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Time and Light

a
Jerome Kohl
a
University of Washington , Seattle, USA
Published online: 21 Aug 2009.

To cite this article: Jerome Kohl (1993) Time and Light , Contemporary Music Review, 7:2,
203-219, DOI: 10.1080/07494469300640121

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 Contemporary Music l~eview, 9 Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH
1993, Vol. 7, pp. 203-219 Printed in Malaysia
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Time and Light

Jerome Kohl
University of Washington, Seattle, USA
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From his earliest pieces of the 1950s Karlheinz Stockhausen's music has been notable for
innovative treatment of musical time. His current project, the seven-opera cycle Light, is not
only of such audacious length as to call attention to its temporal aspects: it is alsoabout time. An
examination of the "superformula" that provides the material and formal structuring for all
seven operas, together with detailed analyses of Michael's JourneyAround the Earth (Thursday, act
2) and Lucifer's Dream (Saturday, scene 1), reveals a subtle and detailed treatment of musical time
which links substance with form, and even fuses with the dramaturgy of the cycle.
KEY WORDS Karlheinz Stockhausen, Licht (opera cycle), tempo, form, time, musical
processes

Innovative t r e a t m e n t of musical time has b e e n a p r o m i n e n t f e a t u r e in Karlheinz

S t o c k h a u s e n ' s music f r o m his earliest works. P e r h a p s his b e s t - k n o w n t e m p o r a l
principle is the t r e a t m e n t of pitch, r h y t h m , and f o r m as parts of a single
c o n t i n u u m ( S t o c k h a u s e n 1957), which w h e n applied in compositions, b e g i n n i n g
with Gruppen and Zeitmasse, produced s t r u c t u r e s of startling length, by c o m p a r i s o n
to m o s t previous "total serial" works.
His c u r r e n t project, the cycle of s e v e n operas collectively titled Light, is planned
on such an audacious scale as to call special a t t e n t i o n to its t e m p o r a l aspects for
that r e a s o n alone. But Light is also about time: T h e s e v e n c o n s t i t u e n t operas are
n a m e d for the days of the week; the outline of the cycle follows the course of a
life, including birth (Monday), career (Thursday), and d e a t h (Saturday) as elements;
and time is also a principal source of conflict b e t w e e n t w o of the main characters,
Michael and Lucifer: in Saturday Lucifer d r e a m s of abolishing time, and in Tuesday
Michael opposes his a t t e m p t to do so.
In 1971 S t o c k h a u s e n spoke of t w e n t y - o n e octaves of musical time, m e a s u r e d
f r o m a b o u t .00025 seconds (the d u r a t i o n of one cycle at 4000 Hz) d o w n to sixteen
minutes, possibly e x t e n d e d u p w a r d by t w o octaves for timbral purposes, and
d o w n w a r d a n o t h e r t w o octaves, "if we consider the total lengths of w o r k s w i t h
several m o v e m e n t s adding up to one h o u r for one c o m p o s i t i o n " (Cott 1973, 189).
H o w e v e r , Light, b e g u n in 1977, is planned to last o v e r sixteen h o u r s - a n
additional f o u r octaves "below the region of f o r m a l sectioning" (Cott 1973, 189).
" D u r a t i o n registers" m a y be c o m p a c t l y n o t e d by using an e x t e n s i o n of the
o c t a v e - n o t a t i o n s y s t e m of the Acoustical Society of America (according to which
middle C and the eleven c h r o m a t i c pitches a b o v e it are designated by a subscript
4, the n e x t higher octave is designated by 5, and so on) into the n e g a t i v e - n u m b e r
range.1

203
 204 ]erome Kohl

p ~pp<: f f mp

Figure 1 The Light Superformula (nucleus).

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Everything in the opera cycle is f o r m e d f r o m a compact source composition,

which Stockhausen calls the " s u p e r f o r m u l a " of Light. Most of his compositions
since 1970 have been based on similar "formulas," but t h e y are mainly single
melodic lines. The s u p e r f o r m u l a of Light, on the o t h e r hand, is a c o n t r a p u n t a l
weaving of three such lines. Figure 1 shows the nuclear f o r m of this super-
formula.
The three strands are associated with the t h r e e archetypal protagonists of the
opera cycle: the upper line is Michael's formula, the middle line is Eve's, and the
lowest is Lucifer's. By the insertion of additional material ("echoes," "colored
silences," "improvisations"), collectively r e f e r r e d to as "accessories" (Akzidenzen),
the nucleus is expanded f r o m 36 duration units to 60 for the full s u p e r f o r m u l a
(Figure 2).
The period of the slowest occurrence of the s u p e r f o r m u l a - which d e t e r m i n e s
the large-scale formal proportions of the entire seven-opera cycle - i s calculated
at sixteen hours, which makes the " f u n d a m e n t a l f r e q u e n c y " of the cycle D-20, in
the p i t c h ] r h y t h m ] f o r m c o n t i n u u m w h e r e C-20 =17 hrs., 48 mins., 46.822
seconds). It may not be m e r e l y a coincidence that the central pitch for the
c y c l e - t h e first and last notes of Michael's l i n e - i n this "most b a c k g r o u n d "
superformula, is also D.
The cycle is divided into seven "limbs," m a r k e d by brackets in Figure I and by
h e a v y barlines in Figure 2, each representing one of the days of the week, which
are used to name the seven operas of the cycle. The division into "days" calls
a t t e n t i o n to the cyclical, periodic aspect implicit in the superformula.
In his earliest compositions, Stockhausen had seemed d e t e r m i n e d to avoid all
periodicity of r h y t h m or form. In his analysis of his o w n Klavierstiick I, for instance,
he inveighs against "syncopated r h y t h m s which should resolve into regular ones"
(Stockhausen 1963, 65). H o w e v e r , this same analysis clearly describes the
composition's division into six equal sections, each comprised of a different
ordering of the same six durational units. And of course periodicity is at the v e r y
h e a r t of Stockhausen's c o n t i n u u m of pitch/duration, described in Stockhausen
1957. He has explained the apparent paradox, and clarified his position regarding
periodicity and aperiodicity, as follows:

