Karlheinz Stockhausen - Opus 1970 (1969)

Created during a production between the 10th and 14th December 1969 in the Godorf/Cologne Studio
Based formally on the composition of "Kurzwellen": material is obtained from a regulating system (radio short waves), selected freely by the player and immediately developed. By "developed" is meant: spread, condensed, extended, shortened, differently coloured, more or less articulated, transposed, modulated, multiplied, synchronized.

Stockhausen, from the attached sleeve text

This classic live electronic improvisation work (which grew out of Stockhausen's Kurzwellen) is actually a great noisy atonal tribute to Beethoven's Opus 212b. Stockhausen's Opus 1970 was composed to mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, but curiously suppressed in the official list of Stockhausen works.
Stockhausen serves as sound-director of Aloys Kontarsky (piano), Johannes G. Fritsch (electric viola), Harald Bojé (Elektronium early electronic keyboard instrument), and Rolf Gehlhaar (tam-tam). The players activate tapes containing abstract fragments of Beethoven's music as they perform and improvise in response, with Stockhausen electronically processing and mixing the group's output.


Issued, until now, on:
- Deutsche Grammophon DG 139 461 (LP) [this share]
- Deutsche Grammophon DG 2536 108 (Musikkunde in Beispielen LP) excerpt only
- Polydor 2612 023 "Greatest Hits: Karlheinz Stockhausen" (2LP) excerpt only
- Specktrum Musik Schw HL 00 212 (excerpt) (LP)
- Kurzwellen von Karlheinz Stockhausen. Hopp, Schott (Mainz) ISBN 3-7957-1895-3 (book & CD) excerpts only

My Analog to Digital Conversion System:
- Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference Turntable
- SME Arm Model 3200 with a Shure Stylus VN35HE
- Marantz 1120 Power Amplifier
- TerraTec Electronic Aureon Wave 7.1
- Total Recorder Professional Edition Version 7.1 (with Click Removal activated)
At the last minute of Side 1 some noise from the vinyl surface was impossible to keep out.