Stockhausen on Electronics, 2004

Abstract

In 2004, Karlheinz Stockhausen realized his work Licht-Bilder. It was the last piece from his 29hour-long opera cycle Licht, which he had worked on for 27 years. The production took place at the composer’s studio in Kurten, at the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, and at the Donaueschingen Festival of New Music (see Figures 1 and 2). The starting point for the composition consists of three instruments and a tenor singer as well as ring modulation of the flute and the trumpet, for which a keyboard served as an interface. In addition to the musical level, Stockhausen also devised a choreographic score, similar to the musical one, that directed all movements of the instrumentalists. The work, commissioned by ZKM, Kunststiftung NRW, and the Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris, was complemented by a video production. Not only was an elaborate sound system needed for the auditoriums at both ZKM and in Donaueschingen, but also a complete redundant set of stage equipment (both audio and video) in case the first system crashed. These two sets had to be connected in such a way that if something went wrong during the performance, it was possible to switch between them without the audience’s noticing. As the three instrumentalists and the singer were moving onstage according to the choreography, they had to be connected to the mixing desk with wireless microphones. Interestingly enough, Stockhausen decided to position the speakers reproducing the unaltered sounds directly above the performers, just underneath the ceiling of the auditorium; the speakers diffusing the modulated sounds were placed behind the audience. Thus, the direct and modulated sounds were perceptible separately yet fused into one sound for the listener.