Stockhausen: Spiritual and Sonic Explorer

Benjamin Rubin

May 2, 2023

Rupprecht

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) utilized tape recording, integral serialism, and

modern music technology to achieve a new sonic realm not previously present in Western music.

Through pieces including Studie II (1954), Gesang der Jünglinge (1955), Kontakte (1958),

Zyklus (1959), Stimmung (1968), and Mantra (1970), Stockhausen redefined Western art music,

synthesized the schools of electronic music that came before him, broke barriers in western

harmony, dynamics, and pitch, and achieved total serialism, systematically breaking down the

barriers separating pitch, and equalized all frequencies.

Before Stockhausen's era, tape music was primarily divided into two separate schools:

musique concrète and elektronische Musik. Musique concrète, originating in France and

pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer, focused on the manipulation and transformation of natural sounds

recorded from various sources, such as everyday objects, instruments, and voices. This approach

encouraged the exploration of unconventional sound sources and the creation of novel sonic

textures. On the other hand, elektronische Musik, which originated in Germany and was

spearheaded by composers like Herbert Eimert, emphasized the use of electronically generated

sounds and their manipulation through tape techniques. This school sought to build music from

the ground up, employing oscillators and other electronic devices to generate tones and timbres

that were not possible with traditional instruments.

In Studie II, Stockhausen evokes the feeling of floating in the wind with its airy sine

waves, unpredictable rhythm, and pitch. However, he is not yet using the sonic spatialization
technique that he later became known for. The piece can be considered strongly in the German

elektronische Musik tradition, and is purely made of electronically generated tones, contrasting

his later exploration into the combination of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. The first

minute of the composition is characterized by superimposed and sporadic mid-range and high

frequency pitches with considerable time between each pitch. At 1:32, pitches occur in rapid

bursts, and the intensity and energy of the piece rise, in contrast to the light, free-floating rhythm

of beginning of the piece. The composition features regular silent pauses and little spatialization,

recorded monaurally. The piece serves more as an exploration of sound, pitch, and dynamics

than a coherent musical narrative comparable to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Wagner’s Das

Rheingold. The 'Studie' compositions were designed as an exploration into the emerging realm

of tape music, experimenting with the manipulation of timbre, dynamics, and pitch in ways that

surpassed the capabilities of classical Western instruments. Stockhausen utilizes serial squares to

determine tone width, pitch ordering, section length, the number of sections, and dynamics in the

piece.1 This serialist approach enabled him to systematically delve into this relatively uncharted

sonic territory in an organized way.2 However, his exploration with serialism in electronic music

did not stop at the ‘Studie’ series.

In Gesang der Jünglinge (1955) and Kontakte (1958), Stockhausen synthesizes and

extends the electronic traditions of his era by integrating elements from disparate schools of tape

music. Through the infusion of religious themes and the meticulous serial manipulation of

parameters, he transcends the limitations of traditional instruments and forms.

1
Toop, Richard. Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002. Germany, Stockhausen Foundation for
Music, 2005. 6.
2
Toop, Six Lectures, 5.
 Gesang der Jünglinge is a pioneering work of electronic music that combines vocal

samples with electronically synthesized sounds and explores the interplay between the German

and French electronic music traditions. The work is structured around the biblical story of

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Book of Daniel, depicting three young men who

miraculously escape being burnt alive by singing praises to the Lord. Stockhausen extracts

phrases from this text, sung by a boy soprano, and modulates and processes the vocal samples

using analog tape equipment. These vocal fragments are intertwined with various sounds from

sine-tone generators, creating a complex web of sonic material.3 Although the composition

possesses a light and timeless quality, it employs serialism to depict the biblical narrative,

marking a departure from Stockhausen's earlier non-programmatic tape works, such as Studie II.

