Gruppen 1955-57 / Carre 1959-60

I These two works come to me as siblings, both friendly, open-hearted, proud of their heritage as early works by Stockhausen. The older brother, GRUPPEN, stunned me the first time its soundscape enveloped me. My ears lost their grip on the sounds as music again and again, but those same alien sounds became the threshold for Music of our Age. Had I not gripped my chair while listening, I might have floated into the air holding these sounds, and joined the composer in fantasy of flight. And toward the end, sound became tactile reality, as a malleable chord rushed through each orchestra in succession and bound all sounds into one vast Unity. II CARRE, the younger sister, spreads her charm over our listening minds. She is the tender one who harbors the simplest answer to our most fervent question. She dispels doubt in a flash of her luminous eyes. I must be quiet within, fully composed to be admitted into her presence' She is pure being: she chooses to dwell in our company as Music and Spirit. Sometimes she is manifest only as a tendril of spiritual desire, growing out of the experience of Music. Other times she is the source of many voices seeking a harmony of sound and sense. It is a movement not just through Time but around it, above and below it, becoming a whirligig of moments, ever transforming itself into - The Eternal Moment.