Uploaded January 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Lucifer's Requiem is a Requiem for every person who seeks the eternal light. In Kathinka's Chant, Kathinka sings with flute and voice at Lucifer's grave a chant that protects the soul of the deceased by means of musical exercises regularly performed for 49 days after the death of the body, and leads it to clear consciousness (Stockhausen 1984, 18–19). The ritual is a 22-fold expansion of the Lucifer formula, reflecting the two sets of repeated-note unceduplets that begin that formula. The flautist, costumed as a cat, is the shamanistic celebrant, and is accompanied by six percussionists representing the six mortal senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and thought. The percussionists play on a set of tuned sound plates (initially eleven of them, arranged in the order of the notes of the Lucifer formula), as well as on a total of at least 30 specially created "magic instruments" which are attached to or form parts of their costumes. The flautist begins with a "salute" and then, following the segments of two mandalas, performs a series of 22 exercises, with two interspersed pauses at positions 7 and 13 out of 24 marked on the two mandalas. The number 7 is emblematic for Licht as the number of the days of the week, but is also the number of letters in the name "Lucifer", while 13 is not only a number traditionally associated with misfortune, but is also the number up to which Lucifer repeatedly counts throughout the opera cycle. As the percussionists continue playing through this second pause, the flautist performs an "exchange of the senses", reordering the sound plates and adding a twelfth note, in order to transform Lucifer's formula into that of Eve. She then resumes the exercises and continues without further interruption straight through to the end. The exercises are followed by a "Release of the Senses", a gradual exit, a series of eleven "trombone tones" on the flute, and a final scream (Toop 2005, 107–108 and 124–26).
15 October 1983
© Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kürten (www.stockhausen-verlag.com)
Lucifer's Requiem is a Requiem for every person who seeks the eternal light. In Kathinka's Chant, Kathinka sings with flute and voice at Lucifer's grave a chant that protects the soul of the deceased by means of musical exercises regularly performed for 49 days after the death of the body, and leads it to clear consciousness (Stockhausen 1984, 18–19). The ritual is a 22-fold expansion of the Lucifer formula, reflecting the two sets of repeated-note unceduplets that begin that formula. The flautist, costumed as a cat, is the shamanistic celebrant, and is accompanied by six percussionists representing the six mortal senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and thought. The percussionists play on a set of tuned sound plates (initially eleven of them, arranged in the order of the notes of the Lucifer formula), as well as on a total of at least 30 specially created "magic instruments" which are attached to or form parts of their costumes. The flautist begins with a "salute" and then, following the segments of two mandalas, performs a series of 22 exercises, with two interspersed pauses at positions 7 and 13 out of 24 marked on the two mandalas. The number 7 is emblematic for Licht as the number of the days of the week, but is also the number of letters in the name "Lucifer", while 13 is not only a number traditionally associated with misfortune, but is also the number up to which Lucifer repeatedly counts throughout the opera cycle. As the percussionists continue playing through this second pause, the flautist performs an "exchange of the senses", reordering the sound plates and adding a twelfth note, in order to transform Lucifer's formula into that of Eve. She then resumes the exercises and continues without further interruption straight through to the end. The exercises are followed by a "Release of the Senses", a gradual exit, a series of eleven "trombone tones" on the flute, and a final scream (Toop 2005, 107–108 and 124–26).
15 October 1983
© Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kürten (www.stockhausen-verlag.com)