Periodicity is one aspect, of the very large and the very small. And it should always be shown in a
musical activity as being just one aspect of the universe. As you know, we have the large
periodicities of the year, of the month or the moon, of the day, and also of the cosmic year. There
is a fundamental periodicity of the whole cosmos when it explodes and contracts - itbreathes, God
breathes all the time, naturally, periodically, as far as we can think. This is the fundamental of the
 Time and light 205

Superformel ffir LICHT Stockhausen

(Super-Formula for LIGHT)

MICHAEL J ' ] , J] , ~:~z~ z ~7 i ~. ?' |

r z:=.-. ~ ~> r~] ,ff
&~,,'~:,r - el,~.

EVA .~- . .: llJr

. . . .! . :.<,. JFI ~ , , ; J ~ il-d ~! ~#
= ,o i ' j
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LUZIFER ~, ~ , ! !;li,!l;ll[;;il"' I ~" I.'L %1' ',: I: ~ ~"

9 9 +~.~);~; ;.

~ o~

I'.I T r'; ' " I r ._ a I-LF , i l"

~r~ E~3 Nn r~ ~
ill 1 "1" !" LLZr ' 'ELsr r__f
' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~.~,ti~ ~.1 ~ "z~ ~
f I,~ll ) I liar bill ll~ J o~lit

Z- j,
V

,J

r~G r~ r~|
I" ~,'; jL~'~ ~ ' ~! ..... ,- rcr :r r r ;

!.4, ~: .~, . . . . ~ . r~ " V " ~ "t"F~P x ,~J L J , I

Figure 2 T h e Light S u p e r f o r m u l a (full).

 206 ]eromeKohl

universe, and all other things are partials of this fundamental - the galactic years and the years
of the sun systems, etc. And going down to the atoms and even the particles of the atoms, there
is always periodicity. Nevertheless, periodicity is, as I say, like the abstract year, but what
changes within the year? Sometimes the snow comes earlier, or later.
Actually, within this periodicity, no day is the same. We shouldn't forget this, that's all. There
has been a lot of music where this periodicity becomes so absolute and dominating that there's
little left for what is happening within the periods. And there is not enough polyphonic
periodicity, as there is in the universe or in our body. There should always be several layers of
different periodicities which then produce a very intricate, seemingly aperiodic total result. But
when you follow the individual layers, you again find periodicity. Or in very large cycles you
sometimes find periodicity, but within these there is a lot of aperiodic movement, and this
should never be forgotten. You see, marching music is periodic, and it seems in most marching
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music as if there's nothing but that collective synchronization, and this has a very dangerous
aspect. For example, when I was a boy the radio in Germany was always playing typical brassy
marching music from morning to midnight, and it really conditioned the people. (Cott 1973,
27-28)

Before going f u r t h e r , it would be well to reflect on the n a t u r e of periodicity in

musical time. Disregarding the specialized rhetorical and musical senses (periodic
sentence, musical period), it is not difficult to u n d e r s t a n d t h a t periodicity is not
limited to steady pulsing, like the military m a r c h i n g music just m e n t i o n e d . For
example, a gradually accelerating d r u m beat will not usually be t h o u g h t of as
aperiodic. N e i t h e r will m o r e complex c h a n g e s of rate of m o t i o n w h e n the
repetition of a p a t t e r n is clear, for example, h e a r t b e a t and respiration fluctuating
in a "nonperiodic" fashion during a controlled exercise session.
In fact, a t h o r o u g h g o i n g structural periodicity is quite natural to serial music,
w i t h its regular successions. Even w h e r e e l e m e n t s of successive series are
reordered, there is a periodicity of a g g r e g a t e s . Indeed, such relentless periodici-
ties are not so c o m m o n in traditional, tonal music, w i t h the exception of variation
series. Nested and s u p e r i m p o s e d periodicities are also c o m m o n in serial struc-
tures.
F u r t h e r m o r e , within limits, d e f o r m a t i o n s of p o r t i o n s or aspects of a period are
possible w i t h o u t loss of the period's identity for the particular d e f o r m e d instance.
This is c o m m o n in motivic d e v e l o p m e n t in traditional music, for example, w h e r e
a thematic gestalt is m a i n t a i n e d despite alterations to details. Such a thematic
identity m a y facilitate perception of nonlinear periodicities.
T h e m a t i c identity exists in S t o c k h a u s e n ' s f o r m u l a technique as well, but it
differs f r o m traditional t h e m a t i c p r o c e d u r e s in the e m p h a s i s on complete
s t a t e m e n t s of the entire period, and the relentless succession of one s t a t e m e n t by
the next. The nesting of periods of vastly different durations is also characteristic.
The ( s o m e w h a t informal) a r i t h m e t i c r h y t h m s and p r o p o r t i o n s of the super-
f o r m u l a ' s limbs and sublimbs have b e e n described in print several times
previously (Frisius 1982 and 1984; Britton 1985; M a n i o n 1989). M a n y of these
arithmetic p r o p o r t i o n s are in fact s h o w n on a sketch f r o m O c t o b e r 1977, which is
r e p r o d u c e d on page 269 of Maconie 1990. For example, in the nuclear super-
f o r m u l a (Figure 1) the rests in Michael's line are of 1, 2, 3, and 4 q u a r t e r - n o t e
durations; the melodic s e g m e n t s produced by these rests are of 4, 2, 5, 3, and 6 + 6
q u a r t e r notes; the r h y t h m of his T h u r s d a y limb, m e a s u r e d in eighth notes, yields
3, 2, 1, 4; his Sunday limb begins 4, 2, 1, 5, 3; and so on. H o w e v e r , the f u n c t i o n of
the tempo series, which was imposed on the full s u p e r f o r m u l a at a s o m e w h a t later
date, is r a t h e r m o r e interesting.
 Time and light 207

