Intuitive music

Intuitive music is a form of musical improvisation based on instant creation in which fixed principles or rules may or may not have been given. It is a type of process music where instead of a traditional music score, verbal or graphic instructions and ideas are provided to the performers (Stockhausen 1989, 113–14). The concept was introduced in 1968 by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen 1993; Bergstrøm-Nielsen 1997), with specific reference to the collections of text-notated compositions "Aus den sieben Tagen" (1968) and "Für kommende Zeiten" (1968–71).

Intuitive music may appear to be synonymous with free improvisation or with improvised playing within open composition forms, but the collectively intuitive aspect, the emancipation from known music genres and the meditative dimension are especially emphasized by Stockhausen: "I try to avoid the word improvisation because it always means there are certain rules: of style, of rhythm, of harmony, of melody, of the order of sections, and so on" (Stockhausen 1989, 113). Nevertheless, one critic finds that intuitive music is not in essence irrational, but that for Stockhausen intuition must become a controllable ability, and therefore is an instrument of the project of modernity: "the investigation and instrumentalization of the world by controlled procedures" (Kutschke 1999, 155).

Other meanings

* Within New Age Music, intuitive music may refer to a soloistic music with a freely flowing character.
* In commercial language, intuitive music may mean electronic equipment that allows for a flexible, real-time based use.

References

* Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl. 1997. "Festlegen, Umreißen, Andeuten, Hervorrufen: Analytisches zu den Textkompositionen von Karlheinz Stockhausen." "MusikTexte: Zeitschrift für Neue Musik" no. 72 (November): 13-16. [http://www20.brinkster.com/improarchive/cbn_festlegen.htm HTML version] de icon [http://www.stockhausensociety.org/intuitive-music.htm HTML version ] en icon
* Kohl, Jerome. 1978. “Intuitive Music and Serial Determinism: An Analysis of Stockhausen’s "Aus den sieben Tagen".” "In Theory Only" 3, no. 2 (March): 7–19. [http://www20.brinkster.com/improarchive/jk_7t.htm HTML version] en icon
* Kurtz, Michael. 1988. "Aus den Sieben Tagen: Points de vue biographique et historique sur les compositions-textes de mai 1968." In "Karlheinz Stockhausen" (programme booklet). Paris: Contrechamps/Festival d'Automne à Paris. [http://www.festival-automne.com/public/ressourc/publicat/1988stoc/stku040.htm HTML version] fr icon
* Kutschke, Beate. 1999. "Improvisation: An Always-Accessible Instrument of Innovation". "Perspectives of New Music" 37, no. 2 (Summer): 147–62.
* Nakaji, Masatsune. 1994. “Karlheinz Stockhausens Intuitive Musik: c'est Le Dispositif Chaosmique de Transformation”. "Genesis (The Bulletin of Kyoto University of Art and Design)" vol. 1. [http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~naxos/musik/fimusik.htm HTML versions 1995] jp icon & fr icon
* Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1978. "Für kommende Zeiten": 17 Texte für Intuitive Musik (1968–70)". In Stockhausen's "Texte" 4:167–69. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1978. ISBN 3-7701-1078-1.
* Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1989. "Intuitive Music" (transcribed from the lecture filmed by United Artists, London, 1971). In Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews", compiled by Robin Maconie, 112–25. London and New York: Marion Boyars. ISBN 0-7145-2887-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-7145-2918-4 (pbk)
* Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1993. "Questions and Answers on Intuitive Music" (from a discussion at Cambridge, 1973). CD booklet, Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 14 A-G (English edition), 75–102. Also online at http://www.stockhausen.org/intuitive_music.html. German translation by the composer, as "Fragen und Antworten zur Intuitiven Musik", in the booklet for the German edition of the CD as well as in Stockhausen's "Texte" 4:130–51 (Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1978), ISBN 3-7701-1078-1.