Momente

Momente
Cantata by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Großer Sendesaal of the WDR in 1954, where the first version was premiered
EnglishMoments
Textvarious text fragments
LanguageGerman
Performed21 May 1962 (1962-05-21)
Scoring
  • soprano
  • four mixed choirs
  • thirteen instrumentalists

Momente (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two electric keyboards). A "cantata with radiophonic and theatrical overtones",[1] it is described by the composer as "practically an opera of Mother Earth surrounded by her chicks".[2] It was Stockhausen's first piece composed on principles of modular transposability, and his first musical form to be determined from categories of sensation or perception rather than by numerical units of musical terminology, which marks a significant change in the composer's musical approach from the abstract forms of the 1950s.[3]

  1. ^ Maconie 2005, p. 240.
  2. ^ Stockhausen 1989, p. 147.
  3. ^ Maconie 1973, p. 32.