Sunday 15 February 2009 | 4pm
The Cultch's Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street
Free Performance

"Theory of the oscillating universe: every 80 000 000 000 years the universe explodes, unfolds, and draws together again. The word YLEM is used by some people to designate the periodic explosion, by others to designate the essential material.” – Karlheinz Stockhausen


This free event brings together an eclectic musical ensemble of community members for a performance of Stockhausen’s Ylem.   The piece evolves as performers respond to each other, combining careful direction with elements of improvisation to create a highly textured sound that expands and contracts, with the aim of portraying the grander oscillation of the universe.

Following a two-day workshop led by composer, conductor and Vancouver New Music artistic directory Giorgio Maganensi, an ensemble made up of community members will deliver a free afternoon performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Ylem. 

Written for nineteen musicians, Ylem is intended to portray the oscillation of the universe, expanding then contracting the dynamics of the music being played, creating a dense overlapping of sound.  Stockhausen’s composition provides direction to this effect with a textual score, while leaving the musicians relatively free to play what they wish in careful response to each other.  Stockhausen encouraged the musicians to play with their eyes closed, and noted that the work is performed best when the performers “establish telepathic communication with one another”, while the conductor listens “with extreme concentration from the middle of the hall.”

“The fascination of the music lies in the realization of the compositional concept, which seeks to portray the oscillation of the universe – with the relaxation of dynamics and of density from the beginning towards the middle, and then the reversal of that process, followed by another period of streaming out from the point of highest density which eventually leads to the end of the work.” - Albrecht Moritz

Ylem will be followed by performances of seminal electronic compositions by Stockhausen such as Elektronische Studie II anda live remix based on sound materials from Kontakte.