DESCRIPTION:
Sternklang was commissioned by the Sender Freies Berlin and was first performed between 8:30 and 11:30 PM on June 5, 1971 in the Englischer Garten near the Akademie der Künste. "STERNKLANG (Star Sound), park music for 5 groups; world premiere June 5th 1971 in Berlin at the English Garden. Park music outdoors, conceived already in 1969. The 5 groups are separated as far as possible from each other. All singers and players are individually amplified over loudspeakers. Sound runners transport musical models from one group to another, where they are taken over and integrated. At 10 different moments, a centrally positioned signal person indicates common tempi for all, and all groups synchronize themselves with each other.
STERNKLANG is based on 5 harmonic chords, each with 8 notes, tuned as overtones in pure tuning. The 5 chords have one note in common. Between combinations in which all groups have the same chord and those in which each group has a different chord, fluctuates the STERNKLANG. All musical models are rhythmically, in timbre, or intervallically related to the classical star constellations.
On a clear night, star constellations can be directly read from the sky and integrated as musical figures, at the places [in the score] where they are prescribed."