Luzifers-Abschied from Samstag aus Licht. Stockhausen and the Italian affair
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Date
2012
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Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
The homeland of Leonardo and Palestrina, Dante and Eco, Verdi and Fellini became crucial
for the reception of music of one of the most controversial, and at the same time innovative composers
of the second half of the 20th century, a German artist, Karlheinz Stockhausen. The genius- and
visionary-bearing nation opened itself to the new musical art, and appointed the author of Hymnen to
be the coryphaeus of that art. This fascination transformed into a desire to better present the composer’s
personality to a wider audience. Many of the most recent Stockhausen’s compositions were created as a
response to numerous Italian orders, including ArtArche’s from Milan or Massimo Simonini’s from the
Angelica Foundation, many of them were performed for the fi rst time in the most magnifi cent works
of Italian architecture, for example the Milan cathedral. The stage premieres of Donnerstag, Samstag
and Montag aus Licht took place in Milan’s La Scala, with the creative participation of such celebrities
as a theatre and opera director, Luca Ronconi and an architect, Gae Aulenti, famous most of all for her
contemporary designs of Parisian museum buildings, and in the project of Licht – for scenography.
In 2007 Stockhausen’s music fi lled 25. Rassegna di Nuova Musica in Macerata Teatro Lauro Rossi;
during two days the most famous electronic compositions were presented: Mittwochs-Gruss, Cosmic
Pulses, Gesang der Jünglinge, Telemusik and Kontakte.
Lucifer’s Farewell is the last – and the most “Italian” – scene devoted to this character of the opera
– Samstag aus Licht. It was fi nished in August 1982 upon the order of Associazione Sagra Musicale
Umbra in Perugia, celebrating the 800th birth anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi. The opening night
took place on 18th September that same year in Chiesa di San Rufi no in Assisi. In the composition
Stockhausen interprets the text of Lodi delle virtu (A Salutation of the Virtues) of the little poor man
in the original wording of the Italian language.
The article is an interpretation both text and music of Luzifers Abschied within a wide range of problem
context of the whole stage cycle Licht (‘Light’) by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
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Keywords
Stockhausen, St. Francis, contemporary music, music theatre, opera, avant-guard, electronics, sacrum, Licht-cycle, ritual
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 12, 2012, pp. 150-161.