As may be seen in Figure 2, the basic tempo succession consists of eighteen

tempo groups, each marking a sublimb of the superformula. The beginning
tempo (M.M. --- 60 in the case of Figure 2) recurs several times during the series,
and returns at the end. This is the central tempo, which corresponds conceptually
to the central pitch of the superformula, and is present for nearly a third of the
total duration. One other tempo (63.5 in Figure 2) also occurs more than once, as
a secondary center, and accounts for just under one quarter of the duration. The
remaining tempos occur once each (the longest is the second segment of
Saturday, at one twentieth of the total duration), and exhaust the 12-equal
chromatic tempo-class set - the equivalent of the chromatic pitch-class aggregate
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(see Stockhausen 1957). Just like a pitch-class series, the entire tempo succession
may be transposed. Starting from MM-- 60 a tempo transposition correspond-
ing to a pitch transposition of six semitones upward results in a central tempo of
85, and a tempo series that begins: 85, 90, 75.5, 90, 71, 67, 85, 120 . . . .
This tempo series, however, does not appear to be related in any way to the
various tone rows that may be partitioned from the superformula, nor do the
note lengths to which they are assigned seem to form any sort of pattern.
However, when t het pr i m ar y subdivision into seven limbs is considered, the
durations after adjust~nent by the tempo series reveals an interesting situation
which is not present in a uniform tempo. Stockhausen made an elaborate
tabulation of these durations in a sketch relating to the composition of Thursday,
and dated 10 April 1978. It is headed "TEMPI und DAUERN des Formel," and gives
the actual durations for all of the sublimbs, and the subtotals for the seven limbs,
in the two different tempo transpositions used in Michael's Journey around the Earth:
85 and 60 (an additional row of calculations at M.M. -- 71 was later added to this
sketch, perhaps during the preliminary work on Lucifer's Dream). The durations of
the seven limbs for a central tempo of M.M. = 60 are:

10.3, 6.6, 6.1, 9, 8.2, 7.1, 11.5

It may be seen that these all lie within one durational "octave" (2:1 proportion).
When reordered into a scale (Figure 3), it may be seen that the proportions between
successive members is approximately constant, and divides the temporal octave
into seven equal steps. In fact, if the lowest member is transposed up one octave,
to 12.2 (12.1 is the rounded-off value in the composer's sketch), the interval
above 11.5 also approximates a seventh-root-of-two (approximately 1:1.104)
proportion.
The result of this manipulation is that there are two simultaneous modes of
measuring time: by counting pulsations, or by the clock. Put another way, the
time surface as measured in beats is "wrinkled," relative to clock time, by the
varying tempos. The time topography is something like the folds of a curtain: the
distance between two points may be measured either along the curtain's surface,
or by a straight line from point to point through space - like a thread pulled along
behind a needle, piercing t hr ough the folds. This kind of dual time scale is not in
itself particularly new. After all, any ritardando, accelerando, or other tempo
change will produce much the same effect. But in Light this duality is used as a
conscious compositional principle, rather than as an incidental byproduct of
phrasing or sectional division.
 208 JeromeKohl

Scale degree Interval

(12.2)
1.06
11.5
1.12
10.3
1.14
9.0
1.09
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8.2
1.15
7.1
1.08
6.6
1.08
6.1

Figure 3 Duration Scale of the Seven Limbs of Light

Stockhausen evidently rejects using the resultant 2% shortening of the
superformula's overall duration - a "quarter-tone" durational transposition - as a
compositional device. In the same sketch, he restores the lost duration to each
calculated total by adding a corresponding "fermata" value. For example, for the
quarter-note = 60 central tempo the total is "58.8 (+1.2 [fermata])," which means
that fermatas or ritardandi are to be used to add the lost 1.2 seconds back in.
Similarly, semitone tempo transposition is never used to obtain appropriate-
length statements of the formula to fit into the durations specified by slower,
more "background" superformula rhythms. This is because the central tempo is a
rate of vibration equivalent (at a larger time scale) to pitch, so that choosing
tempo on the basis of duration would be tantamount to associating pitch classes
(tempo classes being slowed-down pitch classes) and duration classes in fixed
pairings. Additionally, the varying lengths of superimposed formula statements
would result sometimes in seven or more different simultaneous tempos.
Consequently, the tempi specified for any given point in the cycle by the
background superformula is taken for the central tempo of all more foreground
occurrences.

