Some more from the NRK archives, this time two performances by Karlheinz Stockhausen's emsemble on 29 and 30 September 1969. These were at the Henie Onstad Art Centre at Høvikodden outside Oslo. The Centre was opened in 1968 and soon became the most prominent venue for new music, electronica and even jazz. Among jazz events in 1969, the premier performance of George Russell's Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature and a concert by the Cadentia Nova Danica, an ensemble led by saxophonist John Tchicai.
We get to hear two pieces (in separate files), first "Kurzwellen" (Shortwaves) where short wave receivers play a key role as a sound source for emulation and improvisation. This piece was recorded and released by Deutsche Grammophon in 1970. The record lists six musicians, but as far as I make out, there are only five present in this concert. These are:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - electronics, mixing, harmonica (on "Es")
Aloys Kontarsky - piano
Johannes G. Fritsch - viola
Harald Bojé - keyboards
Rolf Gehlhaar - percussion
The second piece, "Es" (It), an excerpt from "Aus den Sieben Tagen" (From the Seven Days), features the same ensemble, but this piece is based on what may be called non-cognitive spontaneity, reminiscent of Eastern ideas derived from meditation and buddhism. Only when the mind is devoid of thought is the time to play. Once one starts to think again, one should stop immediately. Hence there is a lot of space and silence in this music, only broken by sudden otbursts of sound. Both pieces may sound random to many ears and to some degree they are, but there is, I sense, a strong procedural and conceptual element to this music nonetheless. The second half of the video is a Q&A session with musicians, including some of his own, where he gets to expound on his concept of biological time, space, natural sound and on what he calls intuitive music.
Same as for the Cathy Berberian programme, which I posted before, it's all in glorious black and white!
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ReplyDeletethanks for this great share - but after the download, my spyware says that these files contain malware. could that be true???
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for posting such valuable, rare TV recordings. I already enjoyed your C. Berberian post. Great work!
ReplyDeleteStrange, downloading the same files, I get the same message on my work computer. The previous upload of Cathy Berberian worked fine, even though I used the same procedure for all three recordings. The only difference, as far as I can tell, is that I've been using different file servers. Anyway, I will have to experiment a little to see what works.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to see and listen to both of these recordings, as I'm interested in all things Stockhausen, but am just a bit concerned about possible malware. Is this a false notification, perhaps, or is there really something embedded in the files that is best avoided?
ReplyDeleteThose files that were initially uploaded are clearly damaged in one way or the other. I've downloded them several times and I get the same warning every time.
ReplyDeleteSo here are new files which have aslo been tested and they appear to be OK.
Kurzwellen
https://1fichier.com/?mik5dcbmkb
Es:
https://1fichier.com/?s821pepo41
apparently the files have "been deleted by the owner"
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNew links:
https://www.adrive.com/public/d8WgDj/NRK_TV_Stockhausen_Es.flv
https://www.adrive.com/public/bpfgvh/NRK_TV_Stockhausen_Kurzwellen.flv