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FULL AM HIMMEL WANDRE ICH Indianerlieder (Stockhausen) Rheinsberg 1997 Nathalie de Montmollin, Julia Rempe
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: AM HIMMEL WANDRE ICH Indianerlieder
- Composer: Stockhausen Karlheinz
- Libretto: traditional native American songs
- Venue & Opera Company: St. Laurentiuskirche Rheinsberg, , Kammeroper Schloß Rheinsberg
- Recorded: June 24, 1997
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Nathalie de Montmollin, Julia Rempe
- Conductor: Vykintas Baltakas
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Cornelia Heger
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Vykintas Baltakas
- Date Published: 2017
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs, othersubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The Indianerlieder (American Indian Songs)—also known by the opening words of the first song, “In the sky I am walking”, and by their German translation “Am Himmel wandre ich”—constitute the only fully worked-out component of the Alphabet. It is also the only part capable of performance independent of the larger work, and the only part to have been published. The score is dedicated to its first performers, Helga Hamm-Albrecht and Karl O. Barkey, and bears the work Number 36½ in the composer’s catalog of works.
The texts employed are:
twelve short poems, sayings, or prayers of various American Indian tribes, in English translations from an anthology called Indian Prose and Poetry
Onomatopoetic vocal sounds (bird songs, wind, war cries, etc.),
“unusual vocal sounds” and “favourite names”, freely chosen by the performers
heckling
free intimate texts (something erotic, whispered to a beloved, which could never be spoken directly)
a freely chosen fairy tale dealing with tones
names such as Jillina, Jika, Jillaika (all pet names for Jill Purce), or Eagloo (a bird-man name, one of many used by the composer)
purely sonorous vowel and consonant constructions, interspersed with finger snaps, claps, foot taps, etc.
It consists of twelve scenes, each of which includes one American Indian song, for a pair of singer-actors. The scenes follow one another without interruption. The first song is intoned on a single note, C, the next song adds a second note to the first, the F♯ above, the third adds the G a semitone higher still, the fourth descends to E, and so on, until reaching a twelve-tone row in the final song, but with the notes in fixed registers: the basic formula of the work. The songs were originally conceived for two women’s voices, but then the composer decided they could be performed (as they were at the premiere) by a man and a woman. They have also been performed by two male singers.
In a long version, such as is used in the four-hour-long Alphabet für Liège, the twelve scenes are sung straight through four times (with a pause of about fifteen minutes between each performance), with variations each time in dynamics and tempos. For an extremely long version (possibly alternating two different pairs of singers or exchanging singer combinations), the twelve scenes can be sung twelve times each, in the sequence: 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, … 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12, and then 2–12, 3–12, etc., down to 10+11+12, 11+12, and ending with 12. In such a performance, each song should be varied upon each repetition in dynamics and tempo.
Quoted from Wikipedia