Interpretation and Performance Practice in Realizing Stockhausen's Studie II

Bibliographic Data

ID4760792
AuthorsSean Williams (0000-0003-1460-0085, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume141
Issue2
Pages445-481
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Musical Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-0403 • E-ISSN: 1471-6933
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/02690403.2016.1216059
OpenAlexW2283441561
LanguageEN
Citations received5

In the 1950s, using electronic devices to make music seemed a new paradigm for composers eager to remove the effects of interpretation on their relationship with their audience. The promise was that compositional ideas could be directly made into sound with the help of a technician whose task it was to carry out instructions. By making a new realization of Stockhausen's Studie II, composed in 1954, I interrogate many of the original techniques and practices, and show that there are many sites which require interpretation and raise issues of performance practice. The implication of these discoveries is that there may be advantages to an analysis of early electronic music of the 1950s and 1960s from the perspective of the practice of instrumental music, and that where there are references to 'technicians', great care should be taken to understand and appreciate the range of musical skills often required by such individuals. This approach to realization also raises serious questions about the ontology of electronic music

Electronic instrument · Electronic music · Musical analysis · Realization (probability · Technician · Diverse Musicological Studies · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis

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