Stockhausen Composition Contest

Stephen Truelove: Stephen Truelove teaches piano and composition at Southern Oregon University, and is active as a composer, teacher, and pianist. His compositions include scores for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and orchestra; music for ballet and film; electronic and computer music; improvisational scores and tape recordings of improvisations; and a mixed media chamber opera, 'Flowers and Butterflies'. His article regarding "Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstuck XI: An Analysis of its Composition via a Matrix System of Serial Polyphony and the Translation of Rhythm into Pitch" was published in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 36, #1.

About the Contest

Professor Stockhausen has developed an approach to creating music which he calls "formula composition". For this contest at ACIDplanet, he has provided Sagittarius from his Tierkreis (Zodiac) as the formula, along with 12 sound samples and instructions. Following his instructions, excerpts from the sound samples are to be transposed onto the pitches of the formula after it has been stretched in time by a factor of eight. Inside the time span of this stretched version of the formula, various other versions of the formula can be juxtaposed and superimposed.

About Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen is widely regarded as the father of modern electronic music. Born in 1928, he started composing at the age of 20. While at the Cologne Musikhochschule he heard Messiaen's Mode de valeurs. This inspired him to incorporate serial processes in his music. Thereafter, he moved to Paris to study with Messiaen, and began composing electronic music as well as working the soundboard for Edgar Varese and collaborating with Pierre Boulez.

In 1956 Professor Stockhausen composed Gesang der Junglinge for vocals and synthesized sounds on tape, a touchstone in electronica. In his composing, he concerned himself with abstract processes, and ways to create things out of the ordinary. He began to look at sound as a substance, and started to manipulate it accordingly. He produced a wealth of electronic works, such as Mikrophonie I (1964), Prozession (1967), Kurzwellen (1968), and Aus den Sieben Tagen (1968). In Mantra (1970), Professor Stockhausen composed for two pianos and electronics. While a seeming return to conventional form, his style remained heterophonic.

Professor Stockhausen's works and techniques have always been groundbreaking. A true iconoclast, his compositional technique has astounded and befuddled his contemporaries, as he moved from conventional to serial to formula and beyond. He has influenced every twentieth-century composer. Love him or hate him, his ideas cannot be ignored. They must either be acted upon or reacted against.

The list of artists influenced by Professor Stockhausen reads like a "Who's Who" of modern music. Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt of Can studied under him. Ralf Huetter of Kraftwerk cites him as an influence, as do Orbital, William Orbit, Talvin Singh, Bjork, BT, and Aphex Twin. His ideas have helped shape the music of The Beatles, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Frou Frou, and the Grateful Dead. In fact, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and members of the Mothers of Invention all studied under him in 1967 at the University of California at Davis.

John Lennon modeled "Revolution #9" after Professor Stockhausen's Hymnen. Lennon was so influenced by Stockhausen that he included him in on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

True to form, Professor Stockhausen is not one to give into trends. "I like to tell musicians that they should learn from works which have already gone through a lot of temptations," he says, "and have refused to give in to these stylistic or to the fashionable temptations…"

Contrary to electronica form today, he dislikes repetition. Music is bigger than that. "The same laws which ruled the inner life of atoms and galaxies apply to music," he writes. Much of modern electronica relies on repetition to create a trance-like, otherworldly response in the listener. Professor Stockhausen seeks to do the same, but rather than induce this response with an inward-focused, minimalist mantra, he molds the universe of sound to take listeners to entirely new dimensions. Mind blowing stuff, this.

Karlheinz Stockhausen continues to amaze the musical world. Slated for completion in 2003 is his seven part opera Licht. Begun in 1977, this monumental work, named after days of the week, is the story of three characters that personify Stockhausen's concepts of creativity. His recent "Helicopter String Quartet" from Mittwoch aus Licht (1998) captured headlines worldwide.

We cannot provide more than a brief overview of Professor Stockhausen's catalog and impact on modern music. For a more detailed introduction, visit the Stockhausen website at www.stockhausen.org.

Sonic Foundry and ACIDplanet are honored to work with this musical pioneer, and respectfully offer the following Stockhausen music creation event.

To see the instructions in the original form, as they were submitted by Professor Stockhausen, click here. The following instructions were developed through dialog with Professor Stockhausen, and go into greater detail.

1. The formula consists of the piece "Sagittarius." (Click here to see the formula.) Its duration is 25.4 seconds at a tempo of quarter note = 85 beats per minute. Stretch the formula 8 times in duration by multiplying the duration of each note by a factor of 8. This will result in a stretched version of the formula that lasts for approximately 3 1/2 minutes.



2. Freely choose any number of excerpts from among the provided sound samples.


Note: Some sections of the samples contain recognizable pitch, while other sections do not. If any of your chosen excerpts do not contain a recognizable pitch, you may blend into them an electronic sound with recognizable pitch.