Composing Out i n M i c h a e l ' s Journey around the E a r t h

In an orchestral composition such as Michael's Journey around the Earth (1978), which
is act 2 of the opera Thursday, densely superimposed layers can be clarified by
timbre, of course. But the more extreme differences of durations often create
quite different types of events. A few measures into the "second station" of the
Journey (Figure 4) for example, the low A2 in the bassoon, contrabassoon,
contrabass, and electric organ is a drone which has been sounding (in various
instruments) since the beginning of the first station, and will continue until the
 Time and light 209

"Halt" section 317 measures later. There it changes to C#3, which is held for
another 324 measures to the end of the act. These two pitches are from the
Lucifer formula in the most-background superformula layer, the -20 octave,
which in theory began sounding at the beginning of the opera Monday, and will
not be completed until the end of Sunday (compare the second measure of the
Thursday segment, at the end of the second system in Figure 2). The Michael
formula from this layer appears in Figure 4 in the three violins (intermittently
joined by the first oboe), who sustain a B5 for the length of the station (mm.95-
146).
The organ's right hand is sustaining a chord (derived from the notes of
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Michael's Thursday segment) which also began at the first station, but will
continue only until the sixth measure of the third station, where it leaps down a
minor sixth. This is from a Michael-kernel statement which is spread over the
length of the entire opera- that is, in the -18 octave. The segment that sounds
through this second act comprises the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday limbs of
Figure 1, transposed down two, seven, ten, and eleven semitones. The particular
segment sampled in Figure 4 presents a problem, because of its considerable
length (over four minutes of a single sustained chord). It seems doubtful in this
case whether any but the most informed listener would discriminate between
this event and the much longer one in the left hand of the organ. However, the
subsequent events of this layer, in the third and fourth stations, are sufficiently
shorter to make the contrast clear. The two-octave temporal difference between
these layers is not sufficient by itself to guarantee separation of constituent
elements. Indeed, since the full superformula's constituent notes range from
sixty-fourth notes (Eve, measure 1) to more than a dotted half (Lucifer, end of
Saturday), a confusion of duration values may intermittently occur in any two
layers with less than six temporal octaves difference between them. This is not
necessarily a disadvantage, however, as it affords the opportunity of a continual
temporal counterpoint of merging and separating between layers.
The second oboe, harmonium, violas, and 'cellos meanwhile are playing a
sequence of slow, chorale-like chords. These are from a tripled Michael-formula
statement which began with the first station, and continues (in constantly
changing instrumentation) to the end of the act, thus placing it in the -10 octave.
Finally, the solo trumpet and orchestra trumpets are playing a lively "surface"
Michael formula, paralleled by a Lucifer formula in the trombones, both in the
-10 temporal octave. The derivation of the length of this formula statement is
somewhat complicated.
Stockhausen's usual method to obtain suitable formula lengths is to stretch or
compress the formula durations by proportionally multiplying the number of
beats in each section. This works quite well for the slow and medium-speed
layers, but it becomes a little less practical at the surface, highest-speed level,
where odd fractional beats would frequently become necessary.
In the swiftest layer of the "seven stations" of Michael's Journey another
technique is employed to fit superformula statements into the more-background
durations. The composer adopts a "figure and ground" pattern, in which the first
three-quarters of each section's duration (disregarding the double repetition of
measures 165-71) is composed out as a surface s u p e r f o r m u l a - o r several
successive ones, as in the case of station 2. The remaining time is filled out in the
orchestra alone, in a variety of ways to be discussed shortly, which from a
 210 Jerome Kohl

@ 5 3F~ 2~ 4~ 3
~i{I} o',~ ~176

Lx~ [2.Jr r r ~ [rr i

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aa

L~
~t

JJ a :
--.~I ~1 L~a
" i "I'

! K~zv.hl~
tr

~ I ,-3- T--~. I A d
(~)I' f
i
(]g~5 4i2~ ~' 3

[~ .,r .I, .t

,i r 1 I

=:~

~o...i
,_,h .... --
[t.~ k I ..t .! .I , -

/2 ~d , I. Ir fV4 -~
i

..-.~- ,1 ,, .~'-

Figure 4 Michael's Journey, r a m . 106-9.

practical point of view provides frequent opportunities for the trumpet soloist to
rest.
However, this technique also should be viewed as a temporal expansion from
the level of rhythmic articulation, where rhythm is measured from attack-point
to attack-point, while articulative space may be varied at the end of each note.
Stockhausen has used this principle from his earliest compositions, and also
 Time and light 211

allows the process to be r e t r o g r a d e d - t h a t is, leaving an articulative silence at the

beginning of the duration. In Michael's Journey this occurs at station seven, w h e r e
Michael c o m m a n d s the t u r n i n g globe to halt, and t h e n to r e v e r s e direction. This
traditional symbol of god-like time reversal is, curiously, reflected only by this
"formal articulation" and not by the use of r e t r o g r a d e f o r m s of the formula.
Perhaps this r e p r e s e n t s Michael's f u n d a m e n t a l acceptance of and obedience to
time, in c o n t r a s t to Lucifer's c o n t e m p t for it. (Lucifer's day, Saturday, does e m p l o y
r e t r o g r a d e forms, t h o u g h only to a small degree.)
T h e large arch of Michael's Journey m a y be viewed as a gradual process in which
the d o m i n a n t Michael f o r m u l a in the solo t r u m p e t p r o g r e s s e s f r o m simple to
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m o r e elaborately embellished forms, t h e n b e c o m e s f r a g m e n t e d and m e r g e d w i t h

