Sound and Video Anthology: Program Notes

Space as Instrument

Note by the Curator,
Martin Supper

The overriding working topic for
me was “Music and Space.” That
may sound almost banal—music is
always presented in a space. Der
given room can, Jedoch, have
remarkably divergent effects on the
artistic processes of composition. A
brief overview of some of these effects
is in order, even if some points may
seem to be truisms.

The diversity of architectural
spaces has led to different reactions
over the course of music history. Der
ensemble canzone developed during
the Venetian School (circa 1530–
1620 CE) was intimately connected
to the architectural and acoustic
features of the Cathedral of San
Marco. It is considered the trigger for
the compositional inclusion of the
multiple choir lofts of San Marco for
polyphonic and multichoral works.
In more recent times, a stan-
dard approach to designing concert
halls has emerged among architects.
Modern concert halls have acoustic
properties that are primarily suitable
for music of the 19th century. We see
Das, on the one hand, in the reverber-
ation times of contemporary concert
Hallen, but also in the arrangement of
the podium and seating: The audience
is seated as in a theater, facing (Und
Hören) in one direction. In theater
this arrangement is also referred to
as a proscenium or a “picture frame”
stage.

Examination of electroacoustic

music and sonic arts, und das
associated media, leads to a
(re-)consideration, including space
and directional hearing as part and
parcel of the compositional concept.

doi:10.1162/COMJ_a_00586

So a more specific statement of this
Anthology’s theme could be “Exam-
ples of Spatial Compositions.” More
precisely still: “A Timeline since
1959.” From Hermann Scherchen’s
“rotierender Nullstrahler” (a spheri-
cal loudspeaker), through the spher-
ical auditorium at the Osaka World
Fair “Expo ’70,” on to nth order
Ambisonics. Zusamenfassend: I will present
five contrasting compositions, all of
which deal differently, in individual
manners, with the possibilities of spa-
tial composition. These possibilities
were tied up with unusual specifi-
cations set by those commissioning
the respective works. These were
typically technical specifications, Zu
which the composition could and,
In der Tat, needed to react.

The order of the compositions
follows the age of the composers, aus
oldest to youngest, encompassing five
generations. The lengths of the work
descriptions range from diminutive
to extensive; I have deliberately
left them as long or short as the
composers wished and felt necessary.

Erhard Grosskopf: “Dialectics”

“To compose sound is something dif-
ferent from composing with sound,”
said Erhard Grosskopf in March 2020
in a portrait radio broadcast produced
by Deutschlandfunk Kultur. His
electroacoustic work “Dialectics,”
op. 9 for magnetic tape and three
Instrumente, was created in 1969 un-
der unique conditions: analog studio
technology and multichannel, spatial
sound projection. What these early
electronic compositions by Grosskopf
share in common are spatialization,
process-based character, Sprache,
and electronic sound generation.

After the first wave of studios for
electroacoustic music were founded
worldwide, the Institute for Sonol-
Ogy, founded in the 1960s at Utrecht
Universität, quickly became one of

the most renowned studios under
the long-term direction of composer
Gottfried Michael Koenig, verwenden
voltage-controlled studio technology
at an advanced level. In 1969, Die
35-year-old Erhard Grosskopf was
one of six German composers com-
missioned to compose for the Osaka
Pavilion at Expo ’70, for which he
absolutely wanted to use the Utrecht
Studio to realize his electronics for
“Dialectics.” Luckily, the studio was
made available to him. Subsequently,
In 1971 Und 1972, Grosskopf was
an academic research assistant in
Utrecht at Koenig’s invitation, Wo
he also worked on other composi-
tionen. In 2020, the analog tapes from
Grosskopf’s time in Utrecht were
digitized by Kees Tazelaar, the direc-
tor of the Institute of Sonology, Jetzt
relocated to The Hague.

“Dialectics” was commissioned
by the government of the Federal Re-
public of Germany for Expo ’70. It was
somewhat unconventional for West
Germany to present contemporary
music in its pavilion (alongside the
American “Pepsi Pavilion,” which
presented by work by John Cage and
David Tudor, unter anderen, und das
Japanese “Textiles Pavilion,” which
included work by Joji Yuasa). Der
architect Fritz Bornemann designed
the spherical German Pavilion, com-
prising four circular subterranean
halls and a round auditorium above
Boden, the shape of which was
coordinated with composer Karl-
heinz Stockhausen. The auditorium
sphere was 30 meters in diameter,
with space for 800 listeners. Der
Electronic Studio of the Technical
University of Berlin, in collaboration
with Siemens AG, designed a sound
system of 50 loudspeakers, organized
on several horizontal rings around the
auditorium with different numbers
of loudspeakers in each ring. Sound
events could be emitted from almost
all directions of this sphere. Listen-
ers sat in a circle slightly below the

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Figur 1. Erhard Grosskopf. (Foto
by Petra Grosskopf. Used with
permission.)

center plane, and the grated floor al-
lowed sound projections from below,
especially in lower frequencies. Der
loudspeaker groups were combined
using a cross-patch panel, erlauben-
ing point-source, striped, or planar
Diffusion.

