Punkte
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''Punkte'' (Points) is an orchestral composition by
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 ...
, given the work number ½ in his catalogue of works.


History

''Punkte'' originated as a punctual orchestral work which was begun in September in Hamburg and had reached a first-draft stage by 30 September. The final draft was completed on 24 October 1952, but the work remained unperformed and unpublished . The work did not receive the title by which it is known today until much later, however. In a letter dated 4 November 1952 to (the editor from
Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is an Austrian classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, it originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market. The firm soon expanded to become one of t ...
in Vienna who, at the premiere of Stockhausen's ''
Spiel Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen ...
'' at the Donaueschingen Festival in October, had offered to publish his works), Stockhausen initially called his new score ''Zweites Orchesterspiel / Kontrapunkte / für Saiten- und Blasinstrumente'', and in a letter to his friend
Karel Goeyvaerts Karel August Goeyvaerts (8 June 1923 – 3 February 1993) was a Belgian composer. Life Goeyvaerts was born in Antwerp, where he studied at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory; he later studied composition in Paris with Darius Milhaud and analysi ...
dated 14 January 1953, he calls the orchestral work ''Nr. 4 Kontrapunkte'', adding, "It will be very difficult to perform this work". At this point in time, the chamber composition now known as ''
Kontra-Punkte ''Kontra-Punkte'' (Counter-Points, or Against-Points) is a composition for ten instruments by Karlheinz Stockhausen which resolves contrasts among six instrumental timbres, as well as extremes of note values and dynamic levels, into a homogeneou ...
'' (with a hyphen) was instead called simply ''Nr 5…, für 10 Instrumente''. After a heated discussion in March with
Hermann Scherchen Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor, who was principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur from 1922 to 1950. He promoted contemporary music, beginning with Schoenberg's '' Pierrot Lunaire'', follow ...
, who Stockhausen hoped would conduct the work at a festival in Cologne, he decided to withdraw the score, and substituted the chamber work for ten instruments, now redesignated "Nr 1", and eventually given the title ''Kontra-Punkte''. The withdrawn orchestral score, which has never been performed, was renamed ''Punkte'' at some unknown point in time. Stockhausen wholly recomposed this score in 1962, at which time it was given the retrospective work number ½ (the fraction indicating that it preceded his "work number 1"). Work was begun during a four-week stay in Finland in the summer, when Stockhausen was lecturing at the
Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...
summer university. It was intended for performance in Palermo later in the year, but the score was not finished in time and the event was cancelled. Having rescheduled the premiere for Donaueschingen the following year, Stockhausen resumed work in October 1962 while staying at the house of his
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 ...
pupil Jack Brimberg in Locust Valley on Long Island, New York. After some anxious correspondence with Heinrich Strobel, director of the Donaueschingen Festival, the score was completed and dispatched to Strobel on 28 February 1963. In its new form, the "points" of the original version scarcely ever appear as such. Instead, they have become centres for groups, crowds, swarms, and vibrating masses, become nuclei of micro-musical organisms. This "renewed" composition was premiered on 20 October 1963 at the Donaueschingen Music Festival, by the Orchestra of the SWF, conducted by
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 ...
, and was published by Universal Edition that year in facsimile. Not yet satisfied with the result, Stockhausen made major changes to the new ''Punkte'' in 1964, and again in 1966. These versions were also published, and Stockhausen made further revisions in 1969, at which time Universal Edition began work on an engraved edition. Production stopped in 1973 only to restart in 1974 and, after Stockhausen made still more revisions in 1975, work resumed the next year. The engraved score was only finally finished (with further minor corrections made up to 1993) in 1996.


Instrumentation


1952 version

The original version was for a small orchestra of either 27 or 30 players: * 1 flute * 2 oboes * 1 E clarinet * 1 B clarinet * 1 bass clarinet in B * 1 soprano (changing to alto) saxophone * 1 baritone saxophone * 1 bass saxophone or bass
sarrusophone The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by France, French instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre- ...
* 2 bassoons * 1 horn in B * 1 cornet in B * 1 trumpet in C * 1 trombone * 1 r 3percussionists, playing 12 chromatically tuned bongos * 1 piano (with softer tone, such as a Blüthner) * 1 piano (with harder tone, such as a Bechstein) * 2 harps (one with thin strips of paper woven through the strings) * 2 violins r 2 each first and second violins* 2 violas * 2 r just 1cellos * 1 contrabass


