Mixtur

Mixtur, for orchestra, 4 sine-wave generators, and 4 ring modulators, is an orchestral composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1964, and is Nr.

The original version for large orchestra was premiered on 9 November 1965 at the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Hamburg.

[1] The version for reduced orchestra was premiered in the large broadcasting hall of the Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt am Main, as part of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse on 23 August 1967 by the Ensemble Hudba Dneska conducted by Ladislav Kupkovič, to whom this version is dedicated.

[2] Pierre Boulez conducted a number of performances of Mixtur from the early seventies to as late as 10 June 1982 (at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, with the Ensemble InterContemporain),[3] but was not happy with the score and problems with rehearsals and performances led to a falling out between the two composers.

[4] Beginning in the late 1990s, Stockhausen revised a number of his earlier aleatoric scores, making versions in which the details were worked out and fixed in conventional notation.

In a programme note Stockhausen characterised this back-and-forth motion as a metaphor for the interplay between life and death.

Stockhausen was to have conducted (and had led the rehearsals in Berlin the previous June), but was forced to cancel because of an attack of sciatica, and his place was taken by Wolfgang Lischke.

[5] The performers were the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with electronics by the Experimentalstudio für akustische Kunst Freiburg, supervised by André Richard.