The Ephemeral Architecture of
Stockhausen’s Pole für 2
MICHAEL FOWLER
Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT University, 77 Barnett Street, Kensington, Victoria, 3031, Australia
E-mail: michael.fowler@rmit.edu.au
Stockhausen’s graphically notated Pole für 2 was created
for the multi-channel diffusion system in the spherical
auditorium at the German pavilion at the Osaka World’s Fair
in 1970. The work is remarkable for the way in which
spatiality is explored through new developments in graphic
notation – both for three-dimensional and sound projection,
and to indicate musical imitation and transformation of
short-wave radio signals. These two notational systems
unite through the synchronous unfolding of time in Pole,
and similarly through the spatial structure of auditorium’s
architecture that housed over 50 loudspeakers in 6 layers.
By using the sound projection score as the basis for the
construction of a NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline)
model, each of the player’s sound projection geometries
within the auditorium can be transmediated, thus allowing
for a visual representation of the spatial design of the work.
Examining the topology of the models produced from the
work’s six sections further allows for emergent architectonic
characteristics of volume, manifold and envelope to be
tracked, thus pointing to Stockhausen’s characterisation
of design space. The strong connection of the work to the
auditorium’s spherical structure also points to the nature of
the composer’s sound design as one predicated on the ability
of patterns of sound projection to articulate tangible space,
and therefore produce ephemeral aural architectures.
1. THE 1970 GERMAN PAVILION AND
AUDITORIUM AT OSAKA
Stockhausen’s involvement at the World’s Fair in
Osaka in 1970 was one of both co-designer and artistic
director of performances at the auditorium of the
German pavilion. The striking, partially submerged
blue spherical auditorium was designed in collaboration
with architect Fritz Bornemann, acoustician Fritz
Winckel and engineer Max Mengeringhausen (figure 1).
The physical structure of the geodesic dome was con-
structed from a steel truss ‘space’ frame, and the elec-
troacoustic infrastructure located within included over
50 loudspeakers located above and below the audience,
as well as a lattice of light sources (designed by artist
Otto Piene) all controlled from a single command desk.
Stockhausen had worked with Bornemann firstly at
the 1968 Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt
to develop the idea of the auditorium’s capabilities, as
well as to resolve the greater architectural programme
of the site (Bornemann 1970: 1,492). The theme
Organised Sound 15(3): 185–197 & Cambridge University Press, 2010.
developed by the German planning group for the
pavilion, Gärten der Musik, was somewhat manifest in
Bornemann’s initial ideas for the architecture:
I wanted to create no building at all. I would of rather
have had radar-frozen air, but we are not yet capable of
that, so I tried the next best thing y People suggested that
we could save a lot of money by setting up our location
like a football field with a cheap fencing made from
hardboard at each end, at the place where the goals would
have been. Visitors would enter at one end, receive audio-
visual helmets, and float across the other end, they would
be relieved of the helmets and leave with the idea that the
German pavilion was the most unbelievable thing in the
world. (Pieter van Wesemael 2001: 600)
In Bornemann’s final design the pavilion became
a series of five underground circular spaces with the
only discernible topological feature sitting above
ground being the striking blue dome of the auditor-
ium. In a firm reaction against the architectonic
gesture that permeated many of the other pavilion
designs, and the superficial sensation Bornemann
considered evident in the ephemeral megastructures
of the Expo, the site’s architectural programme
sought to create an off-Expo experience through both
an exploration of the garden as a contemplative
ephemeral device for reflection, and a literal immersion/
emersion into the advancements of contemporary
German electroacoustic music.
That the auditorium’s impact above ground was
striking and immediate was suitably mirrored inside,
where, under Stockhausen’s stipulations the interior
would house enough loudspeakers to create a
immersive sound field that relied on utilising rings of
loudspeakers that extended well above and below the
seated position of the audience. Loudspeaker layers
could be controlled via a spherical sensor or a rota-
tion mill at the control desk, and allowed any geo-
metric combination of loudspeaker groups (i.e. as
circles, spirals or through diagonals) to be utilised
(for example as circular, spiral or diagonal trajec-
tories). The resulting capabilities of the system pro-
duced an immersive audiovisual experience where
dramatic movements of sound and light literally
produced sonorous explosions in space that antici-
pate the later Klangbomben of Oktophonie (1990/91).
doi:10.1017/S1355771810000269
186 Michael Fowler
Figure 1. German pavilion, World’s Fair, Osaka 1970.