Gesang der Jünglinge is a work of integral serialism, using serial techniques to govern

various musical parameters, such as pitch, wave, amplitude rhythm, dynamics, and spatial

positioning.4 The piece can be divided into several sections, each featuring distinct combinations

of vocal and electronic sounds, often separated by the repeated phrase "Preiset den Herrn"

(Praise the Lord). At 1:27 in the piece, the vocal sounds are stacked to create non-diatonic

chords, before all other voices cut out at 1:30, leaving only “Preiset Den Herrn,” heard in one

voice. The emphasis on this phrase displays the piece’s explicitly religious narrative. Serialism,

which is rooted in the idea of an underlying order governing various musical parameters, can be

seen as Stockhausen’s metaphor for his deterministic interpretation of reality, where everything

3
Maconie, Robin. The works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. United Kingdom, Clarendon Press, 1990. 96.

4
Maconie, The works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. 96.
is interconnected and unfolds according to a predetermined plan. He imbues the piece with a

sense of divine order, mirroring the religious narrative of the text.

Spatialization techniques play a significant role in the piece, as Stockhausen uses spatial

mixing to create an immersive listening experience. The piece was originally mixed for five

channels, while the LP was released in stereo.5 In one notable moment at 2:26, a synthetic swell

is created in the right channel, rising in pitch until 2:33 when the pitch ceases to increase. This

tone-generated swell is achieved by gradually placing tones closer together in time until the

multiple tones start resembling sustained sound. Following a brief period of silence at 2:59, a

non-diatonic chord can be heard in both right and left channels, accompanied by a chorus that

pauses for a moment at 3:05 before coming in with a stacked unison vocal and a soft "hmm"

vocal sound in the right channel. This is then followed by a gentle sine-tone sweep continually

moving from left to right channel, while decreasing in volume, almost replicating the sound of

rushing water.

The composer creatively modifies and arranges vocal elements, superimposing the vocals

of a boy on top of each other to create a choral mass. This mass is crafted from fragments of text,

with seven individual lines superimposed using serialism to determine the number of voices and

degree of incomprehensibility. In this innovative approach, Stockhausen abandons traditional

concepts of pitch and rhythm, instead focusing on the length of tape in centimeters and the

frequency of sound in hertz. By using both synthesized sounds as well as vocal samples, the

5
Stockhausen, Karlheinz. Gesang der Jünglinge : elektronische Musik : 1955-1956, Werk Nr. 8 /

Karlheinz Stockhausen. First edition., Published by Stockhausen-Verlag, 2001.

these two distinct schools of tape music into a unified whole.

Kontakte, composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen between 1958 and 1960, is an influential

work in tape music. The piece exists in two versions: one for electronic sounds alone and another

that combines electronic sounds with live acoustic instruments, specifically piano, and

percussion. I will be analyzing the electro-acoustic version of the piece.

Through the innovative marriage of acoustic instruments and pre-recorded electronic

sounds, Kontakte unites seemingly opposing musical disciplines and works to reconcile pre-

electronic with electronic music. Just as in Gesang, Stockhausen manipulates pitch, timbre, and

texture to move the piece, rather than diatonic harmony, motivic development, or melodic

repetition. At 10:30, a climactic event is created through the seamless interplay of shakers,

gongs, and electronic sounds, culminating in a massive vibration at 10:40 that is further

enhanced by additional sine-tone elements.

Throughout the piece, Stockhausen plays with the relationship between the acoustic and

synthesized instruments. At some points, it becomes difficult to distinguish between tape and

acoustic sources, while at other times the electronic and acoustic elements remain distinctly

separate. At 12:36, an electronic synth solo leads into a duet of percussion and a recorded

backing track, which evolves into a complex layering of bongo, piano, and synth that becomes

hard to differentiate between. This intricate blend of instruments is occasionally interrupted by

synthesizer bursts, creating a dynamic and unpredictable soundscape.

