''Gruppen'' ( German for "Groups") for three

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

s (1955–57) is amongst the best-known compositions of German composer

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, and is Work Number 6 in the composer's catalog of works. ''Gruppen'' is "a landmark in

20th-century music The following Wikipedia articles deal with 20th-century music. Western art music Main articles *20th-century classical music *Contemporary classical music, covering the period Sub-topics * Aleatoric music *Electronic music *Experimental music *E ...

... probably the first work of the post-war generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on the highest level to produce an undisputable masterpiece".

History

Early in 1955 Stockhausen received a commission from WDR for a new orchestral composition, but his ongoing work on '' Gesang der Jünglinge'' prevented him from starting right away. In August and September, he took the opportunity to retreat to an inexpensive rented room in the attic of a parsonage in Paspels, Switzerland, recommended to him by a colleague, Paul Gredinger. Surrounded by the splendour of the Graubünden alps, he created the entire plan of ''Gruppen'', "with a completely new conception of musical time". The surroundings provided more than just a conducive environment for work.

in ''Gruppen'' ... 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.

Originally the work was to have been for multi-channel electronic music with large orchestra, with metrically indeterminate parts for the orchestra. Once having decided to divide the orchestra into three parts, each with its own conductor, Stockhausen gave up the electronic sounds and incorporated some of what had previously been thought of as electronic music into the orchestra. The indeterminate tempos also proved impractical, and were dropped after a few experimental pages of score had been written out. Upon returning to Cologne, Stockhausen resumed work on ''Gesang der Jünglinge'' and then composed the wind quintet '' Zeitmaße'' and '' Klavierstück XI'', before turning to working-out the details of ''Gruppen'', which occupied him for all of 1957. The premiere of the work took place in the Rheinsaal of the Kölner Messe in Cologne-Deutz, as part of the WDR's concert series Musik der Zeit, on 24 March 1958 with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stockhausen (orchestra I), Bruno Maderna (orchestra II), and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

(orchestra III). The score is dedicated to Herbert Eimert, director at that time of the WDR electronic music studio. ''Gruppen'' was performed twice on the programme, with the world premiere of

's Third Piano Sonata, performed by the composer, in between.

Material and form

A large orchestra of 109 players is divided into three orchestral units, each with its own conductor, which are deployed in a horseshoe shape to the left, front, and right of the audience. The spatial separation was principally motivated by the compositional requirement of keeping simultaneously played yet musically separate passages distinct from one another, but led to some orgiastic passages in which a single musical process passes from one orchestra to another. The title refers to the work's construction in 174 units, mainly composed in what Stockhausen terms "groups"—cohesive groupings of notes unified through one or more common characteristics (dynamics, instrumental color, register, etc.): "''a particular number of notes which are joined, by means of related proportions, into a superordinate experiential quality'' (namely, the group). The various groups in a composition have various proportional features—various structures—but they are interrelated in that the properties of one group may only be understood by comparing them in degree of relationship with the other groups". This category is contrasted with the " punctual" style of early

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also ...

, which nevertheless also occurs in ''Gruppen'', along with a third category of "collective" or "statistical" swarms or crowds, too dense for the listener to be able to accurately distinguish individual notes or their order of succession. Consequently, the importance of individual notes is relatively low, so that sonority, density, speed, dynamics, and direction of movement become the main features for the listener. Nonetheless, a traditional twelve-tone row is used as its basis: Stockhausen - Gruppen tone row