Concerts at the auditorium ran throughout 5
March–13 September, and in addition to perfor-
mances of Stockhausen’s Hymnen, Stimmung, Kon-
takte, Kurzwellen, Carre´, Telemusik, Aus Den Sieben
Tagen and Spiral, the two works Pole für 2 and Expo
für 3 were completed especially for the sound pro-
jection capabilities of the site.1 In addition to these
works, contemporary tape pieces by other German
composers were also performed, including works
by Boris Blacher, Erhard Grosskopf, Bernd Alois
Zimmermann and Gerd Zacher.
2. EXPERIMENTS IN REPRESENTING
PROCESS
Though Stockhausen showed only a functionalist atti-
tude towards technological innovations for musical
sound production throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his
interest in novel forms for musical notation predate
the 1970 Osaka auditorium works. Beginning in 1959,
a mobile transparency was used in Refrain, to allow
a multi-configurable recourse of material (printed
1
Stockhausen had originally intended to create a work called
HINAB–HINAUF (downwards–upwards) for the auditorium that
would utilise a vast multimedia component in the spirit of the
Varèse/Le Corbusier collaboration in 1958 at the Philips Pavilion,
though due to technical and funding issues the work was aban-
doned.
on a transparency) to ‘interact’ with the fixed score
at different points between performances, creating
indeterminacy in respect to performance.2 Such novel
types of notation developed by Stockhausen were often
utilised across pieces. For example, in the progression
from Kurzwellen (1968) to Spiral, Pole and Expo
(1970), new symbols are introduced into the already
standardised notational nomenclature as a means to
extend and augment the work’s design space. Similarly,
because of Stockhausen’s continued interest in refining
his notation, the compositional structure for each suc-
cessive work becomes more dependent on the specific
performer-led transformations and reiterations embo-
died in the new notation. By the completion of Spiral,
Stockhausen had a fully developed notational paradigm
that visualised four generalised musical parameters that
acted as catalysts for the thematic structuring of a work.
For Spiral, Pole and Expo these parameters are:
> rhythmic segmentation;
> duration of an event;
> pitch-space and/or register; and
> dynamic envelope.
2
Surprisingly, or not, this manifestation of what was a particular
favoured group of composing tools used by Cage was abruptly
banished by Stockhausen in his later reworking of the piece. The
new version of the work from 2000 (aptly called 3x Refrain 2000)
composes out the indeterminacy and fixes every aspect of the work.
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 187
Figure 2. Score excerpts from Pole für 2 showing: (a) complementary parallel transformation between player I, and player II
sound projection; (b) combination of sound walls and loudspeaker layers as a complement and occasional parallel to
players I and II. & Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kuerten, Germany (www.stockhausen.org).
These parameters become further developed with
the duo and trio works that follow Spiral by the
addition of indications for interactions among players
through the passing of materials, cues for echoing, and
parallel movement as well as the use of repetitive sig-
nals for demarcating points within the form (figure 2).
Consequently, these notational endeavours create even
greater demands for the performers who must com-
municate large sonic structures littered with cross-
referenced points of articulation, develop crucial
dynamic envelopes, and have the ability to track and
transform multiple musical parameters concurrently
across the entire, often lengthy, timeline of the work.
But the primary conceptual framework common
between Kurzwellen, Spiral, Pole and Expo remains
the use of the short-wave radio as progenitor for
thematic materials: either through direct electronic
transformation of short-wave signals, or through
instrumental/vocal imitation and development.
This apparent relinquishing of control on the design
of the compositional objects (that is, the work’s the-
matic materials) in Spiral, Pole and Expo was, no doubt,
a result in part of Stockhausen’s confidence in the per-
sonnel performing the works to masterfully capture and
interpret the fundamental transformations of his four
generalised musical parameters. As Fox has elaborated,
Characteristic of all these works is an openness of form
in which processes of transformation of musical mate-
rials are elaborately composed but the materials for
transformation are much less tightly prescribed. This
openness reflects both the era in which these scores
were written y, and Stockhausen’s collegial respect for
musicians such as Aloys Kontarsky, Johannes Fritsch
and Rolf Gelhaar. (Fox 2000: 16–24)
Similarly, because of Stockhausen’s level of co-
management instigated in the technical preparation
and rehearsal of these works, a more pervasive
communication of the composer’s desired intentions
could be revealed during the performances in Osaka.