In another example, at the 17:06 mark, a cymbal and gong lead up to a synth wave that

gradually reduces in speed and frequency, accompanied by a piano matching the diatonic minor
key of the tone in the synth recording. The singular sustained tone eventually slows down to

become separate perceptible tones and takes on a reverbed, spaced-out sound by 18:50.

In both Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte, Stockhausen aims to evoke a sense of

transcendence in his music, which becomes apparent through the departure from conventional

melody, form, and harmony. Instead, the pieces' structure, pitch, dynamics, and other parameters

are governed by serial techniques. While Gesang does possess a narrative, its theme of devotion

to the divine is conveyed through intricate sonic textures, (divine) serial order and unexpected

sine-tone bursts. Stockhausen utilizes the interplay between acoustic and electronic sounds, and

the systematic control of musical parameters to explore the transcendent nature of sound.

Stimmung (1968) is an approximately 70 minute-long piece and continues his religious

focus. The piece has American psychedelic and Eastern religious influences, drawing from his

time on the US West Coast6 as well as Eastern meditation rituals and mantras. The singers

perform on cushions on the floor, reminiscing a Buddhist meditation hall, and incorporate magic

names such as Aztecs, Hawaii, Christ, Buddha, and Man, again exemplifying Stockhausen’s

overtly religious, but non-denominational gestures. Stockhausen utilizes serial composition to

convey these religious themes through, just as in Gesang. The piece stays entirely on the

Bbdom9 chord, creating a 70-minute meditative, still harmonic texture that is meant to transcend

time. The six vocalists rest throughout the piece on the two, three, four, five, seven, and nine

partials of the low Bb fundamental frequency. Pages of rhythmic models of singing and magic

names are used during the piece. Stimmung represents a departure from his earlier music in terms

of its arrangement, vocalists with microphones, versus his usual arrangement of sine-tone

generators and pianos. Arrangement-wise, the piece uses two sopranos, one contralto, two tenors,

6
Toop, Six Lectures, 39.
and one bass. Despite its free feel, Stimmung is a serial composition. While the pitches of all

vocalists are fixed on Bbdom7, each vocalist’s rhythm, phonetic sounds, and timing of when to

start the poems and magic names are serially determined, continuing what is seen in Studie II,

Kontakte, and Gesang.

Stimmung features vocals that replicate synthesizers through the repetition and slight

modification of vowels and sounds by the vocalists. By modifying the vowels and pronunciation

over time, Stockhausen manages to achieve an effect similar to modifying the envelope and filter

on a synthesizer. At 14:25, a female vocalist makes a ‘wow-ow’ sound that resembles the effect

of a low-frequency oscillator applied to the cutoff of a low-pass filter. While he did compose for

acoustic instruments, he seems to be transporting electronic music into composition for live

instrumentation. This contrasts heavily with modern musicians’ use of DAWs and VSTs to

replicate acoustic instruments. Instead, Stockhausen used electronics and technology to create

sonic realms not previously possible and then translated this new world back into live

instrumentation, which provides a much more engaging performance than simply playing a

recording in a concert hall.

Stockhausen's Mantra (1970) represents both a significant departure and continuation

from his earlier works, showcasing his exploration of new realms of sound and breaking away

from traditional musical forms. One of the most notable aspects of the piece is the use of a ring-

modulated piano combined with a sine tone generator, all transcribed in a traditional Western

musical score. The piece represents a continuation of Stockhausen's fusion of acoustic and live

instrumentation, as previously seen in Gesang. Through these pieces, was able to redefine the

concert hall and hybridize the concert experience.

sixteenth, and dotted note rhythms, creates a meditative feel and takes out time, further

highlighting Stockhausen's interest in exploring the perception of time in his music. The opening

bells and A to A melody, as well as the use of church bells with cymbals and bells in measure 5,

allude to the religious use of bells in calls to prayer and meditation.

