Kontra-Punkte
Chamber music by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Catalogue1
Composed1953 (1953)
Performed26 May 1953 (1953-05-26)
Scoring

Kontra-Punkte (Counter-Points, or Against-Points) is a composition for ten instruments by Karlheinz Stockhausen which resolves contrasts among six instrumental timbres, as well as extremes of note values and dynamic levels, into a homogeneous ending texture. Stockhausen described it: "Counter-Points: a series of the most concealed and also the most conspicuous transformations and renewals—with no predictable end. The same thing is never heard twice. Yet there is a distinct feeling of never falling out of an unmistakable construction of the utmost homogeneity. An underlying force that holds things together—related proportions: a structure. Not the same Gestalten in a changing light. But rather this: various Gestalten in the same light, that permeates everything."[1]

History

The first, untitled version, written in 1952–53, was a sparse-textured, "punctual" composition scored for flute, E-flat clarinet, contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon, trumpet, contrabass tuba, piano four hands, harp, violin, and double bass.[2] This score was almost immediately rejected by the composer, who created a new version in the spring of 1953 for flute, clarinet in A, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, piano (one player), harp, violin, and cello. This version has the distinction of being "Nr. 1" in the composer's catalog of works, although the Klavierstücke I–IV, designated "Nr. 2", were actually composed in the previous year.

The hyphenated title signifies a "counter-action" against the punctual style currently in vogue in the early 1950s, an action embodied in the composition itself as a process of transforming dissociated "points" into cohesive "groups" of notes, and therefore from an essentially static condition to an audibly dynamic one. The title also implies a criticism of Stockhausen's own earlier composition Punkte, as well as of his friend Pierre Boulez's 1951 work Polyphonie X—a criticism for which Boulez seems to have forgiven Stockhausen.[3]

Kontra-Punkte was first performed during the ISCM World Music Days in Cologne on 26 May 1953 by members of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hermann Scherchen. This performance, however, was only of roughly the first two-thirds of the work, owing to lack of sufficient time for the pianist to prepare the extremely difficult closing part. Later that same year, Scherchen conducted the first complete performance on a Domaine musical concert in Paris.[4] One review of the 1953 (partial) premiere reported that Scherchen immediately repeated the piece because, shortly after the beginning of the first performance, the pianist had gotten two bars behind, despite being assisted by the composer "who from time to time played a note obviously not within the capacity of ten fingers but required by the score".[5]

Somewhat confusingly, an earlier, orchestral work by Stockhausen was titled "Kontrapunkte" (without the hyphen: "Counterpoints"). This work, suppressed by the composer at the time on grounds that it was unplayable, was drastically recomposed in 1962 and issued under the title Punkte (Points), by which name the original work is also now called.[6][7]

Analysis

"A 'punctual' ensemble style using ten soloists divided into six sound groups ((1) flute-bassoon, (2) clarinet–bass clarinet, (3) trumpet-trombone, (4) piano, (5) harp, (6) violin-violoncello) is transformed irregularly but steadily into a soloistic style articulated by 'groups', gradually focussing on the piano part".[8] This version adds progressively longer insertions of denser note groups, often in single instruments, while at the same time gradually replacing more and more long notes with groups of rapid, shorter ones in a technique called Ausmultiplikation.[9] This gradual erosion of the originally sparse texture, reflected in the hyphenated title (meaning "Against Points"), complements three parallel processes already present in the first version: (1) the heterogeneous timbres of the full ensemble are gradually reduced to the "monochrome" of the solo piano; (2) widely fluctuating durations reduce to similar values; (3) wide-ranging dynamics reduce to a generally soft level. This unidirectional process has been compared on the one hand to that of Maurice Ravel's Boléro,[10] and on the other to Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony.[11] Countless minor changes have been introduced in subsequent revisions, the last of which, in January 2004, replaced the A clarinet with the B-flat instrument.

Discography

In chronological order of recording.

References

  1. ^ Stockhausen 1963, p. 37.
  2. ^ Assis 2011, p. 260.
  3. ^ Maconie 2005, p. 116–117.
  4. ^ Kurtz 1992, p. 58.
  5. ^ Wolf 1953, p. 606.
  6. ^ Kurtz 1992, p. 52.
  7. ^ Blumröder 1993, p. 99.
  8. ^ Stockhausen 1964, p. 20.
  9. ^ Kohl 2004.
  10. ^ Pousseur 1970, p. 246.
  11. ^ Maconie 2005, p. 116.

Cited sources

  • Assis, Gustavo Oliveira Alfaix. 2011. Em busca do som: A música de Karlheinz Stockhausen nos anos 1950. São Paulo: Editora UNESP. ISBN 978-85-393-0207-9.
  • Blumröder, Christoph von. 1993. Die Grundlegung der Musik Karlheinz Stockhausens. Srpplement to the Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 32, ed. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • Kohl, Jerome. 2004. "'One Superordinate Principle': The Origins of Stockhausen’s Serialism." Paper presented 13 November 2004 at the National Conference of the Society for Music Theory, Seattle, Washington.
  • Kurtz, Michael. 1992. Stockhausen: A Biography. Translated by Richard Toop. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Maconie, Robin. 2005. Other Planets: The Music Of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6.
  • Pousseur, Henri. 1970. Fragments théoriques I: Sur la musique expérimentale. Études de sociologie de la musique. Brussels: Editions de l’Institut de Sociologie Université Libre de Bruxelles.
  • Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963. "Arbeitsbericht 1952/53: Orientierung". In his Texte zur elektronischen und instrumentalen Musik 1, edited by Dieter Schnebel, 32–38. DuMont Dokumente. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
  • Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1964. "Nr. 1 Kontra-Punkte für 10 Instrumente (1953)". In his Texte zur Musik 2, edited by Dieter Schnebel, 20–21. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
  • Wolf, Robert Erich. 1953. "Current Chronicle: Germany". Musical Quarterly 39, no. 4 (October): 604–609.

Further reading

  • Frisius, Rudolf. 2008. Karlheinz Stockhausen II: Die Werke 1950–1977; Gespräch mit Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Es geht aufwärts". Mainz, London, Berlin, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto: Schott Musik International. ISBN 978-3-7957-0249-6.
  • Goldberg, Albert. 21 February 1956. " 'Kontrapunkte No. 1' Fails to Impress". Los Angeles Times, p. 29.
  • Goldberg, Albert. 3 December 1958. "The Sounding Board: Stockhausen Works Performed at UCLA". Los Angeles Times, p. 7C.
  • Howland, Patricia L. 2010. "Formal Processes in Post-Tonal Music: A Study of Selected Works by Babbitt, Stockhausen, and Carter". PhD diss. New York: City University of New York.
  • Mosch, Ulrich. 1997. "Wahrnehmungsweisen serieller Musik." Musiktheorie 12:61–70.
  • Schnebel, Dieter. 1972. "Kontra-Punkte oder 'Morphologie der musikalischen Zeit' ". In Denkbare Musik: Schriften 1952–1972, ed. Hans Rudolf Zeller, 213–230. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
  • Schonberg, Harold C. 6 June 1956. "Stockholm Fete Lacks Novelties: Even Most Extreme Works on Modern Music Program Are Short on Shock Value". The New York Times, p. 37.

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