Kreuzspiel

Kreuzspiel (Crossplay) is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen written for oboe, bass clarinet, piano and four percussionists in 1951 (it was later revised for just three percussionists, along with other changes). "Kreuzspiel" was premièred at Darmstadt in the summer of 1952 where, according to Stockhausen, the work "was violently interrupted by the public." With characteristic bravado, he claimed, "I knew when I wrote it that it would sound like nothing else in the world."Fact|date=December 2007

"Kreuzspiel" has been analysed in print more often than any other work by Stockhausen, though all but one (Borio and Garda 1991) restrict themselves to just the first of its three stages.

Though routinely described (by the composer as well as others) as a "serial" composition, "Kreuzspiel" does not employ a referential, recurring twelve tone ordered set. Rather, it uses constant reordering of twelve-element (linked pitch, duration, dynamic, and--in the original version--attack) sets--a device sometimes called "permutational serialism." It also uses a permutational 7-element system to control register.

Bibliography

* Blumröder, Christoph von. 1993. "Die Grundlegung der Musik Karlheinz Stockhausens". Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 32, edited by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
* Borio, Gianmario, and Michela Garda.1991. "Problemi d'analisi della musica seriale: "Kreuzspiel" di Karlheinz Stockhausen." In "L'analisi musicale: Atti del convegno di Reggio Emilia, 16-19 marzo 1989". Milan: Unicopli.
* Bracanin, Philip. 1971. "The Abstract System as Compositional Matrix." "Studies in Music" no. 5:90-114.
* Harvey, Jonathan. 1975. "Chapter 2: "Kreuzspiel"." In "The Music of Stockhausen: An Introduction", 14–20. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
* Keller, Max Eugen. 1972. "Hörte und komponierte Struktur in Karlheinz Stockhausens Kreuzspiel." "Melos" 39 no. 1 (Jan.–Feb.), 10–18.
* Kinzler, Hartmut. 1997. "Viereinhalb Marginalien zum ersten Stadium von Stockhausens 'Kreuzspiel'." "Musiktheorie" 12, no. 1:71–86.
* Sabbe, Herman. 1981. "Die Einheit der Stockhausens-Zeit ...: Neue Erkenntnismöglichkeiten der seriellen Entwicklung anhand des frühen Wirkens von Stockhausen und Goeyvaerts. Dargestellt aufgrund der Briefe Stockhausens an Goevaerts". In "Musik-Konzepte 19: Karlheinz Stockhausen: ... wie die Zeit verging ...", ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, 5–96. Munich: Edition Text + Kritik,1981.
* Stenzl, Jürg. 1972. "Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel (1951)." "Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie" 3, no. 1 (Jan.): 35–42.
* Toop, Richard. 1974. "Messiaen / Goeyvaerts, Fano / Stockhausen, Boulez." "Perspectives of New Music" 13, no. 1 (Fall-Winter): 141–69.