . . And then the space. I sat for hours on the same stone, watching the proportions of certain Mayan temples with their three wings, watching how they were slightly out of phase. I relived ceremonies, which were sometimes very cruel. The religious cruelty isn't in Stimmung, only sounds, the whole general feeling of the Mexican plains with their edifices going into the sky - the quietness, on one side, and the sudden changes, on the other. (Karlheinz Stockhausen from Stockhausen - Conversations with the Composer by Jonathan Cott)

Stimmung is divided into 51 sections. In each section a new overtone melody or 'model' is introduced and repeated several times. Each female voice leads a new section eight times, and each male voice, nine times. Some of the other singers gradually have to transform their own material until they have come into 'identify' with the lead singer of the section; they do this by adopting the same character as the leader in tempo, rhythm and dynamics. When the lead singer feels that 'identity' has been reached, he or she makes a gesture to another singer who leads the next section. Each model is a set of rhythmic phonetic patterns, often with actual words used as their basis, such as 'Hallelujah' or 'Saturday'.

In 29 of the sections, 'magic names' are called out. These are the names of gods and goddesses from many cultures - Aztec, aboriginal and Ancient Greek, for instance - and have to be incorporated into the character of the model. The erotic and intimate love-poems that are recited were written by Stockhausen "during amorous days" in 1967.

Different versions of the work result from the order of models and choice of magic names decided upon by the performers. The first version of Stimmung made by the Collegium Vocale is known as the 'Paris version', and has recently been published as work Number 24 1/2. The ensemble has performed this version hundreds of times throughout the world. The 'Singcircle version' of 1977 evolved over many months of rehearsal in London prior to its first performance at the Round House on November 21st. This version was revised after consultations between the composer, Gregory Rose and Simon Emmerson in April 1978.

The word 'Stimmung' has many meanings in its original German. Literally it means 'tuning', but can also indicate 'being in tune with', good or bad atmosphere, and so on. Die Stimme = voice. (Gregory Rose & Helen Ireland) Tracklisting:

1. warming up, leading to Model 1, Bass {3:03}

2. Mezzo. "Gott nochmal" -- Soprano 2. GROGORAGALLY: Sun god (Australian aboriginal) {1:31}

3. Soprano 2. "Vishnu" -- Baritone. ELYON: God of Storms (Hebrew) {0:52}

4. Soprano 1. -- Tenor. USI-AFU: God of the Earth (Timor, Indonesia) {1:18}

5. Baritone. "Saturday", "Saturnstag", "Samstag", "complement nous" -- Tenor. CHANG-TI: Director of the Cosmos (Chinese Buddhist) {1:05}

6. Tenor. {0:32}

7. Baritone. "Hallelujah" {0:28}

8. Soprano 1. -- Mezzo. UEUETEOTL: God of Fire (Aztec) {1:37}

9. Bass. "Phoenix" -- Tenor. USI-NENO: Sun god (Timor, Indonesia) {1:11}

10. Soprano 1. "Komit" (like screech owls) {1:10}

11. Bass. "moo", "moo-coo" (like cows), "Guru" (a dove) -- Baritone. AHURA-MAZDA: God of Wisdom (Persian) {1:08}

12. Tenor. {2:54}

13. Baritone. -- Soprano 2. ABASSI-ABUMO: Creator of Heaven (Ibi. Africa) {1:35}

14. Soprano 2. "hippy" -- Mezzo. CHALCHIHUITLICUE: Goddess of the Sea and Salt Water (Aztec) {1:22}

15. Mezzo. -- Soprano. WAKANTANKA: God of Thunder (Sioux Indian) {1:50}

16. Bass. {0:46}

17. Soprano 1. "The male is basically an anymale" {0:49}

18. Tenor. {1:44}

19. Bass. "Sontag", "Sunday" -- Soprano 1. DIONYSOS: God of Fertility and Wine (Greek) {1:08}

20. Soprano 2. {1:29}

21. Baritone. {0:36}

22. Mezzo. {1:10}

23. Baritone. {1:50}

24. Soprano 2. -- Soprano 1. VENUS: Goddess of Love (Roman) {1:15}

25. Mezzo. "Wotansday", "Mittwoch", "We(d)nesday" -- Baritone. YAH-WEH: God of Israel (Hebrew) {2:27}

26. Soprano 1. "Tuesday" -- Mezzo. QUETZALCOATL: God of gods (Aztec) {1:06}

27. Tenor. {0:59}

28. Bass. -- Soprano 2. MUNGANAGANA: God of wind (Australian aboriginal) {0:58}

29. Baritone. -- Mezzo. TLALOC: God of Rain (Aztec) {1:03}

30. Soprano 1. {0:55}

31. Mezzo. {0:51}

32. Baritone. {4:19}

33. Soprano 2. "Friday", 'Freitag" -- Baritone. OSIRIS: God of Fertility and Death (Egyptian) -- Tenor. ALLAH: Almighty Creator (Islamic) -- Soprano 1. RHEA: Mother of Zeus (Ancient Greek) {1:35}

