Kontakte is a celebrated electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 work by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

, realized in 1958–60 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...

(WDR) electronic-music studio in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 with the assistance of Gottfried Michael Koenig

Gottfried Michael Koenig

Gottfried Michael Koenig is a contemporary German-Dutch composer.-Biography:Koenig studied church music in Braunschweig, composition, piano, analysis and acoustics in Detmold, music representation techniques in Cologne and computer technique in Bonn. He attended and later lectured at the...

 (Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 109).

Work history

The title of the work “refers both to contacts between instrumental and electronic sound groups and to contacts between self-sufficient, strongly characterized moments. In the case of four-channel loudspeaker reproduction, it also refers to contacts between various forms of spatial movement” (Stockhausen 1964, 105). The composition exists in two forms: (1) for electronic sounds alone, designated "Nr. 12" in the composer's catalog of works, and (2) for electronic sounds, piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, and percussion, designated "Nr. 12½" (Frisius 2008, 132; Heikinheimo 1972, 115; Stockhausen 1964, 104; Stockhausen 1971, 384). A further, theatrical work, Originale (Nr. 12⅔), composed in 1961, incorporates all of the second version of Kontakte (Stockhausen 1964, 107).

Technique and form

According to the composer, “In the preparatory work for my composition Kontakte, I found, for the first time, ways to bring all properties [i.e., timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...

, pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...

, intensity

Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...

, and duration] under a single control” (Stockhausen 1962, 40), thereby realizing a longstanding goal of total serialism. On the other hand, as one commentator says, "Kontakte is arguably the last of Stockhausen's tape pieces in which serial proportions intervene decisively at anything but the broad formal level" (Toop 1981, 189). The most famous moment, at the very center of the work, is a potent illustration of these connections: a high, bright, slowly wavering pitch descends in several waves, becoming louder as it gradually acquires a snarling timbre, and finally passes below the point where it can be heard any longer as a pitch. As it crosses this threshold, it becomes evident that the sound consists of a succession of pulses

Pulse (signal processing)

In signal processing, the term pulse has the following meanings:#A rapid, transient change in the amplitude of a signal from a baseline value to a higher or lower value, followed by a rapid return to the baseline value....

, which continue to slow until they become a steady beat. With increasing reverberation

Reverberation

Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...

, the individual pulses become transformed into tones once again (Clarke 1998, 225).

Stockhausen also made advances over his previous electronic composition, Gesang der Jünglinge

Gesang der Jünglinge

Gesang der Jünglinge is a noted electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was realized in 1955–56 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne and is Work Number 8 in the composer's catalog of works...

, in the realm of spatial composition, adding the parameters of spatial location, group type, register, and speed (Toop 2005, 170). Kontakte is composed in four channels, with loudspeakers

Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

 placed at the corners of a square surrounding the audience. With the aid of a "rotation table", consisting of a rotatable loudspeaker surrounded by four microphones

Microphone

A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...

, he was able to send sounds through and around the auditorium

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

 with unprecedented variety (Maconie 2005, 208–209).

Cited in the text

• Clarke, Michael. 1998. "Extending Contacts: The Concept of Unity in Computer Music". Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 1 (Winter): 221–46.
• Frisius, Rudolf. 2008. Karlheinz Stockhausen II: Die Werke 1950–1977; Gespräch mit Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Es geht aufwärts". Mainz, London, Berlin, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto: Schott Musik International. ISBN 9783795702496
• Heikinheimo, Seppo. 1972. The Electronic Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen: Studies on the Esthetical and Formal Problems of Its First Phase. Translated by Brad Absetz. Acta Musicologica Fennica 6. Helsinki: Suomen Musiikkitieteellinen Seura. * Maconie, Robin. 2005. Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6
• Morawska-Büngeler, Marietta. 1988. Schwingende Elektronen: Eine Dokumentation über das Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln 1951–1986. Cologne-Rodenkirchen: P. J. Tonger Musikverlag.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1962. "The Concept of Unity in Electronic Music (Die Einheit der musikalischen Zeit)". Translated by Elaine Barkin. Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Autumn): 39–48.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1964. Texte 2: Aufsätze 1952–1962 zur musikalischen Praxis, edited and with an afterword by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1971. Texte zur Musik 3: 1963–1970, edited by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg. ISBN 3-7701-0493-5
• Toop, Richard. 2005. Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag.

