Karlheinz Stockhausen – Unbegrenzt (1968)

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Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Unbegrenzt” (1968), performed by Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voice, piano), Matt Hannafin (percussion), Collin Oldham (cello), Shao Way Wu (bass), and Sam Klapper (violin) at the Extradition Ensemble Winter Concert, February 10, 2024, at Leaven Community, Portland, OR, USA.

Part of Stockhausen’s well-known text-score collection “Aus den Sieben Tagen” (From the Seven Days), “Unbegrenzt” translates as “unlimited” and begins with a summary: “Play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space.” Over the course of three pages, the composer elaborates, laying out a playing approach that avoids any overall narrative line in favor of an “absolute timeless now”: “Have you ever done anything with the certainty . . . that you have an infinite amount of time, without thinking about the end of a moment, the end of your strength, the end of your interest, the end of the patience of the others, the end of the day and the night . . . ?” A sound, he writes, “lives like YOU, like ME, like HE, like SHE, like IT. Moves, stretches out and contracts. Transforms itself, gives birth, begets, dies, is re-born. Seeks – seeks not – finds – loses – binds itself – loves – waits – hastens – comes and goes. Play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space. OM.”

In approaching this piece, each player must strive to make every moment a complete embrace of what he or she wants to be doing right in that moment, disallowing any external or internal limitation while also being open to opportunities that provide the wings to soar even higher.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Extradition is an ensemble and concert series that works at the intersection of composition and improvisation, deliberation and chance, clarity and silence.

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Photo by Matt Hannafin