34. Soprano 1. "Niemals" -- Tenor. "VISHNU: The Bringer of Good (Hindu) {0:51}

35. Bass. "Sehr hell", "Helena" -- Soprano 1. GAIA: Goddess of the Earth (Ancient Greek) {1:19}

36. Tenor. -- Mezzo. TETEOINNAN: Mother of the Gods (Aztec) {1:30}

37. Mezzo. -- Soprano 2. SUSSISTINAKO: God of Heaven (Sia, American Indian) {1:37}

38. Soprano 1. "Salemaleikum", "Salami-e", "Come-on" -- Bass. RANGI: God of Heaven (Maori, Polynesia) {1:39}

39. Mezzo. "Moonsday" -- Baritone. ATUM-RA: Goddess of the Sun (Ancient Egyptian) {0:55}

40. Baritone. {0:50}

41. Bass. "Thorstag", "Thursday", "Donnerstag"; "Freitag Samstag Sonntag Montag Dienstag Mittwoch Donnerstag" -- Soprano 2. YADILQIL: Heaven-Man (Navajo, American Indian) {1:01}

42. Baritone. "Nemesis", "Artemis" -- Tenor. VARUNA: God of Wisdom (Hindu) {0:59}

43. Tenor. neighing (like a horse) {0:39}

44. Bass. {2:37}

45. Soprano 2. {0:55}

46. Tenor. -- Soprano 1. CHRONOS: God of Time (Ancient Greek) -- Mezzo. CHICOMECOATL God of Food (Aztec) {1:20}

47. Soprano 1. -- Tenor. BUDDHA: The Enlightened One (Buddhist) {1:38}

48. Mezzo. "Maria" -- Bass. TANGAROA: Sun God (Maori, Polynesia) {1:26}

49. Tenor. {0:50}

50. Soprano 2. {0:58}

51. Tenor. {2:10}

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Red Bird/Anticredos

Trevor Wishart - Red Bird/Anticredos

Red Bird (1977) was made using the sounds of birds, animals, words & mechanisms, orchestrated and transformed into one another, in the York University Electronic Music Studio between May 1973 and May 1977.

Red Bird is not only a piece of music, but also a journey into an alternative world. When we listen to a piece of pure sonic art such as Red Bird, we bypass the theatre of the concert hall, and are cast adrift in an entirely aural universe. The whole environment is defined by the dynamic process of sound events. Sounds may again take on some of the 'magical' power they must have had for pre-literate peoples - a significance and resonance muted by the dominance of written language in our culture. If we allow ourselves, we can enter that state of perception where the environment is vibrant with significant sounds and symbols and in which myths have their power.

Red Bird is both a piece of music and a mythic retelling of the world. The underlying structural idea, as far as it can be put into words, is the conflict between 'open' and 'closed' conceptions of reality. This conflict may be expressed in a number of different ways (political, philosophical, technological..). I don't wish to explain this further, as I prefer the music to speak for itself. I will only add that such interpretations of reality are complementary, rather than conflicting - all reflect a 'deep structure' represented by the myth. What is straightforward in one interpretation may be metaphorical in another. (Trevor Wishart)

Anticredos (1980) is performed by Singcircle: Gregory Rose - director; Nicole Tibbels - soprano; Penelope Walmsley-Clark - soprano; Alan Belk - tenor; Richard Wistreich - bass; Steven Jackson - bass; Paul Hillier - bass.

Recorded March/April 1982 in the Music Center, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

Written in 1980, the six amplified vocalists use a wide range of unusual vocal sounds, which I had researched over the previous four years. The results of these researches are brought together in the chapter 'The Human Repertoire' in my book On Sonic Art. The piece sonically takes apart the word 'Credos' and, through processes of sound transformation, develops towards a completely new and seamlessly evolving sound world, the dissolution of all fixed points of reference. Unlike Red Bird these transformations are achieved in live performance and without the use of any electronics. This is possible because the voice is the most flexible sound producer we know - capable of many more types of sound production and articulation than any other individual musical instrument. (Trevor Wishart)

Tracklisting:

1. Red Bird (part 1) {18:59}

2. Red Bird (part 2) {0:19}

3. Red Bird (part 3) {0:16}

4. Red Bird (part 4) {25:55}

5. Anticredos {17:35}

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