the Eve f o r m u l a t o w a r d the end. In the first half of the act (the " s e v e n stations"),
the " g r o u n d " sections - or " b r i d g e s " - b e t w e e n the stations are c o m p o s e d a l m o s t
in the r e v e r s e of this process. T h e y p r o g r e s s f r o m the relatively chaotic t o w a r d s a
full s t a t e m e n t of the Lucifer f o r m u l a at the sixth bridge (see Tables 1 and 2).
This is r o u g h l y the r e v e r s e of the process f o u n d in the solo t r u m p e t , which
p r o g r e s s e s f r o m simplicity to florid e x t r a v a g a n c e , which t h e n s h a t t e r s into
i n c o h e r e n t f r a g m e n t s in stations 5 and 6. With the s e v e n t h station's " U m k e h r "
(reversal) and the e n t r a n c e of Eve's solo basset horn, Michael begins a n e w
process of rehabilitation, and gradual assimilation b e t w e e n the Eve and Michael
formulas, including an episode of t h e r a p e u t i c c o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h the double bass

Table 1 Solo trumpet "Stations"

Station 1
(Germany): M 11, with reduced embellishments
Station 2
(New York): M_10; L-9; M/L 8 (kernel)
Station 3
(Japan): L 11
Station 4
(Bali): M lz, with florid embellishments
Station 5
(India): M_11 "colored silences" mixed with E's glissandi
Station 6
(Central Africa): M_12 fragments ("stuttering"-pitch centers confused: false B
+ true F#)
Station 7 (Jerusalem): alternates M/L 12 (begins the integration process, which continues to
the end of the act)

Table 2 Orchestra "Bridges"

First Bridge: ElM (+ some L) fragments

Second Bridge: M/E intervals (tpts.); E/L intervals (trombones)
Third Bridge: M
E Kernel rhythms only (on "frozen pitches")
L "colored silence"
Fourth Bridge: "gamelan" ostinato from the Fourth Station
Fifth Bridge: E kernels, M head-interval at the very end
L
Sixth Bridge: L_10 (full), low strings and brass
 212 JeromeKohl

("Mission"). The dialog with the basset h o r n is t h e n extended in a sort of

"Liebestod und Verkl/irung" t h r o u g h the r e m a i n d e r of the act's sections:
Derision, Crucifixion, and Ascension.

A T i m e Process in Lucifer's Dream f r o m Saturday

Such processes have always been central to S t o c k h a u s e n ' s musical t h o u g h t . A
different process, which deals directly with the temporal dimension, operates in
the first scene of Saturday, Lucifer's Dream.
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In Lucifer's Dream... I employed a wonderful formula which is increasingly destroyed as time

passes. That is very appropriate for Lucifer since distorted presentations of his formula lead to its
destruction over the course of time. The sung text is absolutely decisive there. Lucifer isn't seen
as something negative, but rather as a Spirit who sings against banal processes of incarnation or
development of form. At one point -where there get under way those extreme compressions
which begin to destroy the form to the point of its no longer being perceptible so as to bring
about silence and motionless sound - Lucifer sings exactly what is in the music because he wants
that. He even dreams this Klavierstiick XIII, and he would basically like the entire world to be so
dissolved and compressed that its form vanishes - because he is against the creation of banal
forms. He would prefer everything to be elevated into a spiritual and much more lucid form...
Lucifer thus sings: "Compression of the figures of human music" (and note the "human
music"). You know from Thursday how much Lucifer is against the humanisation of events.
"Compression of the figures of human music; expansions and pauses for annulment of
time"- that's what he wants! In another place Lucifer expresses matters very much more
crassly. There he sings: "Crescendo, decrescendo, coloured silence" (as the outcome of such
compressions)-"Noises, shades, colours of nothingness." It's nothingness, emptiness, he
wants. He would like to negate and dissolve forms...
The formula (whose skeleton is present in the first section) is established, and then all of its
elements are increasingly compressed until non-perceptibility is attained so as to engender
(through compression) stillness, coloured silence, nothingness, and emptiness. (Stockhausen
1989a, 417-19; 1989b, 106-107)

The scene corresponds to the first m e a s u r e of the "'Saturday" limb: the second-
to-last m e a s u r e of the third system of Figure 2, f r o m which it m a y be seen that
the central t e m p o is M M = 71. The s t r u c t u r e is d o m i n a t e d by the rising quintuplet
in the Lucifer layer, each note of which is used as the central pitch of a complete
Lucifer formula, composed out to a length of 5.408 minutes: one-fifth the length
of the entire scene. The m a n n e r of this scene's composition is revealed in the
sketches for it. 2
First, on a p h o t o c o p y of the " S u p e r f o r m e l D o n n e r s t a g , " an adaptation was
made for the piano. This mainly concerns the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of the "accessories,"
m a n y of which were originally composed as vocal or w i n d - i n s t r u m e n t a l sounds.
T h e n a five-layered f o r m plan (described in Koh11983-84, 166-70) was developed
f r o m the superformula, and its durations w e r e t r a n s f e r r e d to ten pages of graph
paper. In this sketch, the horizontal units c o r r e s p o n d to q u a r t e r notes, t h o u g h
the principle periodic unit has been a u g m e n t e d to a dotted whole note, which
explains w h y 6/4 m e a s u r e s dominate the composition. These pages, dated 4 June
1981, s h o w the p r i m a r y formal division into five sections of equal length, each
labeled with a r o m a n numeral. In order to exactly fit the Lucifer formula into each
of these five divisions, the f e r m a t a at the end was c o m p o s e d o u t to a d u r a t i o n of
52/3 dotted whole notes. T h e n the systematic erosion process was developed in
detail.
 Time and light 213