This is a symmetrical all-interval row, in which the first half consists of the intervals of a descending major third, rising perfect fourth, descending minor third, descending minor second, and ascending major second. The second half consists of the retrograde of the first half, transposed by a tritone. In other words, the row is "degenerate", in that the second hexachord is a retrograde of the first, transposed by six semitones. However, Stockhausen does not exploit the specific twelve-tone compositional applications of such a row, which suggests that either Stockhausen was not interested in or did not know about them. Because of the chord transformations that emerge between rehearsal numbers 118 and 120 it appears that Stockhausen was in fact aware of these properties, making it most likely that the relationship simply did not interest him compositionally. Many of the conceptual bases of the work are explained in Stockhausen's famous article, "... How Time Passes ...". In this essay, Stockhausen developed a serial organizational principle at the center of which stood the concept of a twelve-step duration series possessing the same structural properties as the basic twelve-tone pitch series. This became the basis for the entire process of serial organization of ''Gruppen''. This duration series, however, is expressed not as single units (which would correspond to single vibrations of a pitch) but rather as metronomic tempos in sufficiently long stretches of time to enable conductors and musicians to change tempo with precision. However, because the resulting "fundamental durations" are not small enough for use in the musical detail, subdivisions corresponding to the transposition of the overtones of a pitch's harmonic spectrum are used. The twelve logarithmic metronomic tempos used in ''Gruppen'', covering a tempo "octave" (doubling in speed) from = 60 to 120 are 60, 63.5, 67, 71, 75.5, 80, 85, 90, 95, 101, 107, 113.5, and 120. The composer recalled that, when

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

saw the score for the first time, he wrote that such fractional metronomic values as 63.5 and 113.5 were "a sign of German thoroughness".

Instrumentation

Orchestra I

Woodwinds :1

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(doubling piccolo) :1

alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

Brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

:2 horns (high and low) :2

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

s :2

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

s (2nd with bass valve) :1 bass tuba

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(4 percussionists) : : 1

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

: : :: 1

tamtam The tamtam, sometimes spelled tam-tam, is a type of Gong#Chau gong (tam-tam), gong. TamTam, Tam-Tam, tamtam, or tam-tam may also refer to: * Tam-Tam (album), ''Tam-Tam'' (album), a 1983 album by Amanda Lear * Tam Tam (Samurai Shodown), Tam Tam (' ...

(large) :: 3

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

s (large, medium, small) : : : : Keyboards : 1 keyboard glockenspiel (or

celesta The celesta () or celeste (), also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music ...

) Strings : 1

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

: 10

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

s : 2

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

s : 4

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

s : 2

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

Orchestra II

Woodwinds : 2 flutes (1st doubling piccolo) : 1 oboe : 1 piccolo clarinet : 1

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

(doubling clarinet) : 1

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

: 1 bassoon Brass : 3 horns (1st and 3rd higher, 2nd lower) : 2 trumpets : 1 trombone : 1 bass trombone Percussion (4 percussionists) : 1

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

: 14

tubular bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

: : :: 1 tamtam (medium) :: 3 cymbals (large, medium, small) : : : : : 1 ratchet : 2

triangles A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimensiona ...

(1 higher, 1 lower) Keyboards : 1 randpiano (without cover) Strings : 1

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

: 8 violins : 4 violas : 2 cellos : 2 double basses

Orchestra III

Woodwinds : 1 flute (doubling piccolo) : 1 oboe : 1 English horn : 1 clarinet : 1

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

: 1 bassoon Brass : 3 horns (1st and 3rd higher, 2nd lower) : 2 trumpets : 2 trombones (both with bass valve) : 1 contrabass trombone (or tuba) Percussion (4 percussionists) : : : :: 1 tamtam (small) :: 3 cymbals (large, medium, small) : : : : Keyboards : 1 celesta (5 octaves) Strings : 1 harp : 8 violins : 4 violas : 2 cellos : 2 double basses