Comparatively, in Kontakte, Stockhausen also explores the use of electronic sound, with

the use of percussion and piano sounds mixed with electronic sounds. However, the treatment of

rhythm in Kontakte is much more punctual, rapid, and hard to predict, creating a sense of

intensity and focus on each moment, rather than meditative timelessness. Similarly, in Gesang,

Stockhausen uses punctual, rapid rhythms to create a sense of intensity and focus on each

moment, but with the goal of getting rid of time. These pieces contrast with Mantra in their

treatment of rhythm and their focus on intensity rather than meditative timelessness.

Stockhausen's use of repetitive rhythm in Mantra and other pieces represents a key aspect of his

style, which seeks to explore the perception of time in his music. In the piece, Stockhausen uses

extended, repeating rhythms to achieve timelessness, creating a musical experience that

transports the listener to a different realm of sound and perception. Mantra does however

continue in the repetitive rhythms of Stimmung, another meditative lengthy piece.

Zyklus (1959) is also notable for its unique scoring and structure. The piece is named

after the German word for "cycle," and the composition itself is cyclical in nature, without a

definitive starting or ending point. The piece is written for marimba, vibraphone, tom-toms,

snare drum, güiro, African log drums, suspended cymbals, hi-hat, almglocken, bells, triangle,

boss gong and tam-tam. The bespoke scoring destroys the traditional narrative form of music and

replaces it with what Stockhausen called a "polyvalent" form. This means that the performer can
start at any time they choose and read the piece in any direction. The cyclical structure of Zyklus

mirrors a philosophy of life that is cyclical and without a definitive ending or beginning, similar

to a Buddhist approach to existence.

Zyklus represents a continuation of the hybrid acoustic-electronic style, but instead of

directly using electronic sine waves, he simply takes his post-tonal serialist style back to acoustic

instrumentation. In comparison to other Stockhausen pieces, such as Kontakte, which uses

electronic sounds mixed with percussion and piano sounds, Zyklus is more focused on the

acoustic properties of percussion instruments. The sporadic xylophone spurts used in Zyklus

create a unique sound that feels like the beginning of Gesang, with its similarly spaced-out

rhythms. The cymbals and instrumentation used in Zyklus also remind one of Kontakte, but the

use of acoustic percussion instruments sets it apart from the electronic sounds used in Kontakte.

Stockhausen's innovative approach to music composition and theory was informed by his

desire to systematically study new realms of frequency, pitch, tone color, and texture. As an

explorer of music technology, he approached music composition in a non-traditional way, using

serialism to provide a basis for dealing with the experimental nature of his work. His innovative

approach to combining electronic, acoustic, and vocal elements pre-dates and can be seen as an

ancestor of contemporary electronic music genres such as House and Dubstep.

Stockhausen’s music is not written to be diatonic or progressive with a climax and

destination, but rather to explore new sound worlds and explore spirituality. This can be seen in

pieces such as Gesang, where he uses punctual, rapid rhythms to create intensity and focus on

each moment, and Kontakte, where he uses electronic sounds mixed with percussion and piano

sounds to create an experimental sound world. In Stimmung, Stockhausen creates a piece that is
entirely vocal, using repetitive rhythms and extended vocal techniques to explore the boundaries

of sound and perception.

Stockhausen's innovative approach to music composition and theory, informed by his

scientific background, channeled and went further than Schoenberg’s serialism and broke away

from traditional narrative programmatic musical forms. He was able to synthesize various

schools of electronic music and break barriers in Western harmony, dynamics, and pitch. His

focus on exploring new realms of sound and perception, and his desire to differentiate his music

from other Western music, set the stage for future generations of composers to push the

boundaries of traditional musical forms and explore new realms of sound.

Maconie, Robin. The works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. United Kingdom, Clarendon Press, 1990.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz. Gesang der Jünglinge : elektronische Musik : 1955-1956, Werk Nr. 8 /

Karlheinz Stockhausen. First edition., Published by Stockhausen-Verlag, 2001.

Toop, Richard. Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002. Germany, Stockhausen

Foundation for Music, 2005.