Perhaps also, due to the appearance of new electronic
instruments, or the capabilities of the new spherical
auditorium, a new aesthetics of transformation is
manifest in the musical structure of these three works
in a seemingly more exacting, or at least more distinct
fashion than those preceding works such as Plus Minus
or Kurzwellen. Though Stockhausen is still merely
indicating the larger transformational goal of each
work in the notation, an ever-increasing engagement in
the subtle connections between events is explored. As
such, Stockhausen focuses on how thematic recollec-
tion and development becomes a musical shape and
an audible foil to the dynamic and complex sounds of
the short-wave radio. This is taken further in the works
composed for Osaka, in which thematic transforma-
tion is transmediated from the discrete confines of
musical space, and usurped to create an aural envir-
onment in which time and movement act to build an
ephemeral architecture through the three-dimensional
projection of sound sources.
2.1. Sound diffusion and Pole
At the point at which Stockhausen’s notational
experiments were moving towards a structural apogee –
that is, via a highly considered negotiation of pitch-
space, dynamic flux and temporal articulation (both
in the micro and macro sense) – the work Pole
introduces a new processing layer. As a complement
to the graphic nature of the music score, Stockhausen
creates a system for the notation of sound projection
in three dimensions based on the use of loudspeaker
regions defined within the six discrete layers of the
188 Michael Fowler
Figure 3. Moments 9–11 of Pole für 2 (page 1). & Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 51515 Kuerten, Germany
(www.stockhausen.org).
Osaka auditorium. The two layers below the audience
contain two concentric circles of loudspeakers on the
lowest level (plus subwoofers), and another circle just
below the floor. The other four layers extended well
above the seated listeners, providing an immersive
acoustic space in which dynamic sound trajectories
could radiate through three dimensions.
Pole extends the notational conventions of Spiral
by usurping the graphic representation of thematic
transformation of musical materials for new sound
projection strategies (figure 3). What becomes inno-
vative about Pole is the transmediation of this
musical notation device as a means to spatialise the
projection of the performer’s sound sources. Because
of the loudspeaker infrastructure at Osaka, the con-
trol of the soundfield was sophisticated enough to
allow for myriad acoustic typologies to be pre-composed
or improvised, as well as for the instantaneous trans-
formation from one state to another – sounds perceived
as being located in various parts of the interior could
be rapidly moved upwards and downwards, or seem to
spread and clump throughout sections of the walls in
quick transformational succession. This meant that
Stockhausen, as Klangmeister, could instantaneously
construct an aural architecture through the develop-
ment of ephemeral acoustic conditions. In turn,
transformations in music-space are potentially map-
ped and transmediated for the construction of
dynamic spatial auditory experiences within the
architectural site. Consequently, one can read Pole as
primarily concerned with the connections and dis-
connections between the performers, their short-wave
radio (as driver of thematic materials), and the
ephemeral acoustic spaces they co-curate.
Each performer of the Pole has their sound pro-
jected into the auditorium through one stratified
hemisphere of the six loudspeaker layers that sit at
azimuth 908 and 2908 to the orientation of the audience.
This means that both performers each have six
assignable sound layers within their hemisphere that
may be activated as an entire field, or as individual
layers, or as individual loudspeakers. This hemi-
spherical division of the space is perhaps the most
obvious allusion to the title of the work, though at
the same time it allows listeners and the sound pro-
jectionist a definitive spatiotemporal tracking of each
player’s sound sources. Following from the musical
score, extremes of register are notated for the sound
projectionist to which the signs of 1 and 2 represent
the highest and lowest layers of loudspeakers. By
using this system, loudspeaker fields or transitions
are indicated through lines (curved or straight), or
polygons (hashed to suggest a fully operational field,
empty to indicate only the extremities of the field).
These spatial representations of loudspeaker groups
are interpreted according to their length and height to
indicate the depth of the field (that is, the number of
loudspeaker layers), duration (as referenced against
the parts of the performers), and trajectory. Numerous
sections in the score suggest both a free use of sound
projection (marked ad lib.), as well as the possibility
of connecting individual loudspeaker point-sources to
create vertical or horizontal trajectories; such as
between moments 34 and 35 (see sound projection
score in figure 11).
The site specificity of the work makes it a rare
example of how an appropriate tangible architecture
becomes the necessary medium for the realisation of
the piece. However, to allow for a legacy of future
performances, Stockhausen gives a number of alter-
native loudspeaker infrastructure designs that create
a similar listener perspective for alternative spaces. In
each of the projected designs, Stockhausen is careful
to resolve completely the nature of the original
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 189
auditorium’s structure as a vehicle to deliver a ver-
tical movement of sound sources by maintaining the
sense of poles of activity generated by the two play-
ers’ material in the y-axis. Any new sound design for
the work then must conventionalise both the sense
of the two discrete hemispheres to which each player
belongs, and the capability for moving sounds dyna-
mically within these fields.
