Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock
Titolo: <Lunghissimo> [Stockhausen e Beatles]

=============================================
"Revolution 9"  -- Lennon and Stockhausen
=============================================
I begin with an overview of the major events, then
present at the Stockhausen information before briefly
examining "Hymnen", the work said to have influenced
"Revolution 9".
Timeline
========
1954: Stockhausen records "Gesang der Jünglinge" (Song
Of The Youths)
1964: Stockhausen forms a touring group for his
Electronic Music.
1966/
1967: Hymnen is composed and recorded. Stockhausen
added parts for  soloists in 1967 (portions of "Hymnen"
are heard in the opening sequence of the film
"Walkabout").
1967: Stockhausen is pictured on the cover of SGT
PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. Nominated by
McCartney (MYFN336) he is fifth from the left in the
back row, partly obscured by W.C. Fields.
       The photo.. dates from the time of Gesang der
Jünglinge [1954]  and was reproduced in Bill Hopkins's
translation of the Karl Woerner monograph (Faber 1964)
which is the most likely place Lennon [sic] would have
seen it.
1968: Lennon records TWO VIRGINS based on his
home-recorded Electronic Music.
1968: Lennon records "Revolution 9".
1969: Lennon is reported to initiated arrangements for
Stockhausen to appear at a joint.
19xx: Lennon and Stockhausen are said to have
telephoned a number of times. The period has not been
specified.
Stockhausen On Lennon
=====================
The following passage from a 1994 biography of
Stockhausen raises some interesting questions:
  [In 1969] Stockhausen drove to see [Lukas] Foss; it
was winter and a   snow storm was raging over New York.
Foss's apartment had been  appointed as the
meeting-place for discussions about a joint concert
with Stockhausen and the Beatles. The other party
(either one of the  Beatles or a manager) was delayed
for hours because of the weather,
  and finally Stockhausen returned home. A concert that
would have  united avant-garde and pop music for the
first time never even  reached the planning stage.
    In 1967 the Beatles had honored Stockhausen by
putting his photo  on the cover of their "Sergeant
Pepper" album. When John Lennon was   murdered in
December 1980, Stockhausen said in a telephone
interview.
    "Lennon often used to phone me. He was particularly
fond of my    'Hymnen' and 'Gesang der Jünglinge', and
got many things from them,   for example in 'Strawberry
Fields Forever.' And his texts also made   young people
prick up their ears.    In my eyes, John Lennon was the
most important mediator between  popular and serious
music of this century."
    Michael Kurtz; "Stockhausen: A Biography", 1994
Another report concerning the planned concert and
"Revolution 9":
  Shortly before contacting Stockhausen to request his
participation    in a Beatles concert, John Lennon
appears to have used Hymnen as a   model for his
infamous "Revolution 9."
http://www.stockhausen.org/stockhausen%20_by_david_paul.html
The questions are:
1. Did Lennon envisage a concert together with
Stockhausen in 1969?
   Although plans came and went quickly in 1969, I have
found no other   record of such a performance nor can I
identify a suitable concert.   One would have thought
that this kind of event would have been    noted in
Anthony Fawcett's "One Day At A Time".
2. How often was Lennon in contact with Stockhausen and
in what   period?
   Lennon's actions are fairly well documented, yet I
have no record   of him being in contact with
Stockhausen.
   I have no record of contact between McCartney and
Stockhausen. Now,   while Paul would fit the profile
better (he suggested Stockhausen    for the Pepper
cover and had Stockhausen's work) Stockhausen says
he had multiple contacts with Lennon and was aware of
Lennon's work
   mentioning "Strawberry Fields Forever" explicitly.
Thus, I think a   juxtaposition, while possible, is
doubtful.
3. When did Lennon first start listening to "Gesang der
Jünglinge"   (1954) and "Hymnen" (1966/1967).
   We know that McCartney had "Gesang" in 1966. Frank
Zappa, of whom  Lennon was an early fan, admired and
met Stockhausen, who in turn   attended a Zappa concert
in 1968.
   Lennon create his own electronic music at home. On
the night of   TWO VIRGINS recording he played Ono his
comedy tapes and Electronic
   Music. Some of that was used as a backing track for
TWO VIRGINS. In   the light of Stockhausen's comments
we need to investigate his    interest in Electronic
Music more deeply. Perhaps he did have   Stockhausen's
works at home and had studied them. However, until
now, no record is available of such an interest.
