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Prom 21: Stockhausen Day (2) - Theatre of Voices
- Date Saturday 2 August 2008
- Time 10.15pm - c11.35pm
- Venue Royal Albert Hall
In this Late Night Prom comes Stimmung for six amplified voices - the first work of Western music to be based on the harmonics, or overtones, that make up the sound-spectrum of a single note. Stimmung is a hypnotic piece for 'six singers and six microphones' that takes on a unique atmosphere in live performance. Among the many influences which Stockhausen acknowledged when composing the work was a month spent wandering among the ruins in Mexico.
The Theatre of Voices - as adept in music of the Middle Ages as in new music - have made something of a speciality of Stimmung, and Hillier's long association with the piece includes his participation as one of the singers at a Proms performance 30 years ago.
- Stockhausen Stimmung (70 mins)
There will be no interval
Theatre of Voices
Paul Hillier director
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Oliver White
Great performance of what I reckon must be Stockhausen's masterpiece by Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices. It's probably the most attractive work to come out of the post-war avant garde. Unique, utterly alien music, intensely medidative, hypnotic and really quite spiritual (I spent most of the performance with my eyes shut). Along with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, this most vividly conjures up images of mankind in its primordial stages for me. Must be a very challenging work for the performers to pull off, seeing as they have to sing (and hum and speak!) complex harmonies in conjunction with each other for around seventy minutes, so congragulations all round!