Moment Form - Representative Works

Representative Works

Besides Kontakte, works cited by Stockhausen as being particularly concerned with moment forming include the earlier Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–56), as well as the subsequent Carré (1960), Momente (1962–64/69), Mixtur (1964), Mikrophonie I (1964), Mikrophonie II (1965), Telemusik (1966), Hymnen (1966–67/69), Stimmung (1968), Samstag aus Licht (1981–83), Michaelion from Mittwoch aus Licht, Himmelfahrt (2004–05), Freude (2005), and Himmels-Tür (2005) (Stockhausen 1963b, 250; Stockhausen and Kohl 1985, 25; Stockhausen 2002, xii and xx; Stockhausen 2006, 10; Stockhausen 2007, 3). The concept of moment form has often been confused with mobile (or, in Stockhausen's nomenclature, "polyvalent") forms, because in four of these compositions (Momente, Mixtur, Mikrophonie I, and Stimmung), the component moments can be ordered in different ways. Several other works by Stockhausen have this "mobile" feature, without falling into his category of moment form, for example, Klavierstück XI (1956), Refrain (1959), Zyklus (1959), and Sirius (1975–77).

Certain works by other composers, both earlier and contemporaneous, such as István Anhalt, Earle Brown, Elliott Carter, Barney Childs, Roberto Gerhard, Michael Gielen, Hans Werner Henze, Charles Ives, Witold Lutosławski, Olivier Messiaen, Morgan Powell, Roger Reynolds, Roger Sessions, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, Stefan Wolpe, Yehuda Yannay, and Frank Zappa, have also been cited as instances of moment form (Clarkson 2001; Kramer 1978, 178; Kramer 1988, 50–52 and 61–62).