Karlheinz Stockhausen and the Avant-Garde Gruppen

Does the rise of electronic music foreshadow the end of the era of interpreters? Are performing musicians to be condemned in the future to go on playing only old instrumental music for some “collegium musicum” concerts and in tape-recordings for music museums?

It is a fact that in the evolution of instrumental music the performing musician has been condemned more and more to converting increasingly complicated scores into tones. Musicians became a sort of machine substitute, and finally there no longer remained any room for “free decision,” for interpretation in the best sense of the word. It was an entirely natural development that the realization of sounds was finally transferred to electronic apparatuses and machines. These apparatuses produce the desired results exactly according to technical data; and besides, one does not have to persuade them for hours on end in discussions about the meaning of new music before they will produce a single note.

- Karlheinz Stockhausen (1958)

The above quote suggests that Karlheinz Stockhausen, in the late 1950s, had reservations about working on new music with large ensembles. It might, therefore, seem ironic that in 1958 Stockhausen decided to premiere “Gruppen”, a large-scale orchestral work necessitating 109 musicians and three conductors.

Stockhausen composed “Gruppen” during the summer of 1955. It was then scored in 1957 in anticipation of the March 24, 1958, performance which had been commissioned by the Cologne Radio WDR.

“Gruppen” was an avant-garde work of massive proportion. It was meant to be performed by three groups of musicians (36-37-36) spatially positioned in a horseshow shape. The same instruments were represented in each of the three groups. “Gruppen” necessarily depended on the presence of three conductors.

On the night of the premiere, Stockhausen directed the orchestra with the help of Bruno Maderna (Orchestra II – middle) and Pierre Boulez (Orchestra III – right). The version available here was recorded in 1965 on the eve of a tour that brought “Gruppen” to the rest of Europe. Boulez did not participate in the tour and so Michael Gielen was brought in to direct Orchestra III.

On a theoretical and logistical level, “Gruppen” is a work with few, if any, precedents. But most importantly, it is a music that occupies space in ways that are both enthralling and intoxicating.

Andrew Clements, writing for The Guardian, best describes “Gruppen” when he notes that the piece “became an exploration of mass – of music that turns and twists in space, that superimposes massive accelerations, decelerations and dynamic contrasts, that delights in all the possibilities of three independent groups playing together.”

“Gruppen” is undoubtedly best experienced in a live setting. The stereo version released on the Deutsche Grammophon label was adapted from a three-channel recording. A quadraphonic version of the performance (front, left, right, back) would have been a reasonable compromise but few labels, in the 1970s, showed a willingness to embrace quadraphonic technology.

Like all stereo formats, Stereo 8 offers an imperfect audio document of the 1965 performance. But in the absence of alternatives, we will have to content ourselves with the 8 track cartridges, LPs and compact discs available here and there in record shops and online.

Listen to programs A and B below.

GRUPPEN – FOR THREE ORCHESTRAS (part one and two)

Stereo 8 (Deutsche Grammophon DC8 – M 87002) – Track Listing:
Programme A: “Gruppen” for Three Orchestras (part one)
Programme B: “Gruppen” for Three Orchestras (part two) / “Carré” for Four Orchestras and Four Choirs (part one)
Programme C: “Carré” for Four Orchestras and Four Choirs (part two)
Programme D: “Carré” for Four Orchestras and Four Choirs (part three)

LP – Track Listing:
Side 1: “Gruppen” for Three Orchestras
Side 2: “Carré” for Four Orchestras and Four Choirs

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1998 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performance below:

Conductors -
Orchestra Red: Simon Rattle
Orchestra Blue: John Carewe
Orchestra Green: Daniel Harding