Hymnen - Musical Form and Content

Musical Form and Content

The German title means "(national) anthems", and the substance of the work consists of recordings of national anthems from around the world. There are four movements, called "regions" by the composer, with a combined duration of two hours. The composition exists in three versions: (1) electronic and concrete music alone (2) electronic and concrete music with soloists, and (3) the Third Region (only) with orchestra (composed in 1969). This version of the Third Region can be performed by itself, or together with either the first or second version of the other three regions.

The quadraphonic electronic and concrete music was realised at the Electronic Music Studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. The world première was of the version with soloists, and took place on 30 November 1967 in a concert of the WDR concert series Musik der Zeit, at the auditorium of the Apostel Secondary School in Cologne-Lindenthal (Stockhausen 1971, 96). The soloists were Aloys Kontarsky, piano, Johannes G. Fritsch, viola, Harald Bojé, electronium, and Rolf Gehlhaar and David Johnson, percussion. Sound technicians were David Johnson and Werner Scholz, sound direction by the composer.

Each region uses certain anthems as centres:

• Region I (dedicated to Pierre Boulez) has two: "The Internationale" and "La Marseillaise"
• Region II (dedicated to Henri Pousseur) has four: (1) the German anthem, (2) a group of African anthems, (3) the opening of the Russian anthem, and (4) a "subjective centre", consisting of the recording of a moment during the studio work, "in which the present, the past and the pluperfect become simultaneous" (Stockhausen 1971, 96).
• Region III (dedicated to John Cage) has three: (1) the continuation of the Russian anthem (the only one made entirely from electronic sounds), (2) the American anthem, and (3) the Spanish anthem.
• Region IV (dedicated to Luciano Berio) has just one, but it is a "double centre": the Swiss anthem, whose final chord turns into an imaginary anthem of the utopian realm of "Hymunion in Harmondie under Pluramon" (Stockhausen 1971, 97).

Region I also includes a four-language "fugal" section featuring the voices of Stockhausen and his studio assistants David Johnson and Mesías Maiguashca. They speak variations on the colour "red". Stockhausen did not choose a political orientation, but rather used an enumeration of colours from the Artist's Water Colours catalogue from the English art supply company Windsor and Newton, and Johnson concludes the section by naming the company out loud (Stockhausen 1995, 163–64).

Stockhausen originally planned to compose "many more" regions, creating a much longer work. He had collected 137 anthems, of which only 40 are used in the four extant parts (Maconie 2005, 275), and had organised materials for two further regions, according to contemporary reports (Schwinger 1967, 143; Lichtenfeld 1968, 70):

• Region V: Communist-bloc countries.
• Region VI: The United Arab Republic.

Stockhausen's original vision for the piece was also much freer. He referred to it as a work "for radio, television, opera, ballet, recording, concert hall, church, out of doors..." in his original program note. He added, "The work is composed in such a way that different scenarios or libretti for films, operas, ballets could be written to the music."

In the preface to the study score of Hymnen, Stockhausen wrote, "The order of characteristic sections and the total duration are variable. Depending on the dramatic requirements, regions may be lengthened, added or omitted." A year later, he withdrew that option (Stockhausen 1995, 122).

Stockhausen also withdrew the soloist version of Hymnen after receiving recordings of it from ensembles that displayed "arbitrary confusion and unembarrassed lack of taste" (Stockhausen 1995, 185).