Arts Institute

This paper explores some characteristics of Japanese gagaku music, and how K. Stockhausen incorporated its idiomatic elements in his own compositional style for the writing of DER JAHRESLAUF, creating a unique sonic hybrid. We will analyse the soprano saxophone and piccolo flute parts of the first section (measures 1 through 113), focusing on the insertions of yuri vocal technique, peculiar to traditional Japanese music.

Este artigo lança um olhar sobre a influência do pensamento musical oriental (em especial o nipônico) sobre Karlheinz Stockhausen, com foco especial nas diferentes concepções do tempo e sua natureza, manifestos a partir de seu efeito sobre o timbre. Subdividindo a obra do compositor alemão em duas fases, cujo elemento de articulação é a influência da música oriental, observamos certos elementos presentes nas obras compostas entre 1966 e 1977, relacionando-as com elementos teóricos, estéticos e materiais da cultura tradicional japonesa.

​This article observes the influence of Eastern and Japanese musical thought on Karlheinz Stockhausen's oeuvre, with special attention to the concept and the nature of time as manifest on their effect on timbre. Subdividing the work of the German composer in two phases articulated by the influence of Japanese music in compositions written between 1966 and 1977, which present theoretical, aesthetic, and material elements from the traditional Nipponic culture.

​ This paper explores some characteristics of Japanese ​ gagaku music, and discusses how Karlheinz Stockhausen incorporated its idiomatic elements to his own compositional style in the writing of ​ DER JAHRESLAUF ​ , creating a unique sonic hybrid. It is followed by an analysis of the first section (measures 1 through 113) with focus on the soprano saxophone and piccolo flute parts, discussing the uses of ​ yuri, ​ a vocal technique peculiar to traditional Japanese music.

Electroacoustic music, emerging in the end of the 1940’s, promoted a substantial change in the act of listening in concert situations regarding the break of causality in instrumental gesture. In mixed electroacoustic music, where instruments and loudspeakers coexist, this situation deepens with a constant illusory interplay between what is seen and what is heard in the performance. The present article approaches mixed electroacoustic pieces in which the visual conception of the space of performance is part of the compositional plan, participating actively in its formal outcome. In these cases, sounds and images set off a complex link with the listener, from direct relationships – what is seen in gestural terms is coherent with what is heard – to illusory, twisted relationships – what is seen does not bear immediate connection with what is heard. Human gesture, admitting tasks other than the strict musical execution, widens or even adheres to a piece’s underlying structure, playing an important part in its formal perception. Previously conceiving visual dispositions in mixed electroacoustic composition may intensify the anamorphosis – distortions, illusions – present in the states of fusion and contrast between instrumental and electronic dimensions. Three examples considered emblematic shall be observed: Trans (1971), by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Parcours de l’Entité (1994), by Flo Menezes and Outis (1996), by Luciano Berio.