Section I was left untouched, while sections II through V were each allocated
twenty distorting events. Each section was divided up principally according to the
tempo groups. The ninth group, however, is only half a unit long (three quarter
notes), and so lacks sufficient space for any but the shortest distortions. Omitting
this section leaves seventeen, so the three longest (the fourth, eleventh, and
eighteenth) are divided asymmetrically, following the original limb and sublimb
articulations. The events of each set of twenty are made to increase in average
length, so that the impact of the distortions increases section by section.
As Stockhausen describes above, each of the distorting events consists of
either a pause or an expansion, accompanied by a compensating compression.
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Some notations in the sketches indicate that the composer had originally
intended the Dehnungen to be the opposite process to the Stauchungen, that is, an
augmentation of the musical figures. However, in its developed form, each
Dehnung is a drawing-out (which is one sense of the German word) of an
instantaneous verticality into a sustained chord. They therefore have much the
same effect as the pauses, namely a cessation of musical activity.
In order to intensify the effect of this process, which introduces and then
gradually increases an oscillation between sections of stasis and of frenetic
activity, a second process is overlaid on the Lucifer-formula statements. In each
of the five sections, the notes of this layer are successively subdivided into equal
parts by the first five members of the Fibonacci series: 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. In section I,
therefore, each note occurs in its original form, in section II each is divided in half,
in section III each is divided into triplets, and so on.
In a sketch dated 6 July 1981, the distortion process is developed in tabular
form. Figure 5 shows the lower-left portion of this sketch, where the first
number table at the left is a serial rotation plan for the patterns of compressions,
expansions, and rests. The columns of the table represent sections II through V of
the score, with each column containing twenty numbers representing types of
alterations to that section. All together, the numbers form a succession of five
"magic squares," each of 4 x 4 numerical values. These contain all of the row-
types available from four-element series, but use only one of the three possible
matrix patterns that will produce such "magic squares" (to within rotational
equivalence in both dimensions - that is, considering the rows to repeat infinitely
in all four directions). Each matrix may be transformed into the next by the usual
canonical operations, including rotation and mod-4 transposition, though these
relationships are of no practical concern. As we shall shortly see, the elements
employed constitute a collection incapable of being formed into a scale, let alone a
scale with an "octave equivalence." The numbers might just as well be replaced by
any other symbols: the four playing-card suits, for example. The object of using
these carefully devised matrices appears to be the assurance of maximal
dispersion of the modification types in two dimensions. In this way, the same
segments of the formula will not be affected in parallel by the same distortion
types, which would result not in a dynamic erosion process, but simply in a one-
time modification of the formula, repeated with change only of magnitude in
succeeding sections.
Figure 6 shows the lower right-hand corner of the sketch, where the elements
for three different sets of transformation patterns, labeled A, B, and ", are found,
along with some rejected ideas. The set labelled A, developed first, originally
consisted simply of Stauchungen (compressions), abbreviated ST, paired with
 214 ]erome Kohl

, , . m 84 .

J J J J~
3 ~- ~
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4, ~ 2. 3

3 a g r
: f

2
3 u 3 #
2, 3 ~ G

z~ 3
3
2_
3"- 2

3
3 ~ K 3~
3 ' ~ !21 !3' 4 , ~2~
. , . . . . 9 . .

:2 2_ 31 4:
i3 Z ? e

Figure 5 Sketch for Lucifer's Dream (Detail).

 Time and light 215

: : ' : . ' ' " ' ' . . . . . . - . . . . . i - 7 . . . . . . .

..... ~ , ~ 1 ~ , . ~ . , o - ~ - - , ........ :. . . . . ~ .... - .... ~ 4 - , a ~ - D - . ~ - ~ --

!/ ! .~e ] r~o~ ' ' ' : P,,--,,-: J#----~'qy-.; ~ ',~, d" i . ~ . ~,C) '
,..~: ~ , - . ~ , . . . . . . . ~. ,r.~ 9 ' - 7 ~ ~- . . . . .
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- : ' ' ~r-~ kP-#q# -/~ 1 { - l / x__~X-/~1~1 _ !

; .rr." P--~ Dub : :" / - -

. . . . . . . r - n ; .~L--L~...:
: : :, : : : : :
.
'
. .
' . . . . . . . . . . . .
I~ "ly I,.~_~
. . . . r -..r- ~ ..... -:St'-
~ "

' " -~ ' : : : " ' V ~ "/ 2 .~ r ~'~,

! i . ; . , ,f 9 I,P . , ,,.- - ,
: g ,)ST< -P ~'.~Z l".'p-rT.

Figure 6 Sketch for Lucifer's Dream (Detail).

