Thanks to the magic of academic research funding, we were lucky to made a trip to Kürten, Germany, Stockhausen’s bucolic home about 30 minutes outside Köln, to attend the semi-annual Stockhausen courses sponsored by the Stockhausen foundation. The organization was kind enough to connect us with Ellen Corver and Benjamin Kobler, both long-standing collaborators with Stockhausen (Corver’s recording of MANTRA with Sepp Grotenhuis was evidently Stockhausen’s favorite performance of the work), and over the course of a week we spent innumerable priceless hours with them pouring over this extraordinarily detailed score. By week’s end, we had endured approximately 12 hours of public coaching on this work; Ryan attended the sound diffusionist workshops, receiving invaluable input on the electronics he designed HNH’s performances of MANTRA, as well as general techniques for sound diffusion in Stockhausen’s work; and Andrew received additional coachings on two of Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke. We are incredibly grateful to the generosity of Ellen Corver, Benjamin Kobler, Kathinka Passveer, Ralph Knapp for hosting us, and Florian Zwißler for being our patient sound diffusionist for the week.
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