1962–93 version

* 3 flutes (all + piccolo, 3rd + alto flute in G) * 3 oboes (ob. 1 + oboe d'amore; oboe 3 + cor anglais) * 3 clarinets (E clarinet, B clarinet, and bass clarinet in B) * 3 bassoons (third + contrabassoon) * 3 horns in F * 3 trumpets in C * 1 tenor trombone * 1 bass trombone * 1 bass tuba * 3 percussionists: ** tubular chimes,
keyboard glockenspiel The keyboard glockenspiel (French: ''jeu de timbre'') or organ glockenspiel is an instrument consisting of a glockenspiel operated by a piano keyboard. It was first used by George Frideric Handel in the oratorio ''Saul'' (1739). It was also used ...
, 2 pedal timpani **vibraphone **marimbaphone * 2 harps * 2 pianos (second + celesta) * 8 first violins * 8 second violins * 8 violas * 6 cellos * 4 contrabasses


Analysis

''Punkte'' is divided into 144 overarching sections, characterised by sets of shapes and textures. Each isolated tone of the 1952 version was used as a "nucleus", and these nuclei were composed out into a variety of complex figures. There are six basic triangular shapes, with the nucleus at one apex: # The nucleus tone is sustained while other pitches expand above it into a band: # The nucleus tone is sustained while other pitches expand below it into a band: # A band of sound begins, and the upper notes descend until only the nucleus is left at the bottom: # A band of sound begins, and the lower notes ascend until only the nucleus is left at the top: # The first two shapes are combined, so that pitches fan out in both directions to form a band both above and below the nucleus # The third and fourth shapes are combined, so that a band of pitches narrows toward the nucleus at the centre The vertical width of each pitch band is controlled by a serial distribution of chromatic intervals, from a single tone, via the
minor second A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...
,
major second In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more de ...
,
minor third In music theory, a minor third is a interval (music), musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval (music)#Number, interval numb ...
, and so on up to a
major seventh In music from Western culture, a seventh is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing seven staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major seventh is one of two commonly occurring sevenths. ...
. Each of these six shapes may be composed in any of six textures: # All notes continuous # Notes are rhythmicised # The sound texture is perforated by rests, sounding like
Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...
# All notes in the texture make glissandos # All notes have tremolos or trills # The note attacks are "verticalised" into a succession of chords Some of these textures can be combined. For example, the opening section of ''Punkte'' combines normal tones and trills. Similarly, there are places where the triangular sound shapes overlap so densely (due to the density of the points in the structure of the original 1952 version) that the entire space is filled with sound, leaving no silences. This situation suggested the idea of negative forms. The usual conception is that sounds are heard as being projected against a background of silence. In these negative structures, the situation is reversed. Sustained
clusters may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...
are made to sound for a comparatively long time, from which some of the sounds are erased. The "holes" therefore are the music. Both durations and pitches are distributed through the use of
permutation In mathematics, a permutation of a set can mean one of two different things: * an arrangement of its members in a sequence or linear order, or * the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set. An example of the first mean ...
s, which serve as an aid to repetition, without repeating exactly the same thing. Diversity in unity is the principle of permutation, in dividing the larger elements into their smaller components.


Discography

;1962 version * '' Donaueschinger Musiktage 1950–1990''. Includes the world premiere of the 1962 version of ''Punkte'', by the SWF Symphonie Orchester,
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 ...
, cond. Col Legno AU-031800 CD (4 CDs). Staufen im Breisgau: Aurophon, 1990. Also issued on ''75 Jahren Donaueschinger Musiktage 1921–1996''. Col Legno WWE 12CD 31889 (12 CDs). .p. Col Legno Musikproduktion GmbH, 1996. ;1966 version * Stockhausen, Karlheinz. '' Chöre für Doris''; ''Choral''; ''"Atmen gibt das Leben . . ."''; ''Punkte für Orchester''. North German Radio Symphony Orchestra Hamburg n ''Punkte'' only Choir of the North German Radio Hamburg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, cond. Deutsche Grammophon LP 2530 641. Hamburg: Polydor International, 1976. This recording of ''Punkte'' reissued with '' Formel'', '' Schlagtrio'', and ''Spiel'', on Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 2. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2005. ;1993 version * Stockhausen, Karlheinz. ''
Gruppen ''Gruppen'' ( German for "Groups") for three orchestras (1955–57) is amongst the best-known compositions of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 6 in the composer's catalog of works. ''Gruppen'' is "a landmark in 20th-cen ...
für drei Orchester''; ''Punkte''. WDR Symphony Orchester, Arturo Tamayo,
Péter Eötvös Péter Eötvös (, ; 2 January 194424 March 2024) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and academic teacher. After studies of composition in Budapest and Cologne, Eötvös composed film music in Hungary from 1962. He played with the Stockhaus ...
, Jacques Mercier, conds. (in ''Gruppen''); Péter Eötvös, cond. (in ''Punkte''). BMC CD 117. ''Punkte'' reissued separately, with a spoken introduction by the composer in German and English, on Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 81. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2005.


References


Cited sources

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen 20th-century classical music 1952 compositions 1962 compositions Serial compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra