Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
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Prozession (Procession), for tamtam, viola, electronium, piano, microphones, filters, and potentiometers (six performers), is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1967. It is Number 23 in the catalogue of the composer’s works.
Christoph Caskel, Joachim Krist, Péter Eötvös, Harald Bojé, Aloys Kontarsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Conception
Prozession is one of a series of works dating from the 1960s which Stockhausen designated as "process" compositions. These works in effect separate the "form" from the "content" by presenting the performers with a series of transformation signs which are to be applied to material that may vary considerably from one performance to the next. In Prozession, the performers choose material from specific earlier compositions by Stockhausen. In the subsequent companion works, Kurzwellen for six performers, Spiral for a soloist, Pole for two, and Expo for three, this material is to be drawn spontaneously during the performance from short-wave radio broadcasts (Kohl 1981, 192–93). The processes, indicated primarily by plus, minus, and equal signs, constitute the composition and, despite the unpredictability of the materials, these processes can be heard from one performance to another as being "the same" (Kohl 2010, 137).
History
Prozession was begun during a train journey to Basel in May 1967 (Gehlhaar 1998, 53) and was written for and dedicated to the ensemble with which Stockhausen was regularly touring at that time: Alfred Alings and Rolf Gehlhaar (tamtam with hand-held microphone), Johannes Fritsch (viola), Harald Bojé (electronium), and Aloys Kontarsky (piano). Two performers are required for the tamtam: The world premiere was given by this ensemble in Helsinki on 21 May 1967, with subsequent performances in Stockholm, Oslo, at the Bergen Festival, in Copenhagen, London, and finally on 26 August 1967 at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Three performances were recorded in Darmstadt a few days later, and one was chosen for release on disc (Stockhausen 1971, 102–103). Earlier recordings had been made for radio broadcast, during rehearsals at the WDR in Cologne, on 9 and 10 May 1967 (Gehlhaar 1998, 55). In addition to recordings, over the scourse of three years this same ensemble performed Prozession approximately twenty-eight times (Gehlhaar 1998, 62).
Structure and technique
Prozession consists of a sequence of 250 events in each of the four parts. There is no written score. Stockhausen explained that in pieces like this, "the first step is always that of imitating something and the next step is that of transforming what you're able to imitate" (Cott 1973, 33). The tamtam players choose material from Mikrophonie I, the viola from Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte, and Momente, the electronium from Telemusik, and the piano from the Klavierstücke I–XI and Kontakte (Stockhausen 1971, 103).
Each plus, minus, or equal sign indicates that, upon repetition of an event, the performer is to increase, decrease, or maintain the same level in one of four musical dimensions (or "parameters"): overall duration of the event, number of internal subdivisions, dynamic level, or pitch register/range. It is up to the performer to decide which of these dimensions is to be affected, except that vertically stacked signs must be applied to different parameters (Stockhausen 1973, 1, 11, 21). Despite this indeterminacy, a large number of plus signs (for example) will result in successive events becoming longer, more finely subdivided, louder, and either higher or wider in range; a large number of minus signs will produce the reverse effect (Kohl 2010, 137). In this way, a continuing process of changes is controlled, and the work's title is taken from this concept at its core: German Prozeß = "process", Prozess-ion (Stockhausen 1971, 106), though of course it also means "procession" in the sense of a ceremonial parade or enfilade (Gehlhaar 1998, 55).
Video created with Sonic Visualizer, vokoscreen and OpenShot on a Debian 10 Buster KDE Linux System.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARTIST. You can order this music on stockhausencds.com/. Thank you!
Prozession (Procession), for tamtam, viola, electronium, piano, microphones, filters, and potentiometers (six performers), is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1967. It is Number 23 in the catalogue of the composer’s works.
Christoph Caskel, Joachim Krist, Péter Eötvös, Harald Bojé, Aloys Kontarsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Conception
Prozession is one of a series of works dating from the 1960s which Stockhausen designated as "process" compositions. These works in effect separate the "form" from the "content" by presenting the performers with a series of transformation signs which are to be applied to material that may vary considerably from one performance to the next. In Prozession, the performers choose material from specific earlier compositions by Stockhausen. In the subsequent companion works, Kurzwellen for six performers, Spiral for a soloist, Pole for two, and Expo for three, this material is to be drawn spontaneously during the performance from short-wave radio broadcasts (Kohl 1981, 192–93). The processes, indicated primarily by plus, minus, and equal signs, constitute the composition and, despite the unpredictability of the materials, these processes can be heard from one performance to another as being "the same" (Kohl 2010, 137).
History
Prozession was begun during a train journey to Basel in May 1967 (Gehlhaar 1998, 53) and was written for and dedicated to the ensemble with which Stockhausen was regularly touring at that time: Alfred Alings and Rolf Gehlhaar (tamtam with hand-held microphone), Johannes Fritsch (viola), Harald Bojé (electronium), and Aloys Kontarsky (piano). Two performers are required for the tamtam: The world premiere was given by this ensemble in Helsinki on 21 May 1967, with subsequent performances in Stockholm, Oslo, at the Bergen Festival, in Copenhagen, London, and finally on 26 August 1967 at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Three performances were recorded in Darmstadt a few days later, and one was chosen for release on disc (Stockhausen 1971, 102–103). Earlier recordings had been made for radio broadcast, during rehearsals at the WDR in Cologne, on 9 and 10 May 1967 (Gehlhaar 1998, 55). In addition to recordings, over the scourse of three years this same ensemble performed Prozession approximately twenty-eight times (Gehlhaar 1998, 62).
