Stockhausen's Journey to Heaven

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Michaels Reise um die Erde

instrumental opera

Lincoln Center

New York

Production of Wiener Taschenoper

musicFabric

"Sometimes music vibrates beyond the clouds, and we can no longer hear its echo... very rarely is truly infinite; then it makes us forget the earth."

 This cosmic story of Michael the angel, the sovereign of our universe, who leads humanity to God through love against Lucifer, the cosmic spirit of rebellion and destruction, is a mix of absurdity and spirituality performed by clarinets, trombones, violins and percussions instead of human voice. Michael is a trumpet player who flies on a crane that allows him to challenge gravity, making seven stop journey around the world represented by an orchestra consisting of 28 musicians. The journey is characterised by the sonic 'atmo-spheres', typical instruments, typical musical  styles of the places visited. 
The three main figures appear as musical forms, called 'formula' by Stockhausen, which allows the figure to be recognized aurally. Layered on top of one another, these three formulas comprise a composition, the 'super-formula', where the three different characteristic formulas confront each other, comprise vibrations that can be transformed into each other through transposition, stretching or compression; so one thing flows into the other, because it all has the same origin. That is the core of 'serial thinking'.

"This opera is also a promise of a more harmonious era following the suffering on this Earth, this human existence."

after-performance

Avery Hall

detail

Stockhausen's Questions

     "Am I a newcomer in musical history, or am I a reincarnation of an earlier composer? Are the superficial parallels between my music and the music of other cultures perhaps grounded in experiences of my earlier lives on this planet?

   What are the distinctively new vibrations and rhythms in my music, and what law of the Universe are transmitted in them? To what spiritual lanes do the different works, or isolated events from individual works, aspire? To what level of awareness do they bring us?     What are the underlying mods of particular works? Which is the appropriate state of feeling for listening to a given work? Which works are expressly spiritual in tone, that is to say music of praise, prayer, and thanksgiving to God? In which is the spirituality hidden?     Which works appeal more directly to the physical being, the feelings and sufferings of sensory existence, and which more to the transcendental life of the spirit? Or is a balance of sorts discernible overall between the vibrations and rhythms of the beast and the angel in man?    Which pieces sing more than others, which transport us to worlds far removed from our planet? Which works allow us to experience the way of life of much smaller creatures, down to the smallest micro-organism? Which enable us to traverse great distances with the stride and breath of giants, to fly with giant wings?     In which work has the Prince of Satania, Master Lucifer, insinuated himself with his brilliant wit and glittering alchemy? Which works, which part of works allow us, like a child seeking protection, to cling to God's foot, snug and content in the certain knowledge of complete security?     Where sounds the voice of Prophecy?     Where the voice of Divine Humour?"
Foreword  The Works of Stockhausen by Robin Maconie