807408

StimmungKARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

Theatre of VoicesPaul Hillier

W o r l d W i d e r e l e a s e s e P T e M B e r 2 0 0 7

Grammy Award-winning conductor Paul Hillier

revisits Stockhausen’s “Stimmung” and creates a

new “Copenhagen” version for Theatre of Voices.

Worldwide Release September 2007

“STIMMUNG

is certainly

meditative music.

Time is suspended.

One listens to

the interior of

the sound, to the

interior of the

harmonic spectrum,

to the interior of

the vowel…”

– Karlheinz StocKhauSen

2007 harmonia mundi usa / HMU-FLY60076 Design: Scarlett Freund

www.harmoniamundi.comU.S. Publicity Contact: Sarah Folger

sfolger@harmoniamundi.com

W ith the 1968 Paris première of his Stimmung, Karlheinz Stockhausen exploded the very definition of vocal music performance. This tour de force, made up of an unbroken

sequence of 51 sonic models – entirely built on the overtones of B-flat and presented in every possible voice combination – experiments with new compositional techniques and explores the mechanics of speech and song. Paul Hillier, a champion of early and contemporary vocal repertoire, leads Theatre of Voices in his newly created “Copenhagen version” of a milestone of 20th-century music that today remains as relevant as ever.

Hillier’s long relationship with Stimmung began in the 1970s when he performed it as a member of Singcircle with Stockhausen himself at the controls. Written in 1968, a year of revolt and idealism, it is a definitive work of the era based on one chord for its 70-minute duration. Staged for six miked singers in a circle, it allows the performers space to improvise and influence the outcome of the overall perfor-mance. The serene but highly charged aural landscape of Stimmung has global roots originating in Stockhausen’s absorption of musical experiences as he traveled the world in the 1950s and 1960s – from mystic experiences in Mexico to Tibetan overtone singing. It manages to be utterly esoteric and yet one of Stockhausen’s most accessible works; highly spiritual and yet very funny; highly mystical, yet profane and erotic in its poetry. When performed on tour in the U.K., The Times called it “mesmerizing” and The Daily Telegraph described the performance as “evoking a feeling of ritual and tranquility” and said “its contemplative aura can be salutary.”

In 1990, after many years as Music Director of the Hilliard Ensemble, Paul Hillier founded the Theatre of Voices and began his series of acclaimed recordings for harmonia mundi usa. Flexible in size, the ensemble was created to focus on medieval and renaissance polyphony and contemporary composers of the “new tonality” school, electronica and experimental work. “I like the idea that you can create a world with just the sound of voices,” he has said, “even with a single voice there is so much you can do.” Considered one of the world’s foremost vocal ensembles, Theatre of Voices now operates in a European reincarnation out of Denmark where Hillier is based. The size of the group expands or contracts depending on the repertoire, ranging from solo and small ensemble works such as “Bitter Ballads” and the recent “Cries of London” to larger ensemble pieces, like Arvo Pärt’s De Profundis. Variety called one Theatre of Voices concert a “profound musical expression with vocal performances of bell-like clarity.”

For a complete Theatre of Voices discography visit: www.harmoniamundi.com

HMU 807408 / 78:02

Karlheinz StockhausenStimmung

Paul Hillier / Theatre of Voices

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“ Theatre of Voices, prepared by their founder and director, Paul Hillier, performed with an intensity that made for a unique sonic experience. At the heart of their interpretation was a feat of musical alchemy: they made audible the harmonics that are usually hidden around individual notes. By changing the vowel sound of a held pitch, they created a chorus of ethereal, bell-like sounds that soared octaves above the chord they were actually singing.” – The Guardian (Concert review from 2006 UK Tour)

Available SACD format onlyThis stereo/multi-channel hybrid SACD

can be played on any standard compact disc player