3. Apply your excerpts to the pitches in the stretched formula. You may devise your own method for doing this. Some possibilities are listed below.



• You could emphasize various groups of pitches (melodic groups, etc.) by using a certain excerpt for the entire group. To do this, transpose the same excerpt to each of the pitches in the group.



• Another approach would be to cycle through your excerpts in a specific order, transposing the first excerpt to the pitch of the first note of the formula, the second excerpt to the second pitch, and so on. For example, if you choose seventeen excerpts, the timbres of the notes in the formula will repeat in a cycle every seventeenth note. If you only choose one excerpt, the same excerpt would be used for every pitch in the formula. The following picture illustrates a way to number the pitches in the formula.






4. Each transposed excerpt should have a very consciously shaped envelope, and the reverberation should be varied. Use many different envelope shapes such as the following:




Care should be taken with the envelopes and reverberation so as not to obscure the melody.


5. Use 12 degrees of volume for the excerpts (i.e., 48dB, 52 dB, 56dB, 60dB, 64dB, 68dB, 72dB, 76dB, 80dB, 84dB, 88dB, 92dB), but in any order desired. It is not necessary to treat the 12 degrees of volume as rigorously as the pitches in the formula, but it is interesting to treat the dynamics in a lively way.



6. You now have a stretched version of the formula, created by stretching the formula by a factor of eight and constructed out of your transposed excerpts. This stretched version forms the basis of your composition. Within its 3 1/2 minute duration, you may present various other versions of the formula. You may create these other versions by using any or all of the following operations, either alone or in conjunction with one another:



1. Transpose the formula up or down in pitch.


2. Use the formula in retrograde and/or inverted form.


3. Apply pitch transformations that stretch or compress the intervallic content of the formula.


4. Change the duration of the formula (compress or stretch it in time).


5. Use ritardani and accelerandi to gradually speed up or slow down the tempo.


6. Use fragments of the formula.


You may juxtapose and/or superimpose these other versions in any combination. The picture below gives an example of how these various versions of the formula might be presented.



Note: Among all of the various versions of the formula that you present, the formula should be used at least once in its original form (with the pitches and durations as notated in the formula).


7. No sounds or samples may be used in the piece other than the sound samples provided. The only exception that is an electronic sound may be blended into an excerpt for the purpose of giving the excerpt a recognizable pitch, as described above.

In the instructions above, you are given considerable freedom in making your choices (the choice of specific excerpts, the number of excerpts, how to apply the excerpts to the formula, etc.). Thus, there are many possible ways to create a composition from these instructions. In this section we present an ACID project file that demonstrates one approach to creating an entry, with instructions that relate specifically to ACID. (Some familiarlity with ACID is assumed.)

Sample ACID project files:  Original Formula  | Formula Strectched x 8

In the sample ACID project files offered above, each note in the "Sagittarius" formula is represented as an event in ACID. An event in ACID is an instance of a media file on a track.
Tracks: All of the events were placed on eight tracks so that the sample projects would be compatible with ACID XPress, the free 10-track demo version of ACID. Track 1 represents the uppermost melodic line, with tracks 2, 3 and 4 filling in any additional notes on the upper staff as necessary. Tracks 5 through 8 represent the lower staff of the music, with track 8 representing the lowest notes.

Transpositions: The various pitches of the notes in the formula are created by transposing the individual events in ACID. For each track, the first event is considered the reference, and is not transposed. The events that follow are then transposed relative to the first event. For example, the first event on Track 1 (D-flat 7) is not transposed. The second event is the same pitch as the first, so it also is not transposed. The third event (C 7) is transposed down one halfstep, since its pitch is one halfstep lower than the first event. As a reference, the tracks in the ACID projects were given names that show the pitch of the first note in the track. For example, the name of Track 1 is "Transpose to D-flat 7".

Durations: The duration of each note in the formula is represented by the length of the corresponding event on the ACID timeline. The Original Formula project uses the durations of the notes exactly as they appear in the formula. The Formula Stretched X 8 project has all of the durations stretched by a factor of 8. For example, a quarter note in the formula lasts for two measures of 4/4 time in the stretched ACID project.

ACID owners: If you are using a full version of ACID rather than ACID XPress, there is no limit on the number of tracks you can use. You can easily break a single track in one of the sample projects into multiple tracks by duplicating it and erasing any unwanted portions. Doing this would allow you, for example, to have the upper melody notes for each measure on a separate track.

1. Open the FormulaStretchedX8.acd file in ACID. The tracks in this file all contain an empty .wav file that serves as a placeholder for your excerpts. To use this ACID file, you must prepare an excerpt for each track from the samples provided by Professor Stockhausen, and then replace the placeholder files with your prepared excerpts.



