page_title: Mittwoch aus Licht
section_title: Scene 2: Orchester-Finalisten
hierarchical_section_title: Mittwoch aus Licht / Synopsis / Scene 2: Orchester-Finalisten
caption_attribution_description: English: Karlheinz Stockhausen: Mittwoch aus Licht, scene 2: Orchester-Finalisten. Orchestra Finalists are floating high up in the air, each in his/her own space—during the cello solo this is over an airport at the sea, as the oboist (Dan Bates) and double-bassist (Jeremy Watt) look on. Birmingham Opera production, Argyle Works, Digbeth, Birmingham. Dress rehearsal, Tuesday, 21 August 2012.
context_page_description: Mittwoch aus Licht is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting, four scenes, and a farewell. It was the sixth of seven to be composed for the opera cycle Licht: die sieben Tage der Woche, and the last to be staged. It was written between 1995 and 1997, and first staged in 2012.
context_section_description: Eleven instrumentalists compete for posts in an orchestra, while floating high in the air. Telescopic observation reveals a variety of airborne scenes: a cathedral roof, aeroplanes flying over the sea, ships in a harbour, etc. In the last solo, the double-bass player becomes convulsed in an obsessive-compulsive fit of scraping and groaning, until the appearance of the mysterious figure of a mummy who, with a stroke on a Chinese gong, releases the bassist from his affliction (Kohl 2008). After all auditions have been completed, a horn player unexpectedly enters the hall, playing a signal, after which all of the players fly upward in a tutti finale.
  The solos are accompanied by electronic and concrete music in octophonic spatial projection, and each is associated with a particular image:
  Oboe above a cathedral
  Violoncello over an airport by the sea
  Clarinet above a harbour with passing aircraft
  Bassoon over a train pulled by a steam locomotive
  Violin above a bird reserve
  Tuba amongst flocks of birds and swarms of bees
  Flute above a kindergarten with small goats
  Trombone above a swimming pool with elephants
  Viola flying with wild geese over a railway station
  Trumpet over a Marrakech market-place, with zebras, lions, wild geese, and horses
  Contrabass above a sailing ship, with tree frogs and a rattletrap
  Horn
  Orchestral Tutti
caption: Orchester-Finalisten: during the cello solo, oboe (Dan Bates) and double-bass (Jeremy Watt) above an airport at the sea (Birmingham Opera production, 21 August 2012).
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