"Tonight, Eternity Alone" by Rene Clausen
Performed by The Choral Project
From "Water & Light" album

This track is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/choralpro3

Tonight Eternity Alone - Rene Clausen

"O Magnum Mysterium" by Morten Lauridsen
Performed by The Choral Project
From "Water & Light" album

This track is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/choralpro3

O Magnum Mysterium - Morten Lauridsen

"Count Your Blessings" by Irving Berlin
Adam Flowers & Nicole Takesono
Ron Valentino, piano
2011

White Christmas

Count Your Blessings

STIMMUNG * for 6 Vocalists (3 Male, 3 Female) (and tuning tape) 1968 [70 min.]

Introduction
STIMMUNG is in its simplest explanation a sequence of 51 different vowel-based vocal patterns (without pitch) which are interspersed with "Magic Names" and interrupted 3 times by passages of love poetry. Each vocal pattern ("Model") is started by an indicated vocalist and the other vocalists gradually transform whatever they are doing to match the new Model.

There are 6 basic notes (from a Bb Major 9th chord) which the vocalists intone the Models on, and the Models are designed to bring out the overtones of the pitches with the help of the vowel shapes. The score arrangement (form scheme) lets the mixed vocal group create a kaleidoscopic layering of overtone frequencies on a single chord (actually a single note, since the chord is created by the harmonic partials (overtone series) of the Bb note).

Live Performance
A tape of 7 pitches as sine or square waves (the Bb Maj9th chord in just intonation) is quietly played during performance. This helps the tuning of the singers, who sit facing each other in a circle on cushions.

Development
STIMMUNG was commissioned by a traditional vocal group accustomed to performing madrigals and things like that.  When Stockhausen found himself unable to sing melodies out loud at his home (due to his sleeping newborn child Simon) he began humming. From humming with his skull against the wall (and hearing Simon's own humming from his crib) he became interested in composing for overtones on a static chord. Additionally, he had just returned from a few weeks exploring the ruins of the Mayas in Mexico and was inspired by the stark but iconic architecture he found there, as well as the accounts of the ancient (and sometimes bloody) rituals conducted in those places.

Stockhausen's initial vocal square sketch indicating phonetic vowels and the overtones achieved with each vowel. The upper number is for high voice, the lower number for low voice.  The official score is for two sopranos, and alto, two tenors and a bass vocalist, but Stockhausen has actually recorded with some slight deviations...

51 combinations follow one after another in which an indicated lead singer chooses a vowel/text Model and sings it based on the pitch in the score. These Models are repeated until a matching "identity" is achieved by the group, after which the lead singer signals the next combination.

The other singers sing (or rest) as follows:
a. Match the lead singer's vocal Model (but on their own pitch)
b. Continue the previous Model (possibly with a change in pitch)
c. Modify the Model they were singing to gradually match the new Model (indicated by "T" in circles) except for pitch
d. Move in and out of variations of the Model, one parameter at a time (indicated by "var." and usually in the bracketed sections)
e. Sing "here and there" matching the pitches of other singers with
small glissandi to create beating patterns

The Stockhausen Foundation in Germany honored our work by officially listing our concerts on their 2017 performances list, thus giving them international status at the request of Collegium Vocale singers who advised VOSV for this project. We are on a very short list of performers singing this live and currently the only American group doing it this year. If you are interested in modern contemporary vocal works, you should take the opportunity to listen to it - It's a VERY unusual and complex piece.

http://www.karlheinzstockhausen.org/Auffuhrungen_Performances_english.htm

Stimmung for 6 Vocalists by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Kristin Genis-Lund, lyric coloratura soprano has performed extensively as a soloist throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in opera, oratorio, musical theatre and recitals. See her website at kristinlundsoprano.com.

Stimmung for 6 Vocalists by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Kristin Genis-Lund

Recent comments

la insomnia

Related tracks