Stop (Stockhausen) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stop is a composition for orchestra (divided into six groups) by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

, work-number 18 in the composer’s catalogue of works, where two performing realisations are also found as Nr. 18½ and Nr. 18⅔.

History

Stop is a work of about 20 minutes duration, written in a single session at the blackboard in 1965 during a composition seminar at the Cologne Courses for New Music 1964–65, in response to a request from a student for a demonstration of the process of creating a work, including "precise details". The instrumentation is flexible, and an organic process binding the whole together must also be developed from the basic score to make a version before it can be performed. The title stems from the fact that, from time to time, noises or coloured silences stop these processes of unfolding of groups of pitches (Stockhausen 1971, 72; Kurtz 1992, 146). In addition to the original score, two performing versions made by the composer have been published: a "Paris Version" for nineteen instruments, Nr. 18½ (1969), and Stop und Start (Stop and Start) for six instrumental groups (twelve performers) (2001) Nr. 18⅔. The altered title of the 2001 version simply reflects the fact that a new sound group starts up after each interruption (Stockhausen 2002, 9 and 36). The "Paris Version" was that of the world premiere, given on 2 June 1969 under the baton of Diego Masson

Diego Masson

Diego Masson is a French conductor, composer, and percussionist.The son of artist André Masson and brother of the singer and actor Luís Masson, Diego Masson studied piano and composition at the Paris Conservatoire...

in the Théâtre National Populaire, Palais de Chaillot, as part of the fifth of a series of seven concerts of Stockhausen's works (Stockhausen 1971, 72, 75–76). A "London Version" was made in 1973. Although this version was performed and recorded, it is close to the Paris version (Stockhausen 1978, 77) and has neither been published nor given a separate number in the composer's catalog.

Form

Stop consists of forty-two sections, each characterised by a different configuration of pitches, or by noises (Stockhausen 1971, 73). The durations of these groups are related by proportions of Fibonacci numbers, while their pitches are based on a twelve-note "central chord", within which a succession of nine single tones progresses gradually downward, alternating with a rising progression of six bichords that suddenly falls into the bass register for an ending, seventh bichord. Interspersed amongs these single and double pitches there are six trichord

Trichord

In music theory, a trichord is a group of three different pitch classes found within a larger group . For example a continguous three note set from a musical scale or twelve-tone row. The term is derived by analogy from the 20th-century use of the word "tetrachord"...

s in a falling-rising pattern, four tetrachord

Tetrachord

Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...

s in a jagged down-up-down shape, and two widely separated six-note chords in groups 9 and 41 (Frisius 2008, 174). According to a different analysis, there are twelve central tones that gradually fall (with one deviation in the middle) over the course of the work (Stockhausen 1978, 77):
G₆ B₅ G₅ A₄ G₄ D₅ E₄ D₄ F₃ C₃ F₂ C₂.
Near the end, a concealed children's song appears "like wind", in agitated, dissonant tremolos over a solemn bass line (Stockhausen 2002, 9 and 36). This tonal melody, introduced as a simulated short-wave radio signal, appears to be intended to provoke a strong emotional reaction (Maconie 2005, 262).

Although the score specifies that the six groups be placed "as far apart from one another as possible", the version conducted by the composer in London on 9 March 1973 did not differentiate them spatially (Griffiths 1973).

Paris version

The instrumentation in this version is flexible, but the following scoring is suggested by way of example:

Group I: oboe, piano, synthesizer
Group II: synthesizer, trumpet, cello
Group III: vibraphone + tamtam, bass clarinet, electric cello
Group IV: cor anglais, synthesizer, bassoon
Group V: clarinet, violin, harp, trombone
Group VI: flute, electric bassoon, horn

London version

The instrumentation is based on the Paris version (Stockhausen 1978, 77)

Group I: oboe, piano, electric organ
Group II: electronium, trumpet, cello
Group III: vibraphone + tamtam, bass clarinet, electric cello
Group IV: cor anglais, synthesizer, bassoon
Group V: clarinet, violin, harp, trombone
Group VI: flute, electric bassoon + alto saxophone + synthesizer, horn

Stop und Start

Although the details of the scoring are more exactly worked out in this version, it is also possible to substitute instruments, or even to increase the numbers, so long as the balance among the groups is maintained (Stockhausen 2002, 9 and 36)

Group I: synthesizer and bass clarinet
Group II: synthesizer and trombone
Group III: synthesizer and basset horn
Group IV: synthesizer and saxophone
Group V: synthesizer and trumpet
Group VI: synthesizer (or percussion) and flutes (one player)

In addition to the performers and a conductor, both versions are electronically amplified, requiring microphones, loudspeakers, and a mixing desk operated by a sound director.

Discography