Just as the musical score is singularly concerned with
thematic development and transformation, so too is the
sound projection score, which seemingly transmediates
the graphic nomenclature interpreted by the musicians,
only now used by the sound projectionist for the
services of pure spatial development. Stockhausen’s
role, then, for the Klangmeister in Pole, Spiral and
Expo is as an additional performer. As such, the nature
of sound projection as a means to craft, suggest and
manipulate acoustic space becomes an important issue
for all the composer’s subsequent works.
3. BETWEEN MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURAL
SPACE
Considering Bornemann’s original desire for the
German pavilion to be the ultimate anti-architectonic
statement, the resulting auditorium’s geodesic dome
comes very close by allowing for a large interior
volume to be constructed with a relatively small surface
area. This means that the tangible materiality of
the building accounts for only a small part of the
viewable architecture. This aligns well with the attitude
of the dome’s inventor, Buckminster Fuller, whose
design philosophy favoured the ephemeralisation of
technological advancements by ‘doing more with less’
(Brand 1999: 93–9). Subsequently, the auditorium
becomes merely a vessel or site for an unseen epheme-
ral architecture that is activated through sound source
projection. Whereas Bornemann’s original concept
had people floating through space, the resultant audi-
torium allowed for sounds seemingly to float across the
interior and simultaneously to suggest different scales
of room and listening perspective.
This technological achievement certainly created
the opportunity for Stockhausen to begin an inves-
tigation into the connection between space as a
function of tangible materials (that is, the physical,
tactile boundaries of containment), and the intangible
(the nature of sound as a kinetic and ephemeral phe-
nomenon). The pavilion became a device for which the
intersection of music-space and architectural space
could challenge Stockhausen’s assertion that ‘there are
no sounds in space, but rather space is in the sounds’
(Worrall 1998: 93–9). Similarly, as it was a three-
dimensional sound laboratory, myriad spatial pro-
cesses and auditory transformations could be explored
in real-time in performance situations. Stockhausen
was intimately aware of the precedent set by Xenakis,
Le Corbusier and Varèse at the 1958 Philips Pavilion in
Brussels, and no doubt sought to further the ‘intimate
links between music and architecture, thereby showing
the potential for previously unimagined developments
in both fields’ (Giannoukakis and Zannos 2007:
359–66). Indeed, Stoianova and Kohl have noted in
Stockhausen’s later LICHT cycle of a ‘striving for a
synthesis of, on the one hand, an extremely clear
architectonic formal conception and, on the other, a
specifically sonic-gestural conception of movement’
(Stoianova and Kohl 1999: 179–212). Thus the com-
poser’s predilection for the organisation of gestures of
movement and auditory zones of activity naturally
produce ephemeral transformations of interior space.
Using such techniques within the infrastructure at
Osaka produced particularly striking acoustic typolo-
gies because of the myriad ways in which the pavilion’s
interior could be articulated during a performance.
Whereas Xenakis, Le Corbusier and Varèse relied on
the visitor experience of the pavilion as an installation,
much of the experience at the Osaka pavilion relied on
the real-time production of sound-space, and therefore
on the act of performance.3
Though the sound projection score of Pole is suc-
cinct in its account of the trajectory of audio outputs
within the loudspeaker layers, to appreciate the
architectural spatiality of the work one must also
account for the interior space as the range, or con-
tainer within which the work operates. Producing a
three-dimensional spatial mapping of Stockhausen’s
sound-projection score may assist in a qualitative
architectonic analysis of the spatial processes oper-
ating within Pole. Stockhausen presents the perfor-
mers of the work with indications about the state of
musical parameters in transformation. The sound
projection score similarly indicates the spatial trans-
formation of point/field sources. A simple approach
to using the sound projection score for a digital
architectonic realisation involves using the line work
of the projection score (referenced against its context)
as a structural frame for the generation of surfaces.
This procedure may enable an ontological investiga-
tion from the viewpoint of an architectural process
emanating from a musical context. While new archi-
tectural form-generating procedures are inevitably
3
Though there is a sound projection score for Pole, spatialisation of
performances of Kurzwellen, Aus Den Sieben Tagen and Spiral were
inevitably improvised by Stockhausen. The multiple performances
the works had during the entire Expo mean that a range of sound
projection strategies and geometries were potentially explored. This
makes the listener experience at the German auditorium much
different from the 1958 Philips pavilion in Brussels, which relied
exclusively on an unchanging precomposed work. Also, the reliance
on the short-wave radio as a means to generate thematic materials
for imitating and manipulating in works such as Pole means that
performances may differ radically between players and instruments –
one can also presume their spatialisation geometries to be equally
diverse.
