Stockhausen, Klang 2, Freude

Interpreter's websites:
http://www.mariannesmit.com/
http://www.estherkooi.nl/

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Klang, Zweite Stunde/ Second hour,
Freude (2005) fur 2 Harfen/ for 2 harps

From the cd booklet:

The first hour of my new cycle Klang, The 24 Hours of
the Day, was a commission of ArtAche Milan, an institution
of the Milan Cathedral with its artistic director Don Luigi Garbini.
I named the Klang - Erste Stunde: HIMMELFAHRT (SOUND -
First Hour: ASCENSION) because it was world premiered on
My 5th 2005 for Ascension Day. The score is composed for
organ or synthesizer, soprano and tenor.

Following this premiere, Don Luigi asked me if I could compose
the Second Hour of KLANG for Pentecost 2006. I happily accepted
the offer and innerly heard and saw a work for two harps. While
composing, I imagined the two Dutch harpist-girls Marianne and
Esther, both 21 years old, who live and perform together and are
true idealists. One of them is the niece of the flutist Kathinka Pasveer,
for whom I wrote so many compositions for flute.

At first I chose the title Pentecost and decided to have the two
harpists also sing - alternating or together - the main text of
Pentecost, Veni Creator Spiritus, while plucking, picking, caressing,
stroking, pinking, rubbing, striping, striking, pinking, jubilating. In
accordance with the lines of this hymn I have composed 24 musical
moments like the 24 Hours of the Day, so that the Second Hour of
KLANG is like a while day within one hour of the Day.

In the course of composing, I changed the title to FREUDE, my
fundamental feeling was Freude (joy). Again and again I imagined
the premiere in the Milan Cathedral, the enthusiasm of the two girls,
their playing, singing. The score certainly must have preserved this
fantastic joy of my mind and the soul during the many months of
composing this work. There is something unique about the adventure
of uniting two harps, which are normally tuned in diatonic scales, into
one large chromatic harp.

Now I have also understood why I sent a drawing of an angel playing a
Greek harp to Don Luigi: to remind him of the divine role of this instrument.
Pentecost unites what was separated. My work FREUDE too.

K. Stockhausen, Febuary 15th 2006


Freude was premiered by Marianne Smit and Esther Kooi on
June 7th 2006 in the Milan Cathedral.
Recording of Freude on July 29th-31st 2006 at Sound Studio N,
in Cologne.

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The Hymn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veni_Cre...