4. Was "Strawberry Fields" influenced by "Gesang" or
"Hymnen".
   The reference is believed to be to the speeding up
of part of the    piece rather than the electronic
effects at the end. Others note   that "Gesang" might
have played some general model role.
5. Was "Revolution 9" influenced by "Hymnen".
   I'll address this issue in more detail below after
reviewing
   "Hymnen" below.
Hymnen: Region One
==================
The parallels between the two works are seen chiefly
with the first of four 'regions' in Hymnen:
  Hymnen has had an enormous--though often
unacknowledged -- influence  in popular and classical
music. For instance, it is hard to listen  to John
Lennon's "Revolution #9" without noting the parallels
with
  Hymnen's Region One. Certainly much of today's
ambient music is in  Hymnen's shadow.
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jkandell/music/stock/hymnen.html
Excerpts from a description of Region One:
  Stockhausen describes the first region, ... as having
two 'centres',  the 'Internationale' and the
'Marseillaise'. These anthems are used   more than any
others. The essential idea of the region, however, is
a development of the very first sounds, the sounds of a
short wave  radio receiver (or several of them) being
rapidly switched through  the stations. <snip>
    The restless gibbeting of more or less distinctly
heard sounds   ceases now for the two-minute interlude
on the names of 'red' in    four different languages,
chanted clearly and simply by the  composer, some
friends and the croupier on a few liturgical tones,
ending with 'international red'. Colour, paint . . .
likewise an   international 'vibration' language?
  <snip>
    There is one element more. Four times, every four
minutes, a  sinister, filtered casino croupier's voice
says a few words, such as  'Faites votre jeu, Messieurs
et 'dames, s'il vous plait.' He is   nearly always
surrounded on either side by complete silence. He
seems to be separate, to belong to some other world
running  concurrently, but hidden. He appears thrice in
the last movement  with the same words. Does this
ambiguous Joycean figure, perhaps a  symbol of another
sort of internationalism, have the function here  that
the Japanese chimes had in Telemusik: keeper of the
musical  time?
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jkandell/music/stock/hymnen.html
  I must add that the experience of hearing "Hymnen"...
is very   startling for a Beatles fan--there, right up
front, is the source   for the mysterious Revolution 9
voice saying "Number 9" over and   over--Stockhausen
has a croupier's voice, as a divider of the  sections
between "regions," saying "Neuf--the Nine." Even his
intonation is the same...
    Jim Chapman, RMBM 14-Jan-2000
These passages raise three additional questions:
6. Was the overall structure and sound of "Revolution
9" influenced    by "Hymnen"?
   Progress on this issue will have to wait until the
1966 recording   of "Hymnen" is examined. However,
these reports look more promising   than those of
Cage's "Variations IV".
   While "Hymnen" was completed and performed a half
dozen times   before Lennon composed "Revolution 9", it
was not (I believe)    available as a commercial
recording before Lennon created   "Revolution 9". Thus,
Lennon could have only have heard the piece   if he
acquired it privately. While this is more than possible
(the   Beatles lived at the center of the sixties
maelstrom) there is   currently no evidence to suggest
that he did acquire "Hymnen".
   Without such evidence, or extremely strong musical
pointers, thid   whole exercise is reduced to mere
speculation.
7. Was the choice of the "Number 9" fragment influenced
by "Hymnen"?
   The information above on this point is fascinating.
   "Revolution 9" also has a repeated fragment where
"Number 31" is    followed by the mechanical actions of
a gaming machine. Perhaps   this was an earlier attempt
to incorporate a "Number X" passage.
   Presumably the recording Lennon found with "Number
9" would also    have had "Number 1", "Number 2" etc,
leaving Lennon the choice.   The Rolling Stones album
cut of "She's Like A Rainbow" begins with   an avant
garde section that concludes with a busker spinning
the   wheel.
8. Was the precise division of "Revolution 9" into two
and three   minute sections influenced by the four
minute divisions of   "Hymnen"?
   In a recent article on the origins of "Revolution 9"
I pointed out   that two of the three aspects of the
work that had no known model   were the use of a home
group and the precise division on one minute
boundaries:
    What remains unexplained is how and when he decided
to adopt the    technique of using loops to
"orchestrate" "Revolution 9" and to    structure the
work so clearly. There is no parallel for either of
these features in *any* of the works cited as
potential    influences.
     "R9 (12) Origins of Revolution 9"
   If "Hymnen" displays these properties (among others)
then the   musical evidence would be very strong for a
connection, or at   least point to the works having a
common ancestor.