General references

• Blumröder, Christoph von. 1984. "Serielle Musik um 1960: Stockhausens Kontakte". In Analysen: Beiträge zu einer Problemgeschichte des Komponierens. Festschrift für Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Reinhold Brinkmann, Elmar Budde, and Werner Breig, 423–35. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 23. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3515036628
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963a. “Momentform: Neue Beziehungen zwischen Aufführungsdauer, Werkdauer und Moment”. In his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, pp. 189–210. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1963b. “Erfindung und Entdeckung”, in his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, pp. 222–58. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 2009. Kompositorische Grundlagen Neuer Musik: Sechs Seminare für die Darmstädter Ferienkurse 1970, edited by Imke Misch. Kürten: Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik. ISBN 978-3-00-027313-1
• Toop, Richard. 1981. "Stockhausen's Electronic Works: Sketches and Worksheets from 1952–1967." Interface 10:149-97.

Further reading

• Austin, Kevin. 2010. "Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Four Channels.” eContact! 12.4 — Perspectives on the Electroacoustic Work / Perspectives sur l’œuvre électroacoustique (August). Montréal: CEC
  Canadian Electroacoustic Community
  Founded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
  
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• Blumröder, Christoph von. 1993. “Karlheinz Stockhausen—40 Jahre Elektronische Musik.” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 50, no. 4:309–23.
• Dack, John. 1998. “Strategies in the Analysis of Stockhausen’s Kontakte.” Journal of New Music Research 27, pp. 84–119. ISSN 0929-8215
• Hansen, Finn Egeland. 1990. “Tropering: Et kompositionsprincip.” Festskrift Søren Sørensen: 1920. 29 September 1990, edited by Finn Egeland Hansen, Steen Pade, Christian Thodberg and Arthur Ilfeldt, 185–205. Copenhagen: Fog. ISBN 87-87099-32-2
• Huang, Zhenyu (黄枕宇). 2002. 从两部作品的比较看西方电子音乐早期发展(上)(下) [An Examination of the Early Development of Western Electronic Music through Comparison of two Electronic Compositions]. Zhongyang Yinyue Xueyuan xuebao/Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music 2, no. 87 (Summer): 58–67 and no. 88 (Fall): 58–67.
• Kirchmeyer, Helmut. 1963. “Zur Entstehungs- und Problemgeschichte der Kontakte von Karlheinz Stockhausen.” Liner notes for Stockhausen, Kontakte, David Tudor (piano and percussion) and Christoph Caskel (percussion). Wergo-Studienreihe für Neue Musik LP, WER 60 009. Reprinted in Neuland Jahrbuch 3 (1982–83): 52–176.
• Kramer, Jonathan. 1978. “Moment Form in Twentieth Century Music.” The Musical Quarterly 64, no. 2 (April): 177–94.
• Mackay, Duncan Maclean. 1983. “Concepts of Dualism in the Works of Stockhausen.” M.M. thesis. University of East Anglia.
• Marvin, Elizabeth West. 1995. “Generalization of Contour Theory to Diverse Musical Spaces: Analytical Applications to the Music of Dallapiccola and Stockhausen.” Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, edited by Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann, 135–71. Eastman Studies in Music 2. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 1-878822-42-X
• Mowitz, Michael. 2002. Die Form der Unendlichkeit: Aspekte der Momentform und der seriellen Struktur in Karlheinz Stockhausens Kontakte. Essen: Die Blaue Eule. ISBN 978-3-89924-000-9
• Pécquet, Franck. 1998. “Espace et représentation sonore.” In L’espace: Musique/philosophie: Paris, 1997, edited by Jean-Marc Chouvel and Makīs Solōmos, 187–94. Musique et musicologie: Les dialogues. Paris: L’Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-6593-5
• Schatt, Peter W. 1988. “Tendenzen des Materials in Stockhausens Kontakten”. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 45, no. 3:206–23.
• Skowron, Zbigniew. 1982. “Muzyka elektroniczna Karlheinza Stockhausena. II: Utwory z lat 1955–67” [Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Electronic Music II: Works from 1955–67]. Muzyka: Kwartalnik Poświęcony Historii i Teorii Muzyki 27, nos. 1–2:11–36.