''Solo'' for a melody instrument with

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

is a work for a soloist with live electronics (four technician assistants) composed in 1965–66 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 ...

. It is Nr. 19 in his catalogue of works. Performance duration can vary from 10½ to 19 minutes.

History

''Solo'' was first sketched in 1964 and is closely related to '' Plus-Minus'', ''

Momente ''Momente'' (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two e ...

'', and '' Mikrophonie I''. It was composed in March and April 1966 on a commission from the Japanese broadcasting network

Nippon Hoso Kyokai , also known by its romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestrial television channels (NHK General TV and NHK ...

and was premiered in two different versions on 25 April 1966 in a public concert at the NHK in Tokyo which also featured the world premiere of Stockhausen's ''

Telemusik ''Telemusik'' is an Electronic music, electronic composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is number 20 in his catalog of works. History Through his composition student, Makoto Shinohara, Stockhausen was invited by the Japan Broadcasting Corporat ...

''. The soloists were Yasusuke Hirata,

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 ...

, and Ryū Noguchi,

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 ...

; the assisting technicians were Akira Honma, M. Nagano, Shigeru Satō, and the director of the NHK studio, Wataru Uenami. The score is dedicated to Alfred Schlee, the director of the Vienna branch of

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 ...

. For the Tokyo premiere, a special table with adjustable guide rollers was constructed, to enable different delay times for the tape playback. In subsequent performances, a single tape was threaded through seven tape recorders, and eventually an apparatus was constructed especially for ''Solo'' in the Institute for

Sonology Sonology is a neologism used to describe the study of sound in a variety of disciplines. In medicine, the term is used in the field of magingto describe the practice of medical ultrasonography. According to some scholars, sonology may represent a ...

at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, a ...

. However, this piece of equipment remained private property and was not made available for hire. By 1970, computers were already considered as a replacement for the tape delay, but was regarded prohibitively expensive. Twenty years later, after initial difficulties, one such version was made at

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

in 1992, using

Max/MSP Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, pe ...

on a

NeXT Computer NeXT Computer (also called the NeXT Computer System) is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of , aimed at the high ...

, and successfully performed in public in February and March 1993. In March 1998, this program was adapted to run on commercially available computers. Pre-programming on the computer can fulfill the functions originally assigned to the assistant technicians, thus requiring only a single assistant to control the sound. In notes for a 2002 performance also using a computerised system, Stockhausen acknowledged the IRCAM version, emphasising that it was done live, but nevertheless concluded that "It will still be a long time until young musicians ... will be able to learn the interpretation of SOLO with suitable mobile apparatuses."

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 ...

ist Jason Alder performed ''Solo'' in June 2010 in Amsterdam, and subsequently in later concerts, in this way. By developing a Max/MSP patch to run on his laptop, he is able to perform the piece anywhere without the original equipment constraints.

Analysis

Feedback (''Rückkopplung'') in this case refers to tape delay, through which music played by the soloist is made to return after periods of time specified in six different form plans, one of which is to be chosen for any performance. The performer is given six pages of conventionally notated material constituting the "content" of the work, and selects material according to certain criteria, playing it into a stereo pair of microphones that feed into the tape-loop system. Three assistants choose one or both recording channels, the degree of feedback, and the level of sound to be emitted from the speakers. This results in a regular though transformed periodic recurrence of the initial material, while the soloist adds new material over it. The system of the feedback plan therefore is the piece, since any musical relationships present on the sheets of music are destroyed by the atomisation and reorganisation created by this system.

Performance practice

Stockhausen discovered early on that the originally imagined spontaneous performance of ''Solo'' was far more difficult than expected. Consequently, versions prepared in advance were used from the outset, following Stockhausen's suggestions. In the first commercial recording, with

Vinko Globokar Vinko Globokar (born 7 July 1934) is a French-Slovenian avant-garde composer and trombonist. Globokar's music uses unconventional and extended techniques, places great emphasis on spontaneity and creativity, and often relies on improvisation. H ...

on trombone, Stockhausen supplemented the live performance with excerpts from his electronic composition ''

Hymnen ''Hymnen'' (German for " Anthems") is an electronic and concrete work, with optional live performers, by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in 1966–67, and elaborated in 1969. In the composer's catalog of works, it is No. 22. The extended work i ...

'', following the method he had already used in '' Mikrophonie II'', where he inserted tape recordings of his own previous compositions. In the case of the trombone recording of ''Solo'', this involved a lengthy section from the Second Region of ''

'', including its prefatory "bridge". The trombone phrases are initially answered by electro-acoustically distorted military-band sounds of the

German national anthem The "", officially titled "", is a German poem written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben . A popular song which was made for the cause of creating a unified German state, it was adopted in its entirety in 1922 by the Weimar Republi ...

, similar to the way in which sounds from ''

Gesang der Jünglinge ''Gesang der Jünglinge'' (literally "Song of the Youths") is an electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was realized in 1955–56 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne and is Work Number 8 in the composer's catalog. The voc ...

'', '' Carré'', and ''

'' played back on tape answer the technologically alienated live voices of the mixed choir in ''Mikrophonie II''. By 1969, Stockhausen had also taken to merging ''Solo'' with other works in a single composite performance.

Discography

* Karlheinz Stockhausen: ''Solo, für Melodie-Instrument mit Rückkopplung''; Vinko Globokar: ''Discours II pour cinq trombones'';

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

: ''Sequenza V''; Carlos Roqué Alsina: ''Consecuenza''. Vinko Globokar (trombone). Avant Garde. LP recording. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 137 005. amburg Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 1969. * Stockhausen, Karlheinz: ''Solo'' (Version für Flöte); ''Solo'' (Version für Synthesizer); ''

Spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

'' (Version für Oboe). Dietmar Wiesner (flute), Simon Stockhausen (synthesizer), Catherine Milliken (oboe). CD recording. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 45. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 1995. * Knut Sønstevold, bassoon. Knut Sønstevold; Miklós Maros; Carel Brons; Arne Mellnäs; Lars-Gunnar Bodin; Karlheinz Stockhausen; Sten Hanson. 'Solo'' recorded at Danviken Hospital Church, 23–26 June 1977 LP recording Fylkingen Records FYLP 1011. tockholm Fylkingen Records, 1977. * ''Sönstevold Plays Stockhausen''. Karlheinz Stockhausen: ''Solo'', '' In Freundschaft'', ''Spiral'', '' Tierkreis''. Knut Sønstevold (bassoon); Kina Sønstevold (piano). Nosag CD 042; 'Solo'' recorded by Swedish Radio on 4 October 1985 during the EAM Festival, Berwaldhallen]. [Sweden]: Nosag Records, 2000.

References

Sources * * * * * * * * *

History

Analysis

Performance practice

Discography

References

Further reading