Fifteenth Hour: Orvonton Klang (Stockhausen)

the mediapark 7 building, cologne. eleventh , fifteenth hours premiered here on 8 may 2010, in komed-saal.

orvonton, baritone , electronic music (layers 21, 20, 19 cosmic pulses) 2007 (24 mins.). work number 95. specified colour hks 6 (yellow-orange) (stockhausen 2010f, cover, i, , iii).

orvonton premiered on 8 may 2010 @ komed-saal in mediapark 7 in cologne jonathan de la paz zaens, sound direction hannah weirich, part of musiktriennale köln (gimpel 2010).

according urantia book, outside havona there 7 inhabited universes, 7 superuniverses , , earth s (urantia) local universe of nebadon belongs orvonton, seventh superuniverse (urantia foundation 1955, 164–65).

in september 2007, when composition of hours 14 21 substantially completed, stockhausen explained in interview: in new works composing in klang, describe, in sung text, how piece hearing composed—and in fact right down details: how rhythm goes, how melody goes, how harmony goes. love fact music explains (stockhausen , ermen 2007). stockhausen composed orvonton de la paz zaens voice in mind, , composer assigned him extraordinarily long text (56 lines) because of clarity of german diction (tariman 2011). text provides analysis of material , structure of piece itself, , meant humorously (nonnenmann 2010): orvonton: baritone, … / layer nineteen has twenty-three tones sound loop. / in basic tempo 3.75 each note lasts 2 seconds, / , therefore loop lasts 23 x 2 = 46 seconds , , on (nonnenmann 2010). later on, text includes artistic credo: each sound universe. / 1 cannot tell if beautiful numbers: / depends on counting. / 4 hundred , forty hertz neither beautiful nor ugly. / beauty lives. / … / art music not honky-tonk [i.e., low music-hall entertainment], / number games need moments every , soul, / touch, astonish: / time stands still .