Karlheinz Stockhausen’s final epic, KLANG: The 24 Hours of the Day, will be presented in full by Analog Arts and La Société de musique contemporaine du Québec . Intended to include 24 pieces but left incomplete at the time of Stockhausen’s death, this 21-part work gives space to meditate on time, spirituality, and reality, allowing the audience to reflect on the meaning of mortality. KLANG is the final, epic statement of one of the 20th century’s most important composers. It charts the journey of the soul from the body into the afterlife, and is a fitting capstone to Stockhausen’s massive career. The music ranges from intimate chamber pieces to virtuosic displays and electronic extravaganzas.

This piece is composed of three sections. Section one deals with the spiritual world and features performances reflecting the ascension of Christ, harps in heaven expressing the joy of Pentecost, and the door to heaven opening into the pieces of section two, which contains the music that is heard in heaven. The seven pieces of the second section, all instrumental trios, are based on the same underlying music, rearranged and re-imagined to create seven beautifully different yet increasingly familiar-sounding works. The final section takes an immediate and surprising turn towards the imagined universe of Urantia. This section begins with the only fully electronic piece, Cosmic Pulses, and then dives into pieces based on the Urantia book, a mysterious text which appeared in the early 20th century with no known author. This book describes unknown universes, each planet of which is represented by an electro-acoustic performance in the second section.

Attendees will be able to hear the work in its entirety on both days of the production over the course of fourteen hours.

Major support for KLANG has been provided by Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s USArtists International program.