190 Michael Fowler
Figure 4. Construction of the diffusion model’s superstructure through an exploded viewpoint (as a function of time) of
German pavilion’s auditorium (World’s Fair, Osaka 1970): six layers are extracted into two hemispheres whereby layer 1 is
simplified to a single stratum rather than subdivided.
gained, such an approach may also serve as a novel
spatial model that interrogates aspects of morphology
and typology inherent in Pole’s sound projection
geometries.
3.1. Non-uniform rational B-spline modelling
As an increasingly pervasive tool for the digital nego-
tiation of form generation within architectural praxis,
NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) modelling
provides a creative means of building surfaces through
mesh generation and lofting algorithms.4 To trans-
mediate Pole’s sound projection geometries with lofting
algorithms means using the projection score as a line-
work representation of structure. The loudspeaker
amplitude indications within the score can be projected
into three dimensions through the use of a section
drawing of the auditorium as a structural template
(see figure 4). By adapting the standardised exploded
viewpoint, the section (as a slice of the structure), can
be offset as a function of time, in turn homogenizing
each of Pole’s formal parts. The separation of each
section allows for a tracking of the nominal point of
origin of the loudspeaker outputs in the z- and y-axis
under f(x) 5 t. A result of this mapping is the creation
4
The process of lofting in any NURBS modeller involves creating a
surface as a function of a number of cross-section curves. In the
Rhinoceros lofting algorithm, importance is given to the point of
selection on the cross-section curves (as the lofting points govern-
ing direction), which means that opposite edges are impossible to
control with typical control-point mobility. The surface connects
each cross-section in a linear manner producing a planar topology
for which closed or open cross-section curves determine the
amount of volume or surface area produced.
of a spatiotemporal edge that becomes an underlying
structure for the architectonic visualisation methodol-
ogy. In the software program Rhinoceros, these
spatiotemporal edges become control-points-driven
polylines. To generate a surface that tracks the move-
ment of the structure requires a lofting algorithm
(with the option of building a closed or open loft with
tight or loose geometry) that will generate a surface
between lines and/or control-points. By using a closed
lofting algorithm the first selected control-point/poly-
line is connected to the final control-point/polyline,
thus producing a continuous surface whose geometry is
function of the wrapping of edge boundaries.
4. FORM ANALYSIS
The NURBS realisations of Stockhausen’s sound
projection score in figures 5–11 map the projection
score as a complex manifold of self-intersecting sur-
faces. Considering the manner in which they articu-
late the auditorium’s section-template can reveal in
visual, and architectonic terms, geometric predilec-
tions within Pole. Similarly, the models can also
account for the unexpected and striking incon-
sistencies of software-driven transmediation proce-
dures. As a three-dimensional visual account of the
sound-projection processes of Pole, each model is a
structurally connected mapping of the numbered
moments of the work. These moments are addition-
ally grouped according to Stockhausen’s suggested
delineation of performable sections. A cursory
account of the formal or architectonic connections
and disconnections between models shows a proclivity
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 191

Figures. 5. NURBS model of moments 1–9 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

Figure 6. NURBS model of moments 9–12 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

towards two (expected) poles of typology. These states
are fluid, however, and occur both as a:
> complex (an embellished, fragmented, discontin-
uous state); and a
> simplex (a planar, flowing, continuous state).
A further examination of these distinct formal
typologies reveals a localised set of surface char-
acteristics. By tracing the surface articulations of the
models, three discernable parameters can be used to
describe the two states of a surface through its:
> manifold (degree of surface uniformity/intersection);
> volume (the flux of void spaces); and
> envelope (the degree of topological variation).
By inverting Stockhausen’s schematic approach to
composition in Pole, whereby generalised musical
parameters serve to drive the flux in the musical form,
192 Michael Fowler

Figure 7. NURBS model of moments 12–19 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

Figure 8. NURBS model of moments 19–22 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

here I suggest three spatial parameters to track the
flux in the architectonic form.
Manifold refers to the surface, or surfaces, created
from the Rhinoceros lofting algorithm, and uniformity
(continuity) by the surface that extends across the
leading edge of the object. For moments 1–9 (figure 5),
9–12 (figure 6) and 19–22 (figure 8), the obvious visual
congruency between the models is a manifestation of
the gradual spatial transitions of the sound projection
structure within these sections. Only occasional brief
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 193

Figure 9. NURBS model of moments 22–29 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

Figure 10. NURBS model of moments 29–30 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.

