plus-minus

1963/2003, for clarinet/bass clarinet, guitar, piano, auxiliary instruments, violin and cello

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In 1963 Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote a composition kit called Plus Minus, adaptable to any instrumentation and duration. Using one to seven given repertoires of chords and auxiliary pitches, one fleshes out one to seven form schemes; each chord is associated with a certain formal archetype, which may replicate itself, change, and die, sometimes passing into a “negative” realm of alien undifferentiation.