Structure and technique
Prozession consists of a sequence of 250 events in each of the four parts. There is no written score. Stockhausen explained that in pieces like this, "the first step is always that of imitating something and the next step is that of transforming what you're able to imitate" (Cott 1973, 33). The tamtam players choose material from Mikrophonie I, the viola from Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte, and Momente, the electronium from Telemusik, and the piano from the Klavierstücke I–XI and Kontakte (Stockhausen 1971, 103).
Each plus, minus, or equal sign indicates that, upon repetition of an event, the performer is to increase, decrease, or maintain the same level in one of four musical dimensions (or "parameters"): overall duration of the event, number of internal subdivisions, dynamic level, or pitch register/range. It is up to the performer to decide which of these dimensions is to be affected, except that vertically stacked signs must be applied to different parameters (Stockhausen 1973, 1, 11, 21). Despite this indeterminacy, a large number of plus signs (for example) will result in successive events becoming longer, more finely subdivided, louder, and either higher or wider in range; a large number of minus signs will produce the reverse effect (Kohl 2010, 137). In this way, a continuing process of changes is controlled, and the work's title is taken from this concept at its core: German Prozeß = "process", Prozess-ion (Stockhausen 1971, 106), though of course it also means "procession" in the sense of a ceremonial parade or enfilade (Gehlhaar 1998, 55).
Video created with Sonic Visualizer, vokoscreen and OpenShot on a Debian 10 Buster KDE Linux System.
![Karlheinz Stockhausen - HYMNEN Dritte Region (Elektronische Musik mit Orchester) [1969]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qHVgAQR72qM/mqdefault.jpg "Karlheinz Stockhausen - HYMNEN Dritte Region (Elektronische Musik mit Orchester) [1969]
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HYMNEN (Dritte Region) / Anthems (Third Region)
Elektronische und Konkrete Musik mit Orchester
Electronic and Concrete Music with Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein commissioned a work from Stockhausen for the New York Philharmonic, and HYMNEN 3rd Region with Orchestra was premiered in 1971 at the longest-ever concert ever held there at that time. This performance featured Stockhausens live soloists accompanying the HYMNEN tape for Regions I, II and IV, while Region III was performed with the orchestra from Stockhausens newly completed work.
An independent version of this work (without a performance of the full 2- hour HYMNEN tape) covers only the anthem Centers of Africa, Russia, the USA and Spain. Also, this version of the tape starts with a small, unique shortwave radio upbeat, before proceeding into the 2nd Regions Africa section (CD A, track 21, 20:28). After the fade out of Region II, an orchestra-only section (a newly composed Russian Bridge) is performed by the orchestra, which basically covers for the tape as it it switched to the next reel. After the Bridge, the 3rd Region tape enters and the orchestra accompanies this to the end of that Region (Spain).
The orchestra parts to be played during the tape portions were originally scored using symbolic, aleatoric notation somewhat similar in spirit to the score for STOP or PROZESSION. The orchestra musicians were to become familiar enough with the tape so that they could freely choose pitches heard in the tape part, and use them in tremolo and ostinato figures as cued in the score. The score also indicated graphic shapes (slopes and wavy lines) to guide pitch transpositions of these tremoli/ostinati. Though the actual pitch material is aleatory, the symbolic notation basically serves as an orchestration of elements in the tape.
However, because there were never enough rehearsals for the orchestra musicians to become familiar enough with the tape to pick out and play tape pitches in rhythmic unison (attacking with the tape attacks), Stockhausen eventually notated the pitches in the published score which, for the most part, the orchestra musicians simply play. This notated version also has some extra anthemic melodic material not present on the tape. In other words, some new anthem fragments (or echoes of other anthems) are played live by the orchestra (for example 2nd bar of cue 11 or 2nd bar of cue 14). This orchestral accompaniment to the HYMNEN tape is actually very involved and is perhaps comparable to the notated piano and percussion parts to the live accompaniment version of KONTAKTE.
Video created with Sonic Visualizer and vokoscreen on an openSUSE 13.2 Linux System.")
![François Bayle - Toupie Dans Le Ciel (New Version 2009) [1979-1980]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tyCfJbJ8ZSI/mqdefault.jpg "François Bayle - Toupie Dans Le Ciel (New Version 2009) [1979-1980]
00:00 Eros Noir 1
01:16 Part 1
07:58 Part 2
13:21 Part 3
21:13 Eros Noir 1
The substance of this extraordinary piece of music was developed from the actual sound of a spinning top, a melodic rhythmic pattern, and simple electronic fluxes. There is an inversion of traditional modes of musical composition. While the high-pitches and the rhythmic swing remain imperturbably constant which means it can be heard as minimalist variations (stressing, de-synchronisation, variations in density and mobility, etc.) create constant movement, turning the sound material into something virtually living, constantly reaffirming itself, always the same yet renewed. Out attention is caught in a sound nest, defined in the bass by a rolling pedal, and in the treble by uninterrupted cooing, voluble an iridescent, that continuously swells and falls off. But if this music is a lullaby, it is the lullaby of the tiger! This protection conceals ferocity and threat all the more powerful because it does not show itself in the light of day. It is only interrupted by big sounds of rubbing rolling arc, passing slowly, and sometime triggering electric outbursts rising in zigzags. During these sound rifts (which the author calls skies), the inexorable comes to an end and suddenly freedom and lightness surges forth. (Bayle)
Video created with Sonic Visualizer, Vokoscreen, Kdenlive and Audacity on an OpenSUSE 12.3 Linux System.")
