No. 21: ADIEU, for woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon), 1966 [16:13] This is a beautiful chamber work with a very delightful "vibe" to it, despite the fact that it's a "farewell". Some of the held textures remind me of held organ mixtures, which may be in honor of the dedicatee's instrument. The pauses may be felt as interruptions of life, or perhaps as "moments of silence". Stockhausen notes: "The musicians must be able to experience deeply, and form into notes, the sense of closeness to death that vibrates in this music." However, the tonal cadence phrases provide a festive counterpoint, and the more lively sections throb with energy. Compositionally, the blending of systematic Fibonacci-based mathematics and "free-choice" aleatoric notation makes this piece very balanced, yet open to repeated reinvention.
I feel that it could be useful to have a discussion-forum on the music of Stockhausen. There are so many people from all over the world, young and old, learned and eager to get into contact with this musical world: musicologists, composers, musicians, music lovers; people who plan concerts - who write books or have to give lectures and so on. So there should be much stuff, many ideas that we can share. And when we have open questions, there may be people who studied just that and could give a hint or a stimulus.
A problem might be the English language, but i feel that is the only possibility that many people who are interested can participate. And we can exercise tolerance to mistakes!
Thomas Ulrich