page_title: Samstag aus Licht
section_title: Synopsis
hierarchical_section_title: Samstag aus Licht / Synopsis
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Cathédrale Saint-Paul de Liège; la chaire, par Guillaume Geefs, de style néo-gothique, datant du milieu du 19ème siècle. Détail: Lucifer, au revers de la chaire.
context_page_description: Samstag aus Licht is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting and four scenes, and was the second of seven to be composed for the opera cycle Licht: die sieben Tage der Woche. It was written between 1981 and 1983, to a libretto written by the composer and incorporating a text by Saint Francis of Assisi, and was first staged in Milan in 1984.
context_section_description: The four scenes of Samstag clearly present in concentrated form a process of the opening of space and the liberation of sound. The first scene has the most restricted space, with just two characters appearing from nothingness. The second scene expands into the centre area, left and right, with seven characters (flute and six percussionists). The third scene layers everyone in the vertical dimension with a stilt dancer and a wind band in six levels, forming a gigantic face. Finally, the fourth scene presents both static and rotating events surrounding the audience, as well as diagonal movements, and the release of a wild bird who flies away (Stockhausen 1984, 10–11). The four scenes do not have a traditional dramatic structure, but rather present a succession of dramatic situations that are discontinuous amongst themselves. This is an example of what the composer called moment form, in which the surface events give the impression of entirely different situations, held together by the structural connections of the music (Stockhausen and Kohl 1985, 25).
caption: Lucifer, by Guillaume Geefs, Cathédrale Saint-Paul, Liège
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:09:18 20:41:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "Low gain up", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Image ExifOffset": "368", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "914", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5918", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "19/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:08:23 14:39:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:08:23 14:39:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2602", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3903", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]"}