Aspects of the Serial Procedures in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kontakte

Brandorff, Steffen, Cour, Jørgen la

1975

Electronic Music & Musical Acoustics 1: 75-107.

Language: English

This article is an extract of a thesis written by Ulla Kellermann and the authors. After a short introduction concerning their approach to the analysis of Kontakte (relation with the graphic score, structure, relation with information theory), the authors' analysis focuses on the principle of parameteric transformation (space, form, instrumentation, intensity/register/speed) in different types of sound. The next parts contain analyses of frequency and duration, how the composer controls the individual parameters through degrees of transformation, the global form and a comparison between one part of the piece and its score.