2. To prepare an excerpt for track 1, first choose an excerpt from among the samples.


Note: When the formula is stretched by a factor of eight, some of the note durations become quite long. For example, the half note in the upper staff in measure 1 lasts for 11.3 seconds in the stretched version. Therefore, make sure that you choose excerpts that are fairly long.


3. Next, transpose the excerpt to the pitch D-flat 7, or, if there is no pitch in the excerpt, blend into the excerpt an electronic sound with a pitch of D-flat 7.


Note: To view a table of frequencies for musical pitches, click here. Also, the Pitch Shift effect and the Synthesis and Spectrum Analysis tools in Sound Forge 6.0 can be used for transposing and/or blending pitches into the excerpts.


4. Place the pitched excerpt into the same directory as the ACID project file.



5. Right click on the icon for track 1 and select Properties. The Track Properties tab displays.



6. Click Replace, browse to your pitched excerpt, and click Open. This replaces the placeholder file that is currently in track 1 with your pitched excerpt, and your excerpt will play for all of the events on track 1.


Note: All of the events in track 1 are transposed relative to the first event. Therefore, as long as your excerpt is pitched at D-flat 7, then the rest of the events in track 1 will be transposed to the correct pitches.

Note: The pitches in track 1 range from as low as D-flat 6 and as high as E-flat 7. You may prefer to pitch your excerpt more in the center of this range, such as A 6. If you do so, then after bringing your excerpt into track 1 of the ACID project, go to the the Track Properties window and enter a value of 4 into the Pitch Shift box. This will transpose the entire track up by four halfsteps, and all of the events will be transposed to the correct pitches in the formula.


7. Repeat the steps above for the remaining tracks, using the Replace feature to bring a properly pitched excerpt into each track. Remember that the name of each track in the ACID project tells you the pitch of the first note in that track. Your excerpt should be at that same pitch. If not, the entire track can be transposed.



8. When you have placed an excerpt in each of the eight tracks, make any necessary adjustments to the track volumes. If you are using the full version of ACID, you can also add volume envelopes, pan envelopes or effects.



9. From the File menu, choose Render As, and render the project as a .mp3 or .wav file. Once the rendering process is complete, you will have a single file containing an 8 x stretched version of the formula created entirely from excerpts of the samples. This will serve as the basis of your final composition.

Professor Stockhausen's instructions say that along with the 8 x stretched version of the formula, various other versions of the formula can be presented, and that the formula in its original form should be used at least once. This original version of the formula can be created using the "Original Formula" ACID file.

Open the "Original Formula" project file in ACID. Whereas all of the events in the ACID file in the preceeding section had durations that were stretched in time by a factor of eight, the pitches and durations in this file are exactly the same as they appear in the formula. To use this ACID file, follow the same procedure outlined above by preparing an excerpt at the correct pitch for each track, and then replacing the placeholder file for each track with your prepared excerpt.

When all of your excerpts are in place, render the ACID project as a .wav or .mp3 file. You now have a version of the formula in its original form consisting entirely of excerpts from the samples.



You may create as many other versions of the formula as you like, using any means such as transposing the formula up or down in pitch, compressing or stretching the formula in time, playing it backwards (reversing the formula in time), etc. You can do this by creating a new ACID project file for each version and following the same procedures as outlined above. You can also take the versions of the formula you have already created and manipulate them.



When you have finished creating your various versions of the formula, you are ready to assemble them into your final composition. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Gather all files for the various versions of the formula that you have created into the same folder.



2. Start ACID and open a new project.



3. From the View menu, choose Explorer, and browse to the folder that contains your files.



4. Double-click each file that you wish to add to the project. A track is created for each file. You can add the same file to the project multiple times to use it on more than one track.



5. Click on a track to select it. From the View menu, choose Track Properties. The Track Properties tab displays.



6. In the Track Type drop-down list, choose One-Shot.


Note: ACID plays one-shot files exactly as they are, with no manipulation, while files in tracks set as Loop or Beatmapped are manipulated so that they play together at the same tempo.


7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each track in your project.



8. Click the Draw button in the tool bar. In the track that contains your 8 x stretched version of the formula, drag in the track so as to draw in one complete version of the file.



9. In the other tracks, draw in the various other versions of the formula in whatever manner, and as many times, as you choose. To manipulate the events in the tracks, you can click and drag them left and right. You can also adjust track volumes, and, if available, add track volume and pan envelopes, effects, etc.


Note: See the ACID online help file for information on adding envelopes or effects and performing other operations.


10. When you are finished editing your project, choose Render As from the File menu and render your file as a Windows Media file for uploading into the contest. Once you have uploaded your entry in Windows Media format, you may also render and upload your project in .mp3 format.


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