Supplementary text 1997 about STIMMUNG
Stockhausen Complete Edition on CD
Since 1991, a complete edition of all recordings in which Karlheinz Stockhausen has personally participated is being released on compact discs. Each CD in this series is identified by Stockhausen's signature followed by an encircled number. The numbers indicate the general historical order of the works.
Stockhausen realised the electronic music and participated in these recordings as conductor, performer, sound projectionist, and musical director. He personally mixed down the recordings, mastered them for CDs, wrote the texts and drew the covers.
- The compact discs may be obtained from the Stockhausen-Verlag: Kettenberg 15, 51515 Kuerten, Germany (www.stockhausenCDs.com).
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Supplementary text (1997) about STIMMUNG
The following text is a supplement to the comments in the preface of the score of STIMMUNG (Paris Version), published by Universal Edition.
The fundamental tone of STIMMUNG is B-flat 
(sung by the bass,
and in combinations
1 and 21 also by tenor II).
All other pitches must be overtones of the natural harmonic series
above this B-flat.
In the preface of the score, annotation number 10, which reads, "depending on the average range of the singers, this overtone series may also be slightly transposed upwards or downwards" applies to a performer of the Tenor II part who was not always able to effortlessly sing the low B-flat; in such places, the tuning was raised about ¼ tone. In any case, the divergence may never be larger than a minor second.
Performing a translation of the poems in the local language has proven to be impossible and should not be done. It is possible to print a translation in the programme next to a reproduction of the German texts.
The singers should sit cross-legged in a circle on the floor, on a high podium (approximately 1.30 m higher than the audience) as has been done since the world première in 1968. They should be dressed in light-coloured, simple clothing, bare-footed.
The sound projectionist is seated at the mixing console in the middle of the hall and controls the balance of the 6 microphones or 6 transmitters.
In preparing a performance, the score of the Paris Version of STIMMUNG should be treated as an example, and musicians should be consulted who have rehearsed the work with Stockhausen.
A comprehensive text about the composition of the work and about its performance practice is printed in the text booklet of CD 12 of the Stockhausen Complete Edition (Stockhausen-Verlag, 51515 Kürten, Germany, fax. 0049 - 2268 - 1813). This text should also be used for the programme notes.