six mixed voices
“Time stands still. We listen inside the sound, inside the harmonic specter, inside the vocal line. Inside. The subtlest of undulations—barely detectable—every sense is wakened and calmed. In sensual beauty, eternal beauty shines.”
With these words, Stockhausen described Stimmung (an ambiguous term that means “of a pure state,” “to be voiced,” and “state of the soul”). The vocal work is constructed out of magical names in mysterious languages and is beyond any doubt marked by the composer’s own particular brand of spirituality.
“Each singer is given 8 or 9 models and 11 magic names [gathered together with the help of the anthropologist Nancy Wyle], who may freely introduce these elements into the game, according to a ‘formal schema’ and context. The others may react to these models and magical words with ‘transformations,’ ‘varied digressions,’ ‘oscillations,’ or ‘unisons.’ Nothing is conducted. In a given combination of voices, it is the singer of the model who guides, and when he feels it is appropriate, he transfers his function to another singer. As soon as it is ‘called’ by a singer, a magic name must be periodically repeated at the same tempo and with an articulation close to that of the model until there is a new ‘unison.’ As such it becomes integrated in the determining sonic model currently in place. The lip positions of the singer who executes the model should be preserved as much as possible, which will cause the name to become deformed. The reaction to a magic name causes a clear communication of a change in ambiance (Stimmung), brought about by the character and significance of the name.”
The singers have worked for a many months to acquire this completely new vocal technique: the referential sounds must be sung very quietly, while certain harmonics . . . must be sung in a dominating manner, without vibrato, with only frontal sinus and other head-tone resonances. Breathing must be long, calm, and balanced…
The premiere of this work took place in Paris on December 9th and 10th, 1968. The press described the concert as a ‘hippie camp fire,’ probably as a result of the singers’ coloured shirts, embroidered skirts, and bare feet, and the fact that for a period of 75 minutes they remained on the ground, in a circle, almost immobile in the lotus position, in an absorbed state. They remained in place with a spot of light at the centre, each with a microphone in hand, and surrounded by six loud speakers in the form of balls turned upward towards the ceiling.”
Karlheinz Stockhausen (Translation: C. Flint De Médicis)
This work was commissioned by the city of Cologne, for its Collegium Vocale, and was dedicated to Mary Bauermeister.
oeuvre@22750 generated in Montréal by litk 0.600 on
Thursday, September 8, 2011. Development & maintenance: DIM.