Category: Stockhausen

  • Electronic Music, Tape vs. Live Electronics, Click Tracks. Q and A

    [Taken with permission from an interview with Cássia Carrascoza Bomfim, in preparation for her doctoral dissertation] Do you feel a lot of difference between playing works with a pre-recorded tape and computer processing in real time (Max/msp)? Both ways present various issues of playing with a microphone. With a tape piece, I am concerned that the live…

  • Tongue Trippin’ in Munich 3 – a Quetzalcoatlus Dances

    When you perform a theatrical piece like Stockhausen’s Zungenspitzentanz for the first time, you may have that need of, just, please, one more rehearsal, one more run-through, just so I don’t mess this up!  Immediately after that first performance you may still want to ask: Could I just try that again? Now? At least that…

  • Tongue Trippen’ in Munich 2

    If I were to write my memoirs,  I would refer to this summer as the Siberian Summer. It is astonishingly cold here in Munich; however, our tiny hotel room accommodates us well, and we keep each other warm. On stage, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra,  the spotlights blaze and the astonishing playing,  especially from…

  • Tongue Trippin’ in Munich

    This is the first of what I hope to be a series of entries about my preparation for Zungenspitzentanz in the Munich Biennale with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra . Bear with me, I am typing with my thumbs, a technique I have yet to master. My biggest help has been this Smart phone, which…

  • Stockhausen in Adorjan’s Lexicon

    When I came across the entry for Karlheinz Stockhausen in Andras Adorjan’s Lexicon der Flöte (Page 754), the elements of this blog entry started brewing. Let’s see if I can form a coherent thought or two. First of all, here is the German text: Gegen Ende der 1970er Jahre wurden die Aufführungen mehr und mehr…

  • Paradies Remembered

    It’s been over a month since the marathon premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klang cycle. I have been wanting to share the experience here, but I survived the project with too many mixed feelings. However if I don’t get it out, my blogging energy may get permanently clogged. Also, Robert Bigio, the editor of Flute (the…

  • Low Register: Descending to Paradise

    Countdown: just about one month before my performances (8 in two days!) of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s PARADIES for flute and electronic music. Am I panicking? No. But I have been soundly kicked in the butt. This piece allows for absolutely no technical weaknesses. In addition, I’ve been challenged to really expand my stability, dynamics, and coloristic…

  • Bottom of the Food Chain

    Wondering why I haven’t posted recently? This is where I have been all week! At the bottom of the food chain! OK, maybe I exaggerate. Maybe more like a pawn on the chessboard of pieces where composers, conductors, organizers, managers are the big players. We play what sells, and ideas sell, beautiful packaging sells, regardless…