»… Play-rew-forward-stop …« audio-video music serie 2.1

Rew as replay, return, memory,
5 explosive memories of invasive poetry: Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Lennon and Pierre Boulez

Venice, Palazzo Cini at San Vio
6 June 2009, 5.00pm

First session: INORI
by Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1973-1974
for 2 soloists and orchestra
video by Suzanne Stephens 1998
live recording of the performance on 5 April 1998 at the Audimax, Darmstad Technical College
sound direction by Karlheinz Stockhausen
actions by Kathinka Pasveer and Alain Louafi

In Japanese the word inori means invocation, adoration or prayer. The elements of a mystic action can be perceived at two different levels: visually in the attitudes of the soloists (a man and a woman) and acoustically from instrumental subjects. The solo part can also be performed by an instrument and is notated in the score as a melodic line.
In this case, however, a gestural interpretation of the lines was performed by the mime-actor soloists. The timing of the gestures is still highly synchronised with the many acoustic actions performed by the ensemble: prominent strings, woodwinds, tuba, 16 rin – Japanese bells, vibraphones, antique cymbals, piano, etc.
The whole composition is constructed on a single formula lasting around one minute which is projected in a large-scale form in five sections lasting 12, 15, 6, 9 and 18 minutes respectively. The sections are separate but slightly blurred by delayings, halts and imponderable events, while there is an additional transcendental moment in the form of a spirals section.
The various frames are entitled after the rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony and polyphony; the last section includes the Spiral cadenza in which the experiments with the modes of tempo and intensity found throughout the whole piece are concentrated.