 216 ]eromeKohl

either a Dehnung (D) or a Pause (P). T h e crescendos and decrescendos were t h e n

added, in order to develop the B set, which is differentiated f r o m A only by the
reversal of the crescendo and decrescendo markings attached to the Stauchungen
(ST). Eight elements w e r e evidently insufficient, and so the " p r i m e " set was
added. This consists of t h r e e - e l e m e n t units, each c o m p o u n d e d f r o m A and B as
follows:

1" = 3B + 2A
2" = 1B + 4 A
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3' = 3A + 2 B
4' -- 1A + 4 B

The central portion in each "prime" element is a conflation of two pauses or two
compressions into a single occurrence, and each " p r i m e " element both begins and
ends with a compression.
The distribution of these three sets along the five-matrix scheme is s h o w n in
Figure 5, above, w h e r e an informal process leading f r o m segregation t o w a r d
intermingling of the sets may be observed.
The second table in Figure 5, just to the right of the first, is a plan for the
n u m b e r of q u a r t e r - n o t e beats for the pauses and expansions f r o m the first table.
It may be seen that the column for section II alternates units of three and two
q u a r t e r notes. In column lII the values p e r m u t e 2, 3, and 4, column IV has the
values 2, 3, 4, and 6, and the final column has 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. T h e compressions
are added to each pause or expansion in w h a t appears to be a n o n s y s t e m a t i c
manner. It seems probable that the compressions' lengths are d e t e r m i n e d by the
material found at each point in the score, t h o u g h the range of sizes here also
grows section by section, parallel to the pauses and expansions. In this way,
increasingly larger portions are affected until, in section V, 132 out of the total of
394 q u a r t e r - n o t e s ' duration are distorted (as the c o m p o s e r has calculated at the
b o t t o m of Figure 6). T h e resulting sequence of elements, t o g e t h e r with their
assigned durations, were t h e n jotted in at the beginning of each of the preselected
subdivisions of sections II t h r o u g h V of the graph sketch. An example f r o m the
beginning of section V in this sketch is s h o w n in Figure 7.
The first distortion assigned to section V is noted at the lower-left c o r n e r of the
example as "ST ( D ST'~" with a duration of eight q u a r t e r notes for the Dehnung

i ' i

f t
i ,

Figure 7 Sketch of Lucifer'sDream, Part V.

 Time and light 217

portion. T h e material f r o m the end of the s e g m e n t is selected, and is outlined on

the sketch. Since t h e r e are c o m p r e s s i o n s at b o t h the beginning and end, the
s e v e n t e e n q u a r t e r - n o t e s of material are divided in a 5:12 p r o p o r t i o n . T h e t w o
c o m p r e s s i o n s are t h e n calculated: five q u a r t e r - n o t e s of M M = 71 c o m p r e s s e d to
the space of four, requiring an increased t e m p o of M M = 90; and twelve q u a r t e r -
notes c o m p r e s s e d to the space of five, by increasing to M M = 170. Figure 8 s h o w s
the score extract beginning f r o m the second m e a s u r e of the sketch in Figure 7.
The distortion begins at the second m e a s u r e of Figure 8 w i t h the c o m p r e s s i o n
to a t e m p o of M M = 90. T h e 8/4 m e a s u r e following is the Dehnung, in the original
t e m p o of M M = 71. T h e hand-clap at the second beat of this m e a s u r e m a r k s the
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point w h e r e the original material w a s divided for the t w o c o m p r e s s i o n s . T h e

second c o m p r e s s i o n is f o u n d in the first t w o m e a s u r e s of the n e x t system,
followed by a r e t u r n to u n c o m p r e s s e d material. H o w e v e r , the t e m p o of 75.5
enters one beat early, as can be seen by the displacement a r r o w in the sketch in
Figure 7. This small alteration to the f o r m plan is doubtless a practical concession:
w h a t m e a n i n g would a single q u a r t e r n o t e at M M = 71 h a v e ?
T h e r e are n u m e r o u s o t h e r irregularities t h r o u g h o u t the score. T h e pianissimo
bichord D6-F7 in the middle of the first m e a s u r e of Figure 8, for example, is not
f o u n d in the sketch. It is f r o m a long-held s o n o r i t y in the slow M i c h a e l - f o r m u l a
layer g e n e r a t e d f r o m the sustained high F in the f o r m plan, but restriking it at
intervals is necessary in o r d e r to keep it sounding. T h r o u g h o u t Lucifer's Dream,

I u~,~R I

___/5[-~ e'.~" rL[.... ;_~-~

. 'I, ........................ l .,, . . . . . .

' Yil =

,le) 9 P j ': p , - "~ ............. L

r,I-P~ _ _ l

7~-~ 5

Y t polo P,,a. ,. ~ Y !

Figure 8 Lucifer's Dream, m m . 358-63.

