Uploaded February 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Stimmung, for six vocalists and six microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale Köln. Its average length is seventy-four minutes, and it bears the work number 24 in the composer's catalog. It is a tonal, and yet also a serial composition (Toop 2005, 39; Stuppner 1974).
The German word Stimmung [ˈʃtɪmʊŋ] has several meanings, including "tuning" and "mood". The word is the noun formed from the verb stimmen, which means "to harmonize, to be correct", and related to Stimme (voice).
Stimmung is in just intonation. Six singers amplified by six microphones tune to a low B♭1 drone, inaudible to the audience, and expand upwards through overtone singing, with that low B♭'s harmonics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 (B♭2, F+2, B♭3, D4, A7♭+4, and C+5) becoming in turn fundamentals for overtone singing. It is composed using what the composer calls moment form, and consists of 51 sections (called "moments").
Stockhausen himself attributes a month spent walking among ruins in Mexico as his primary influence, Stimmung recreating that 'magic' space. On the other hand, he also describes the snow on frozen Long Island Sound in February and March 1968 (when he was composing Stimmung in Madison, Connecticut), as "the only landscape I really saw during the composition of the piece" (Cott 1974, 163). In a letter to Gregory Rose written on 24 July 1982 (printed in the liner notes to Hyperion CDA66115), he describes how, in the small house his wife Mary had rented it was only possible for him to work at night because their two small children needed quiet during the day. He could not sing aloud, as he had done initially, but began to hum quietly, listening to the overtone melodies. Mary reports that Stockhausen first discovered the technique when listening to their small son Simon producing multiple tones while humming in his crib after falling asleep. In this way, Stockhausen became "the first Western composer to use this technique of singing again—in the Middle Ages it had been practised by women and children in churches, but was later entirely supplanted by masculine Gregorian music" (Bauermeister 2011, 217–18).
Commissioned by the city of Köln for the 'Collegium Vocale' Köln, an ensemble at the Rheinische Musikschule (Rhenish Conservatory). Composed during February and March 1968 in Madison, Connecticut (US). Dedicated to Mary Bauermeister. Recorded at Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, October 30th & 31st 1969.
Baritone Vocals – Georg Steinhoff
Bass Vocals – Hans-Alderich Billig
Composed By, Directed By, Liner Notes – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Design – Holger Matthies Ensemble – Collegium Vocale Köln Liner Notes [Translated By] – Richard Toop
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Helga Albrecht
Soprano Vocals – Dagmar Apel, Gaby Rodens
Tenor Vocals, Directed By – Wolfgang Fromme
Words By [Magic Names Collated By] – Nancy Wyle
© Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kürten (www.stockhausen-verlag.com)
Stimmung, for six vocalists and six microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale Köln. Its average length is seventy-four minutes, and it bears the work number 24 in the composer's catalog. It is a tonal, and yet also a serial composition (Toop 2005, 39; Stuppner 1974).
The German word Stimmung [ˈʃtɪmʊŋ] has several meanings, including "tuning" and "mood". The word is the noun formed from the verb stimmen, which means "to harmonize, to be correct", and related to Stimme (voice).
Stimmung is in just intonation. Six singers amplified by six microphones tune to a low B♭1 drone, inaudible to the audience, and expand upwards through overtone singing, with that low B♭'s harmonics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 (B♭2, F+2, B♭3, D4, A7♭+4, and C+5) becoming in turn fundamentals for overtone singing. It is composed using what the composer calls moment form, and consists of 51 sections (called "moments").
Stockhausen himself attributes a month spent walking among ruins in Mexico as his primary influence, Stimmung recreating that 'magic' space. On the other hand, he also describes the snow on frozen Long Island Sound in February and March 1968 (when he was composing Stimmung in Madison, Connecticut), as "the only landscape I really saw during the composition of the piece" (Cott 1974, 163). In a letter to Gregory Rose written on 24 July 1982 (printed in the liner notes to Hyperion CDA66115), he describes how, in the small house his wife Mary had rented it was only possible for him to work at night because their two small children needed quiet during the day. He could not sing aloud, as he had done initially, but began to hum quietly, listening to the overtone melodies. Mary reports that Stockhausen first discovered the technique when listening to their small son Simon producing multiple tones while humming in his crib after falling asleep. In this way, Stockhausen became "the first Western composer to use this technique of singing again—in the Middle Ages it had been practised by women and children in churches, but was later entirely supplanted by masculine Gregorian music" (Bauermeister 2011, 217–18).
Commissioned by the city of Köln for the 'Collegium Vocale' Köln, an ensemble at the Rheinische Musikschule (Rhenish Conservatory). Composed during February and March 1968 in Madison, Connecticut (US). Dedicated to Mary Bauermeister. Recorded at Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, October 30th & 31st 1969.
Baritone Vocals – Georg Steinhoff
Bass Vocals – Hans-Alderich Billig
Composed By, Directed By, Liner Notes – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Design – Holger Matthies Ensemble – Collegium Vocale Köln Liner Notes [Translated By] – Richard Toop
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Helga Albrecht
Soprano Vocals – Dagmar Apel, Gaby Rodens
Tenor Vocals, Directed By – Wolfgang Fromme
Words By [Magic Names Collated By] – Nancy Wyle
© Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kürten (www.stockhausen-verlag.com)