interruptions in this uniform unfolding of architectonic
structure occur (for example, moments 4–5, figure 5).
For each of these sections, loudspeaker fields for each
player open gradually in time, reducing any sense of
spatiotemporal fragmentation. Similarly, because the
line of symmetry is located at the listener level, a
relatively uniform manifold is produced.
Volume can be defined in terms of enclosure, or
degree of interiority present within a model. Whereas
the nature of the moments 1–9 present few, if any
chances for the auditorium’s loudspeaker walls to be
active simultaneously in both hemispheres across all
layers, moments 12–19 (figure 7) and 29–30 (figure 10)
are primarily concerned with the extended use of the
194 Michael Fowler
Figure 11. NURBS model of moments 30–35 of Pole für 2: front, elevation and perspective viewpoints.
loudspeaker walls as a continual presence. At moments
25 and 29, a complete sustained opening of the entire
loudspeaker field of the auditorium occurs, articulating
Pole’s point of maximal sound-surface area.
For understanding envelope, I primarily mean the
deviations within the y-axis of the models’ surfaces or
spatiotemporal edges when read in elevation. This is a
measure of the flux density of the loudspeaker wall,
and its relative surface area. In moments 9–12 and
19–22, for example, the evidence of uniform, simple
edges, and gradual openings in the loudspeaker fields
by layers cause the subsequent deviations in envelope
to be restrained and subtle.
What becomes clear, then, in the Rhinoceros models
is the intimate nexus of surface as a function of struc-
ture. In spite of the manner in which the lofting
algorithm of the sound projection geometries causes a
further composing out, and slight embellishment to the
skeleton of the models,5 the overall manifestation of
spatial dynamics inherent in the sound projection
score becomes mapped within the models. Examining
them more closely reveals that Stockhausen’s under-
lying sound projection geometries are highly varied.
It appears that extending the normative temporal
5
This is routinely observable in the front views of each model,
where the surface produced from lofting often extends well outside
of the confines of the auditorium section-template. In an attempt to
reconcile the difficulties of surface construction on two grouped
control-point-defined open parallel curves, Rhinoceros manu-
factures a geometry that bridges voids between open curves while
still accounting for start and end points of a curve group in a closed
loft situation.
considerations of musical form into a three-dimensional
case enables Stockhausen to continually reconstruct
the architectural scale of the listening environment.
This becomes a means, then, for Stockhausen to
evoke and recall distinct spatial auditory experiences
within a work potentially using connections and
transformations in music-space to drive articulations
of the interior. It is in this context that Stockhausen
becomes progenitor of the spatiotemporal architectonic
object, acting in a fashion akin to Barry Blesser’s notion
of the aural architect (Blesser 2007).
4.1. Morphology
In Pole’s opening section (moments 1–9, figure 5),
Stockhausen’s sound projection design situates the
source of player I at the extreme opposite state to
player II. This immediately creates an aural environ-
ment in which the rest of the section may comfortably
explore the myriad states or transitions between these
poles. It similarly accentuates the nature of the work’s
title in an aurally arresting fashion. The section oper-
ates through a linear exploration of the auditorium’s
interior with only a small appearance of a complete
loudspeaker field occurring in moment 5. This linearity
features heavily in the section, and, in terms of the
typology, section 1 is a complete and contained spatial
exploration that operates on inverse vertical engage-
ments between the players’ sound diffusion patterns.
The interconnection and transition between the
architectonic typologies in Pole can be further investi-
gated through an examination of the relationship
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 195
between the NURBS models of section 1 and section 2.
The smooth continuities between moments established
in the majority of section 1 are similarly present in
section 2, though now somewhat more embellished.
The projection score again relies on secure, distinct
edges of the loudspeaker walls being present in section 2,
but expands the transitions initiated in section 1 through
sound-field expansion/contractions, rather than a linear
trajectory of movement.
The use of field transitions consequently creates
voids, and therefore containment (volume), such that
the morphology of section 1 through section 2 is man-
ufactured through a spatial transformation for which
the typology remains a constant simplex, though the
move from linear trajectory to surface fields produces
some manifold aberrations. A likewise simplex typology
is also present in section 4 (moments 19–22, figure 8).
Here, there is reference to the linear trajectories of
movement up and down the sound wall hemispheres for
each player, as in section 1, though Stockhausen slightly
elaborates the process by anchoring each player’s sound
projection geometry to the loudspeaker wall’s polar
extremities. Again, in reference to section 1, some
appearances of surface fields occur (for example within
moment 21), in addition to the creation of a volume via
the model’s encapsulating manifold.
