Description:
Zeitmaße is one of a group of four acknowledged masterpieces composed between 1955 and 1957 that together established Karlheinz Stockhausen as the leading figure in the European avant-garde. Of the four works, it is the only one that has not been thoroughly analysed from the composer's sketches and, for this reason, remains the least-well understood. In this volume, Kohl provides a much-needed analysis of Zeitmaße, considering its standing in the group and in the wider context of Stockhausen's output. Using recently published correspondence and other documentation from the period, together with surviving sketch material, Kohl investigates the compositional procedures employed in Zeitmaße and their evolution.
Review Quotes:
It is a strength of this book that the extremely careful understanding of the compositional ideas (not least down to Kohl's comprehensive analysis of the sketches) is not lost in the search for and representation of the specific reasons for this or that compositional decision. [...] In conclusion, Kohl presents this exemplary discussion of Stockhausen's compositional works, whose influence on later composers up to the present day shows how important such an investigation is to the understanding of composing in general and also to the works themselves.
Markus Bandur, info-netz-musik