Stockhausen* - Singcircle, Gregory Rose ‎– Stimmung

Recorded in the University of East Anglia, Norwich, on January 27th-28th 1983.

Stimmung was commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale, a vocal ensemble at the Rheinische Musikschule. It was composed during the winter months of February and March 1968 in Madison, Connecticut and is dedicated to the painter Mary Bauermeister. It was the first major Western composition to be based entirely on the production of vocal harmonies.

The piece is divided into 51 sections, each section introducing a new overtone melody repeated several times. Each female voice leads a new section eight times, each male voice nine times. Some of the other singers gradually have to transform their own material until they have come into identity with the lead singer of the section. When the leader of the section feels that identity is reached, he or she makes a gesture to the singer who will lead the next section, and so on.

In 29 out of the 51 sections, random "magic names" are called out. They are names of gods and goddesses from many cultures. Many different versions of the work can result from the choice of the order of each lead singer and the names they call out. The first version of Stimmung, made by the Collegium Vocale, is for instance known as the "Paris version". The version presented here by the "Singcircle" has evolved since 1977, not only over the many months of rehearsal prior to its initial performance at the Round House in London on November 21st, 1977, but also after consultations between Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gregory Rose and Simon Emmerson in April 1978.