The visualised spatial processes of Pole become
even clearer through an examination of the inter-
leaving morphology between sections 1, 2, 4 and 6
compared to sections 3, 5 and 7 (see figure 12). By
section 3 (moments 12–19, figure 7), the geometry
of the model has progressed into a seemingly frag-
mentary episode. Here, the manifold has become
discontinuous, though due to the nature of the sound
projection geometry the degree of containment has
increased dramatically in addition to the complexity
of the envelope. The change in typology has seen the
envelope of the model become activated in a way that
is reflected in the original sound projection score –
section 3 is primarily governed by the exploration of
individual layers of the loudspeaker circles within the
auditorium. The ostensive spatial processes within
the projection score here, then, are concerned with
both a definition of the extremities of the loudspeaker
walls (as in section 1 and 4), and the opening of
intermediate layers in both hemispheres in a quasi-
pointillist fashion. This approach is further augmented
with free, linear trajectories of sound throughout the
entire loudspeaker walls (marked by Stockhausen as ad
lib. trajectories). The model’s resulting folds, and non-
uniform deformations across the surface are in stark
contrast to the previous section (figure 6), where
loudspeaker fields for each player open gradually and
uniformly in time. Indeed, section 3 is primarily an
exploration of spatial embellishment, both perhaps as
an immediate contrastive device, and as a new process
to actuate the continued spatial morphology of Pole.
Figure 12. Typological states derived from six NURBS
models of Pole für 2, where S1 5 moments 1–9; S2 5
moments 9–12; S3 5 moments 12–19; S4 5 moments 19–22;
S5 5 moments 22–29; and S6 5 moments 30–35.
This transition in the typology of the NURBS
models (between complex and simplex forms of spatial
composition) also further connects the processes of the
final two complex sections (5 and 7) to the previous
processes of section 3. In section 5 (moments 22–29,
figures 9 and 15), a combination of the spatial trans-
formation used in the first three sections is incorpo-
rated into the sound projection schema. The resulting
model shows signs of volume and encapsulation (at
moment 25, one of the spatial maxima of Pole), com-
plex envelope shape and development through stepwise
layer movements (for example, as in moment 23), and a
relatively continuous manifold created by the hemi-
spherical combination of linear trajectories and larger
explorations of the loudspeaker walls.
For the final section (section 7; moments 30–35;
figure 11), Stockhausen’s projection score again
points to previous techniques. By referencing the
pointillist technique of section 3 in a manner that uses
an exploration of the surface as the equivalent of an
architectonic structure, varying layers of the sound-
surface are momentarily revealed at myriad depths,
both in a linear fashion and as a field. The result-
ing envelope creates a fragmentary surface that is
discontinuous. The further use of free linear trajec-
tories in combination with diffusion fields briefly
allows for volumes of containment across the model,
though in contrast to the relatively few stable areas
of the surface (for example, moments 30 and 34) the
envelope sustains a complexity not seen in any of the
other sections.
Stockhausen’s vacillation between using the audi-
torium’s loudspeaker infrastructure to create sonor-
ous sub-regions, or for the dynamic linear movement
of point sources, is the key feature most readily
visualised and mapped in the NURBS models
described here. The models readily reveal tautness
between sections within Pole because of the way in
which spatial processes are engaged from earlier
established moments. The complexity of the trans-
mediated sound projection manifold reaches an
apogee in sections 3, 5 and 7, though it is true that
within any given section a process of spatial devel-
opment is readily detectable, however subtle. Stock-
hausen’s design approach thus establishes an identifiable
196 Michael Fowler

Figure 14. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS

model showing perspective view of moments 1–9.
Figure 13. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
model showing perspective detail of moments 30–35.

relational framework for spatial transformations

across the complete unfolding of Pole. Through the
NURBS models, a transmediation of the micro and
macro form classes inherent in the sound projec- Figure 15. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
tion score’s geometry is revealed. Additionally, they model showing perspective detail of moments 22–29.
document the composer’s seeming use of musical
devices such as recapitulation, embellishment and
dynamic contrasts to build momentary aural archi-
tectures as articulations of the interior acoustic space.