Discography

In chronological order of first issue. *1968. WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, and Michael Gielen. Recorded May 1965; released with Stockhausen's '' Carré'' on Deutsche Grammophon DG 137 002 (LP), DG921022 (Cassette). .p. Polydor International. **reissued under the same LP disc number, in the first set of Deutsche Grammophon's Avant Garde series. amburg Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, 1968. **reissued on reel-to-reel 7- ips tape, as DGC 7002. Elk Grove Village, Illinois: Ampex/Deutsche Grammophon, ca. 1974. **reissued on Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 5. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 1992. **reissued (without Carré) on ''Die Neue Musik und ihre neuesten Entwicklungen'', Opus Musicum OM 116 – OM 118 833 174–76(3-LP set), (with works by Berio, Boulez, Earle Brown, Cage, Luc Ferrari, Henze, Kagel, Ligeti, Messiaen, Jens-Peter Ostendorf, Penderecki, Schnebel, Xenakis, Zimmermann). Cologne: Arno Volk Verlag; Hans Gerig KG, 1975. *1982. Deutscher Musikrat: ''Zeitgenössische Musik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'' 4: 1950–1960. WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, cond. Karlheinz Stockhausen (orchestra 1), Bruno Maderna (orchestra 2),

(orchestra 3). Recorded 24 March 1958 in four channels; stereo mix 1982. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi DMR 1010–12 (3-LP boxed set). Cologne: EMI Electrola. *1996. Berliner Philharmoniker, cond. Friedrich Goldmann (orchestra 1),

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharm ...

(orchestra 2), Marcus Creed (orchestra 3). Recorded Berlin, Philharmonie, Grosser Saal, December 1994. (with Kurtág, ''Grabstein für Stephan'', op. 15c, and ''Stele'', op. 33). DG 447 761-2; also issued on DG 940 462-2. Reissued in 2012 on Deutsche Grammophon 001708102. *2005. ''Leaving Home: Orchestral Music in the 20th Century''. A Conducted Tour by Sir Simon Rattle. Volume 6: "After the Wake". City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle, John Carewe, and Daniel Harding. Recorded Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 2 March 1996. Complete performance of ''Gruppen'' as a DVD extra. (Programme includes excerpts from: Boulez, '' Le Marteau sans maître''; Britten, '' Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings'', Op. 31; Schoenberg, '' A Survivor from Warsaw'', Op. 46; Stockhausen, ''Gruppen'';

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

, '' Four Last Songs''; Stravinsky, ''

Agon () is the Greek personification for a conflict, struggle or contest, describing a concept of the same name. This could be a contest in athletics, in chariot or horse racing, or in music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece. i ...

''). Arthaus Musik, DVD 102 043. Also available as part of a 7-DVD set, Arthaus Musik 102 073. Leipzig: Arthaus Musik. *2006a. Schönberg Ensemble Edition:
A Century of Music in Perspective
'. Schönberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, , Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, cond. Reinbert de Leeuw, Oliver Knussen, Robert Spano. Recorded 3 September 1995. Released on SACD as disc 9 in the 27-disc CD/DVD set, Etcetera KTC9000 (22 CDs 1 SACD 4 DVDs). Also issued separately, as Schönberg Ensemble Edition nr. 9. *2006b. ''Eötvös Conducts Stockhausen: Gruppen, Punkte''. WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, conducted by Arturo Tamayo (orchestra 1), Péter Eötvös (orchestra 2), Jacques Mercier (orchestra 3). Recorded by WDR at Messe Rheinlandsaal, Cologne 28 May/2 June 1997. (with Stockhausen: ''Punkte''). BMC CD 117. udapest Budapest Music Center Records. *2012.
Tanglewood 75: Anniversary Celebration: From the Audio Archives 1937–2012
'. Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, cond. Oliver Knussen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Robert Spano. Recorded 25 August 1993, Theatre-Concert Hall, Tanglewood, Mass. MP3 or FLAC download (stereo). BSO Classics TWD75 31 0720 01. oston

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

Notes

References

Cited sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

"Stockhausen: ''Gruppen''"
by Andrew Clements, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 1 June 2001 * *
Instrumentation details on the composer's website

UbuWeb UbuWeb is a "a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts." It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. The site was created by ...

''Gruppen'' excerpts on the composer's website
{{Authority control 20th-century classical music Compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen 1957 compositions Serial compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra Spatial music Music with dedications