Ensemble

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1972

Label: WERGO

"Ensemble" for single performer and tape or shortwave-receiver.
Recorded 28th (rehearsal) & 29th (concert) August 1967, each lasting 4 hours. Mixed and edited 26th August to 22nd September 1971 at Studio für elektronische Musik WDR.

"ENSEMBLE attempts adding to the traditional form of "concert" a new one. We're used to compare different compositions played successively. In ENSEMBLE "pieces" of 12 compositions are played simultaneously.
These "pieces" are not completed objects ("works"), but sound structures (on tape or created with shortwave-receivers), individual rules, actions and reactions, quoted "events", brought in by each single composer during the performance.
Each composer created for one performer and tape or shortwave-receiver. General concept and inserts, leading to the temporary synchronization of the ENSEMBLE, were written by Stockhausen. The 12 systems and their coordination were verbalised daily. The resulting process of 4 hours is more than the "pieces" summed: it's a composition of compositions, ranging from completely isolated events to overall dependency of layers, as well as interfering between extreme determination and unpredictability.
Besides those 12 composers and performers virtually acting as 12 "duos" (distributed over the room), further 4 musicians at mixers are challanged in amplifying and swaying certain details / moments through microphones or the 8 speakers spread over the room. The listener's position is not fixed: he can freely move through the room choosing his own acoustic perspective.
Simultaneity of compositions demands simultaneous listening and relating of different "pieces".
The "verticalization" of perceiving happenings and the relativization of definite form (a "piece" signed by a single person) prevail not only in music." Karlheinz Stockhausen

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