5. NON-STANDARD ARCHITECTURES
It may seem like a striking irony that in spite of
Bornemann’s triumphant success at negating the
superficialities of the traditions of World’s Fair Figure 16. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
model showing perspective detail of moments 29–30.
pavilion designs, a complex architectonic series of
forms has emerged from this study. But, as the
auditory experience of a work like Pole lies very much
in the listener’s ability to comprehend momentary
acoustic structures, the NURBS modelling of sound
projection geometries presented here are not intended
to capture nor account for any of those more com-
plex aspects of auditory spatiality. What such mod-
elling can achieve, though, is the hitherto unexplored
nature of sound projection as a three-dimensional Figure 17. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
process capable of generating ephemeral architec- model showing perspective detail of moments 12–19.
tonic structures visualised within a site context (see
manifold details in figures 13–19). Even when this
context becomes abstracted through the use of a
section-template, the nature of the sound projection
geometries within Pole can be immediately recognised
as ones that, when transmediated, reveal inherent
three-dimensional spatial processes and typologies.
It is Stockhausen’s structural considerations, then,
that naturally become three-dimensional in Pole, where
the spatial projection of music into tangible space takes
on qualities of an ephemeral non-standard architecture.
In such an ephemeral architecture gesture, line and Figure 18. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
sound-surface become spatial elements, that when model showing perspective detail of moments 9–12.
configured and strategically combined recall, develop
and embody the auditorium’s physical structure with an crafting the acoustic space in a similar manner in
aurally produced equivalent. But the works composed which the instrumentalists or singers craft musical space.
specifically for Osaka also mark a beginning point for But in spite of the seemingly innovative synthesis
Stockhausen’s championing of the role of Klangmeister. achieved between architectonic concepts and elec-
For works such as Pole, Spiral and Expo the sound troacoustic strategies at Osaka by Stockhausen and
projectionist becomes a second, third or fourth performer, Bornemann, architectural designers utilising spatial
 The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2 197
Figure 19. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pole für 2, NURBS
model showing perspective detail of moments 19–22.
auditory information have yet still to establish a
similar paradigm that at once squarely challenges the
traditional approach of acoustic engineering within
the built environment. Moreover, contemporary attempts
at the translation of music into architecture have
revealed how the superficial use of generalised musi-
cal parameters for proportional relationships within
architecture are not particularly convincing.6 Robert
Benson’s call for a new spatiality in architecture in
which temporality becomes a catalyst for new design
explorations seems closely aligned with Stockhausen’s
spatial collaborative aesthetic:
But it seems to me that we much more desperately need
a new perception of space that suggests a heightened
sense of time and existence, that accounts for the totality
of the human being as a thinking, feeling and willing
creature in a world of more than three dimensions. This
would be the most liberating instrumentality imaginable
for contemporary architecture because it would establish
a frame of reference against which we could measure,
and by means of which we could control the ever-
changing and ephemeral aspects of information. (Benson
1987: 6–7)
Similarly, Stockhausen, as progenitor of Barry
Blesser’s notion of the aural architect (Blesser 2007)
finds a resonance in the composer’s exploration of
sound-space, though for Stockhausen design and
spatiality were used as a means to express the aes-
thetics of an extended musical system, rather than for
the design of architecture for human inhabitation.
But, nonetheless, Blesser’s sense of the potential of
aural architecture to unify the disciplines of music and
architecture through the act of spatial composition
are innovative, and particularly pertinent for his con-
ception of music as a generator of three-dimensional
sound objects:
The composer must explore the nature of three-dimensional
space in the same way that he extended the nature of
timbre space. Because space is now an explicit, rather
than implicit, artistic dimension, equivalent to a set of
new musical instruments, it will take many generations
6 dam: Uitgeverij 010 Publishers.
For example, see Stephen Holl’s Stretto House 1992, Dallas TX,
USA: a supposed translation of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Per-
cussion and Celeste.
for it to be refined and accepted. It will be a future
cultural norm. (Blesser 2001: 867–903)
6. CONCLUSIONS
My initial intentions for the use of NURBS model-
ling of sound projection geometry in Stockhausen’s
Pole was to generate a digital proto-architecture that
utilised a novel approach to form generation while
retaining a close contact to the nature of architectural
modelling as a means for design research. In archi-
tectural terms, the models are more like design exercises
than representations of a resolved structure. But being in
this state makes them valuable as analytic design tools
for visualising the inherent spatial processes within Pole.
The method by which they have been constructed – that
is, as digital negotiations of virtual space – allude in
some fashion to the intangible nature of sound projec-
tion, and the difficulties of representing sound geome-
tries in visual, architectonic terms. But, because of the
allowance for deviations of surface form through the
closed lofting algorithms in Rhinoceros, the trans-
mediation of the sound projection score of Pole has
ultimately enabled a series of models to serve as an
artefact of the nexus of praxis between architectural
considerations of spatiality and musical conceptions
of transformation.
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