 218 JeromeKohl

this Michael-formula statement is exempted from the distortions, doubtless

symbolizing Michael's opposition to Lucifer's intentions to nullify time.
Even at the stage of preplanning in the sketch of Figure 5, the table of durations
shows a deviation in the second column, third element from the end, where the
rotation pattern from the preceding sets predicts a value of 2, which is replaced in
the table by 3.
The boundaries of sections are sometimes bent, especially in section V, in order
to accommodate distortions too long for the space available, but there are also
some boundary transgressions that are not strictly necessary, as in the case of the
nineteenth distortion in the last section, which bridges over into the fermata
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portion of the formula, even though its length of eighteen quarter notes could
easily have been accommodated within the nineteenth segment. Another
seemingly capricious change is the fifth distortion in section IV, which should
have been a six-beat rest followed by a compression. The sketch clearly shows
this as the original form, which was then altered so as to divide and redistribute
the silence into two parts, of one and five beats, to both precede and follow the
compression.
Countless other details could be cited, but none substantially alters the course
of the disruptive process. The effect of the distortions, however, is not quite as
devastating as the composer's verbal description suggests. Certainly the change
from the continuous texture of section | to section V's alternation of frantic
activity with sudden cessation is one of the more obvious features of the
composition, and the progressive section-by-section fracturing of the Lucifer
formula by Fibonacci divisions tends to draw attention away from the rhythms of
the formula itself, and onto the new surface's intense periodicity. The surprising
resiliency of the material in the face of the attempt to destroy its comprehensibility
is due in part to the incremental introduction of the interruptions: the listener's
ear becomes gradually acclimated to the delays within the patterns, and grows to
expect the continuation afterward, until even the very long pauses of the final
measures leave the expectation of resuming motion afterward.
The recurring pitch successions also make a large contribution - one not easily
separated from the gestalt. As for the compressions, they have by comparison
with the pauses scarcely any effect at all, as the temporal flexibility of the
listening mind with respect to periodic structures, referred to earlier, easily
accommodates them. They are not, after all, so very extreme, for though the
proportions for the compressions become increasingly complex as the piece
progresses, the actual degree of compression ranges from 6:5 (section II, distortion
12) to a maximum of only 5:2 (section IV, distortions 3 and 12, and section V,
distortion 7). Stockhausen has employed much more drastic compressions in
previous compositions, perhaps most notably in the electronic part of Sirius
(1975-77), in which the very nature of the compressed sound objects is
t r a n s f o r m e d - t h o u g h the transformations are more continuous and tend to
affect entire sound objects rather than parts of them. It seems likely, then, that
the "destruction of time" in Lucifer's Dream, possibly conditioned by the physical
limits of speed on the piano, is meant to only just reach this limit, as another,
more extreme instance of the compositional employment of "wrinkled time"
mentioned above in connection with the superformula's tempo changes. It is
worth mentioning in this connection that the scenario has Lucifer betrayed by
 Time and light 219

the pianist-witch at the v e r y climax of this destructive process, f r o m the middle

of the eleventh t h r o u g h the t h i r t e e n t h distortion of section V (ram. 413-21),
w h e n she opposes the obfuscating process by unexpectedly introducing a "simple
m e l o d y " - the nucleus of the Eve formula - with which she succeeds in enchanting
him and deflecting him from his purpose.
In a text w r i t t e n in 1952-53, describing his "opus one," Kontra-Punkte,
Stockhausen characterized the athematic n a t u r e of his music f r o m that time:

Not the same figures in an ever-changing light, but rather this: different figures in the same
light, which permeates everything. (Stockhausen 1963, 37)
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His present compositional m a n n e r m i g h t be described in just the opposite way:

No longer different figures in the same light, but rather this: always the same figures in an ever-
changing Light.

Notes

1. By a happy coincidence, in equal-tempered tuning with A 4 equal to exactly

440Hz, the "pitch" which most nearly approximates one vibration per second
is a C: C-4 = 1.02197486Hz, with a period of 0.9784977 seconds. T h e r e f o r e the
boundaries for registers -5 to -10 are easy to r e m e m b e r as periods of
approximately 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 seconds.
2. I am grateful to the c o m p o s e r for g e n e r o u s l y providing photocopies of his
sketches.

References
Britton, Peter, (1985) "Stockhausen's Path to Opera." Musical Times, 126 (no. 1711): 515-21.
Cott, Jonathan, (1973) Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Frisius, Rudolf, (1982) "Komposition als Versuch der strukturellen und semantischen
Synthese: Karlheinz Stockhausen und sein Werk-Projekt 'Licht.' " In Neuland:Ans'6tzezurMusik
der Gegenwart: Jahrbuch, Band 2 (1981/82), edited by Herbert Henck, 160-78. Bergisch Gladbach:
Neuland Musikverlag Herbert Henck.
- - (1984) "Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Polyphonie: Tendenzen in Stockhausens
'Licht'- Zyklus." Neue Zeitschrifl f~r Musik 145, nos. 7-8 (July-August): 24-27.
Kohl, Jerome. (1983-84) "Micro- and Macro-Time Relations in the Recent Music of Karlheinz
Stockhausen." Perspectives of New Music 22: 147-85.
Maconie, Robin, (1990) The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Manion, Michael, (1989) "Introduction to the Super-formula of Donnerstag aus Licht.'" Ideas and
Production no. 11: 73-84.
Stockhausen, Karlheinz, (1957) "... wie die Zeit vergeht .... " Die Reihe 3: 13ff. [English edition
1959: 10-40]. Revised version, annotated by Dr. Georg Heike, in Stockhausen 1963, 99-139.
- - (1963) Texte zur elektronische und instrumentalen Musik 1 (Aufs/itze 1952-1962 zur Theorie des
Komponierens). Edited by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.
- - (1989a) "Musik als Prozess," excerpts from a conversation with Rudolf Frisius at
Kiir ten, 25.viii. 1982. In Texte zur Musik 6 (1977-1984: Interpretation). Edited by Christoph von
Blumr6der, 399-426. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag. English translation, abridged, in
Stockhausen 1989b, 100-111.
- - (1989b) Towards a Cosmic Music. Texts selected and translated by Tim Nevill. Longmead,
Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books.