Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in ... - Aaaaarg

THREE PIONEERS 129
eventually becomes a pitch. A recording of a symphony, if speeded up enough,
eventually becomes a blip
Splitting of the sound. This term refers to the ways in which the smaller
elements of a synthetically produced sound can be manipulated independently.
This is literally a way of composing the sounds themselves. For example, think of
a sound consisting of six sine waves played at the same time but being generated
by different oscillators. The unification of the separate sounds has a given
character. One can change any of the individual tones independently of the
others, however, to hear the sound “gradually revealing itself to be made up of a
number of components which one by one, very slowly leave the original
frequency and glissando up and down.” The theme or aspiration behind some
electronic works, including Stockhausen’s own Kontakte (1959–60) and parts of
Hymnen (1966–67), is this very idea of “composing the sound.” Such music may
lack melody, rhythm, and every other normally regulated dynamic in exchange
for a unifying motif that explores the composition and decomposition of sound
itself.
Multi-layered spatial composition. Stockhausen ranks the spatial projection
of electronic music as one of its most endearing attributes. By this he means the
control of amplitude and the placement of sounds (using loudspeakers) in the
listening hall. So important to him is this element of his work that he usually
stations himself in the middle section of an auditorium—having several seats
removed if necessary—so that he can have a good vantage point from which to
control the mixing, volume control, and spatial projection of music coming from
the loudspeakers. He imparts on the placement of sound in space the same
importance as any other “composed” element of the music. One technique of his
is to juxtapose two sounds of different amplitudes. The louder one masks the
quieter one, but when the louder one dissipates, the quieter one is revealed. This
occurs in Kontakte about twenty-four minutes into the work.
Equality of tone and noise. On the surface, this idea is reminiscent of Cage.
However, Stockhausen’s definition of noise is far from Cage’s. Stockhausen
attributes electronic music with providing the means to control the continuum
between tone and noise. While he claims on one hand that “any noise is musical
material,” on the other he says that “you cannot just use any tone in any interval
relationship.” Considered from the standpoint of electronic music composition, he
prefers the construction of noise—controlled sounds—over letting all natural
sounds just be themselves. 45
Around the time that Stockhausen was formulating these criteria for electronic
music, the nature of his work began to change dramatically. After completing the
two electronic Studien, he returned to instrumental writing for about a year,
completing several atonal works for piano and woodwinds, as well as the
ambitious orchestral work Gruppen. Gruppen, written for three complete
orchestral groups, each with its own conductor, marked Stockhausen’s first
major experiment with the spatial deployment of sound. He positioned the
separate orchestras at three posts around the audience so that their sounds were