Summary
=======
It is well known that Lennon created his own tapes of
experimental music at home. Some of these have been
bootlegged. Lennon worked with Starr to create long
backwards outro of "Flying". TWO VIRGINS was
based on Electronic Music that Lennon had created
before the session with Ono. Photos of the period show
a battery of tape decks and equipment in his home
studio. "Revolution 9" and "What's The New Mary Jane"
also reflect this interest.
Lennon was rarely asked or spoke about his home
recording activities. He treated it as a private hobby.
We sometimes assume that his interest in experimental
art began when he met Ono when in fact it's very clear
that his involvement preceded her arrival. Perhaps we
should view Yoko Ono as Lennon's ticket into a world he
had already been exploring. That would help explain the
sudden burst of energy in
that direction.
If "Revolution 9" was deliberately structured around
forms found in Stockhausen's work then we would have
definite evidence of an overtly intellectual approach
to this project by Lennon. This would have significant
implications for the conventional wisdom that holds
Lennon to be intuitive idiot savant (a position I don't
take).
Corroboration of contacts between Lennon and
Stockhausen and other detail is required and could be
difficult to achieve. However, coming from the accepted
elder statesman of Experimental Music, Stockhausen's
closing statement, made shortly after Lennon's death in
1980, is definitive:
  In my eyes, John Lennon was the most important
mediator between   popular and serious music of this
century.
    Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz definitely has a point.
Recording and Performances
==========================
30 November 1967 : Westdeutscher Rundfunk
  Stockhausen, an employee of the WDR (West German
Radio), synthesized
  the 4-track composition on 1-inch tape at Studio 2 in
Wallrafplatz    Cologne, in the 1966/1967 period. This
tape is the basic performance   work.
   The tape of Hymnen was produced by the Westdeutscher
Rundfunk WDR   and first performed (and presumably
broadcast) on 30 November 1967    in a Musik der Zeit
concert. Lennon... may have been able to obtain
   a tape if he had written to KhS at the time.  KhS is
generous in   that way. The broadcast tape would be
most likely a mono or stereo    mixdown of the 4-track
master.
    Robin Maconie, private e-mail
1-2 April 1968 : Smolenice
4-5 April 1968 : Prague
23-24 April 1968 : Paris
22 August 1968 : Darmstadt
12 September 1968 : Venice Biennale
Discography
===========
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2047/kscds.html
 has a
good summary of Stockhausen's releases. These are the
relevant entries:
Gesang der Jünglinge 1955-56
  stereo realization of 4 track master tape
  Stockhausen Complete Edition 3
Hymnen Electronic and Concrete Music 1966
  Stockhausen Complete Edition 10 (4CD)
Hymnen Electronic and Concrete Music with Soloists 1966
  Aloys Kontarsky, Alfred Alings, Rolf Gehlhaar,
Johannes G. Fritsch,  Harald Bojé, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, electronic tape   Stockhausen Complete
Edition 10 (4CD)
Hymnen: Dritte Region mit Orchester (1969)
  Gürzenich-Orchester der Stadt Köln, conducted by
Karlheinz
  Stockhausen
  Stockhausen Complete Edition 47
Hymnen: Dritte Region mit Orchester (1969)
  RSO Köln conducted by Peter Eötvös in 1979
  "Ausstrahlungen: Andere Welten-50 Jahre Neue Musik in
NRW"
  Koch/Schwann 3-5037-0 (2CD)
Links
=====
Stockhausen's website: 
http://www.stockhausen.org/
Robin Maconie's analysis of "Hymnen" which also places
it in a
cultural context as a radio-drama:
http://www.jimstonebraker.com/maconie-looking_glass.html
A detailed analysis of "Hymnen" by Jonathan Harvey
(1975):
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jkandell/music/stock/hymnen.html
This "Unofficial Stockhausen Home Page" has some good
links:
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2047/
Acknowledgements
================
Thanks to Jim Chapman for sparking this thread. Many
thanks to Robin Maconie for providing source
information on the Stockhausen photograph the
performance history of "Hymnen" and for correcting a
draft of this article.
Ian
Copyright (C) Ian Hammond 1999. All rights reserved.
Previous articles are available at 
www.beathoven.com
.


credo sia proprio cosě! Io l'ho su vinile, (un bel cofanettone),
mm
P.S. Credo che nella discografia manchi qualche titolo, ma non ne sono
sicuro (mi pare un piano concerto)