Gruppen (1955-7)
Serialism is a thorny issue, and one which has a reputation for producing academically-interesting, listener-unfriendly works, that are the preserve of a niche of concert-goers. But serialism comes in many forms. For Stockhausen, it is simply a way of thinking: ‘Serialism is the only way of balancing different forces. In general it means simply that you have any number of degrees between two extremes that are defined at the beginning of a work, and you establish a scale to mediate between these two extremes. Serialism is just a way of thinking.’ Stockhausen’s interest in serialist techniques was first piqued when he spent a year studying with Messiaen in 1952. Messiaen had just published Mode de valeurs et d’intensités (1950), in which every element – that is, pitch, dynamics, duration and timbre – is organised according to a predetermined numerical series. The idea struck a chord with Stockhausen and inspired his early serial work Kreuzspiel (1951), which applies similar processes to all parameters in the score. In 1955, while Stockhausen was still working on his seminal electronic work Gesang der Jünglinge, he received a commission from the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) for a new orchestral composition. By the time he was able to begin work on the new commission, a new idea had formed in his mind: why not add space to the list of ordered parameters? Stockhausen began work on Gruppen during a stay in the Swiss Alps during the summer of 1955. Looking out the window at the imposing Graubünder mountains, the idea of incorporating ‘space’ into the music began to take on a new meaning, as Stockhausen later related:
‘Whole envelopes of rhythmic blocks are exact lines of mountains that I saw in Paspels in Switzerland right in front of my little window. Many of the time spectra, which are represented by superimpositions of different rhythmic layers – of different speeds in each layer – their envelope which describes the increase and decrease of the number of layers, their shape, so to speak, the shape of the time field, are the curves of the mountain’s contour which I saw when I looked out the window.’ Monumental in its conception and just as arresting in performance, Gruppen is scored for three separate orchestras, each with their own conductor, who are arranged in a horseshoe shape that surrounds the audience. In so doing, the listener becomes immersed in the music – instead of being performed at, the listener is now at the very centre of the orchestral fabric. This spatial differentiation also allows Stockhausen to manipulate the delivery of the overall sound. With the composition of his five-channel electronic work Gesang der Jünglinge still in the back of his mind, Stockhausen hoped to create an orchestral work that would mimic the stereo sound of electronic practice. So a particular chord or rhythm may pan from one ‘channel’ to another, and as one orchestra proceeds at a different tempo from the next, the listener is able to discern, as though listening through multiple speakers, the individual lines and timbres of each component. As the music ebbs and flows, Stockhausen’s kaleidoscopic colours and shifting textures evoke the rise and fall of the Alpine landscape which inspired them. As a result, the overall impression is not one of strict serialism at all (and there is