Stockhausen - Licht-Collage
The German radio station SWR2 had a long association with Stockhausen, and broadcast over several years extracts from his enormous opera cycle - Licht - which has an opera for each day of the week. On 22nd August, it would have been the 80th birthday of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who died last year, and SWR2 broadcast a sequence of extracts from each opera, interspersed with commentary from Stockhausen himself in interviews with Reinhard Ermen. So, in the space of about 3 1/2 hours, a condensed version of this enormous cycle could be heard, including some of the more well-known episodes, such as Welt-Parlament and Helikopter-Quartett.
The commentary is in German, but is conversational and easy to follow, starting with an explanation of how the idea for the cycle came to Stockhausen in a temple in Kyoto after he had completed Sirius. Many of the ideas and themes which make up the mythology of Licht receive extended commentary. Moreover, I think you can get a sense of how Stockhausen began this with an idea rooted in a compositional framework he controlled, how a surrounding mythology emerged and entered his dreams and very being, his struggle with and acceptance of that and a final sense of weariness, relief and transcendence.
The picture above is Max Ernst's Birth of a Galaxy, which seems appropriate for something on this scale.
19 comments:
FLAC would have been enormous, so this is offered in MP3 @ 320;
http://rapidshare.com/files/141262194/Licht_CD1.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/141265695/Licht_CD2.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/141269555/Licht_CD3.zip
Blimey, nice work chaps
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Nice to see a different angle appearing on I. Sol!
too timely to be anything other than tempting... we've been talking about stockhausen elsewhere! thanks tantris, i'll download this and give it a listen.
Truly fascinating share. Excellent selections from LICHT, with insightful commentaries by Stockhausen - at last I'm able to get the full scope of the LICHT beast. I must admit the CD versions are not only horribly expensive (have spent my money on two of them so far) but also a bit...hm...langatmig. A digest version is just right for people like me :D - Many MANY thanks!! Adam Eleven
Here's some background information on this broadcast (in German), which is actually entitled:
Karlheinz Stockhausen: LICHT
7 Tage in dreieinhalb Stunden
Eine Collage von Reinhard Ermen
http://www.swr.de/swr2/programm/sendungen/abendkonzert/-/id=658570/nid=658570/did=3582498/utam7d/index.html
Adam
The music is fantastic. On CD1, 'Extract 4-Montag' and 'Welt-Parlament' are mindblowing. An awesome choice of excerpts, though I could do without Stockie's comment. Thanks a lot to Tantris for the perfect ID tags and cueing of tracks.
Richard Barrett has very kindly pointed out the correct identification of the extracts, which I'll summarise here;
(1) Dienstag, Jahreslauf (bells)
(2) Sonntag, Licht-Bilder
(3) Samstag, Licht-Formel
(4) Montag, Montags-Gruss
(5) Montag, Befreuchtung mit Klavierstück
(6) Dienstag, Dienstags-Gruss
(7) Dienstag, Jahreslauf
(8) Dienstag, Jahreslauf
(9) Dienstag, Pietà
(10) Mittwoch, Mittwochs-Gruss
(11) Mittwoch, Helikopter-Quartett
(12) Donnerstag, Donnerstags-Gruss
(13) Donnerstag, Donnerstags-Gruss
(14) Donnarstag, Michaels Jugend
(15) Freitag
(16) Freitag, Kinder-Chor
(17) Freitag, Kinder-Tutti
(18) Freitag, Kinder-Krieg
(19) Samstag, Luzifers Traum
(20) Samstag, Luzifers Traum
(21) Samstag, Luzifers Tanz
(22) Sonntag, Hoch-Zeiten
(23) Sonntag, Sonntags-Abschied
Here are some links to interesting sites about Stockhausen;
(i) A commentary on each of the operas that make up Licht;
http://homepage.mac.com/bernardp/Stockhausen/licht.html
(ii) Essays (very readable and approachable) on Stockhausen's music by Al Moritz;
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ealmoritz/stockhausenreviews.htm
Hi thanks very much for posting the 3.5 hours Licht Collage !
Nigel Curtis
Which piece is the track 10 of cd 1 ???
is the 5.43 minute (Extract 10 )
This is SO EXCITING! So happy I stumbled upon your site. I have developed an insatiable appetite for all things Stockhausen, and it's so hard to get your hands on ANYTHING from his LICHT cycle. THANKS Gentlemen!!
thanks a LOT for sharing this :)
Something tells me this is not going to be cocktail lounge muzak.
Thanks very much for the listen!
Just saw Mittwoch in Birmingham - a fantastic experience. Would you be able to reload these links as they have died?
New links (mp3 @ 320);
Licht_1
Licht_2
Licht_3
Hi!
If anyone can reupload the 3 Stockhausen entries on this blog, I would really appreciate.
Greetings from Costa Rica!
Sincerely
JRAC
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