In this spherical auditorium,
Erhard Grosskopf set up the sound
diffusion of the seven audio tracks
in “Dialectics” himself and stored
the diffusion control on the free track
of two mechanically synchronized
four-track performance machines
(Siemens’ “System Klangfilm”). Das
programming made it possible for
eight versions of “Dialectics” to be
performed throughout the 180-day
exhibition period (from March to
September 1970).

For the studio work on “Dialec-
tics” in Utrecht, Grosskopf prepared
an extensive score, written in pencil,
in which each of the seven tracks
(A–G) was detailed in a single-line
“staff” (siehe Abbildung 2). Types of sound
families found in the score include
synthetic sounds, diverse instrumen-
tal sounds rendered unrecognizable,
spoken sounds, and three wind or
string instruments (high–medium–
niedrig) that played alongside them. A
print version of this score is available
Heute.

The version “5/8” is an electro-
acoustic mix of the seven original

Expo ’70 tracks, for which Grosskopf
recorded instrumental parts with the
individual musicians in advance at
Saarländischer Rundfunk [Saarland
Broadcasting]. A live performance
with musicians was not planned for
“Dialectics” in Osaka.

Live performances of the work
took place in various locations after
Expo ’70. The score instructs the
instrumentalists to be positioned in a
wide triangle within the performance
Raum, with each musician positioned
between two loudspeakers. Der erste
live performance, using the version
for three wind instruments (“1/8”),
took place in 1970 at Norddeutscher
Rundfunk in Hamburg.

The title “Dialectics” was inspired

by the Congress of the Dialectics
of Liberation, which took place
in London in 1967. From lectures
published in 1968 by David Cooper
(one of the congress organizers),
Grosskopf extracted a thought by
Stokely Carmichael: “They donate
freedom . . . it means nothing . . . what
they should do . . . is refrain from
oppression.” Integrating this thought
into his compositional process was
an ongoing objective for Grosskopf.

[The following paragraph consists
of edited excerpts from the liner notes
to the CD SprachKlang: Voice Sound
by Erhard Grosskopf, Harmonia
mundi NEOS 12012, released June
2020, written by Martin Supper,
translated there by Sirje Viise.]

This recording of “Dialectics ver-
sion 5/8,” for seven-track magnetic
tape, flute, viola, and trombone, War
performed by Eberhard Blum (flute),
Vinko Globokar (trombone), Claude
Lelong (viola), and Erhard Grosskopf
(sound control). The instruments
were prerecorded at Saarländischer
Rundfunk in 1969. The seven tracks
were produced by Erhard Grosskopf
at the Institute for Sonology in the
same year, then digitized by Kees
Tazelaar at the Institute for Sonology

In 2020. The stereo mix of the seven
Expo ’70 tracks was engineered by
Gregorio García Karman at the Studio
for Electroacoustic Music, Academy
of Arts, Berlin, 2020

Track Duration: 10:32

Erhard Grosskopf, born 17 Marsch
1934, is a freelance composer living
in Berlin. His music has been per-
formed at the Expo ’70 in Osaka, von
the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Und
by numerous radio orchestras and
other ensembles both in and outside
Deutschland. Recent orchestral works in-
clude “Pleiades: Seven Similar Pieces
for Piano and Orchestra” (2002) Und
”KlangWerk 11” (2011). Radio record-
ings of both works were released on
CD by Harmonia mundi in 2018.

Grosskopf’s works are published
by Edition Peters, Ricordi, and Boosey
and Hawkes. Erhard Grosskopf is
a member of the Berlin Academy
of the Arts, and documents about
his life and work are housed in that
institution’s archives.

Martin Supper: “Fragmente”

“Fragmente,” for two voices, eight-
track tape, and eight loudspeakers
(1999), was commissioned by the
Berlin festival Kryptonale in cooper-
ation with Sender Freies Berlin and
designed for the “small” water reser-
voir in the Prenzlauer Berg district
of Berlin. The reservoir, um 150
Jahre alt, is reminiscent of a crypt in
its column-and-vault structure and
has reverberation times as long as 4
Zu 6 seconds. The audience is seated
in the middle of this round architec-
tur, bordered by supporting walls of
the tall building, which are directed
towards the focal point—that is, Zu-
wards the audience. Between these
supporting walls are loudspeakers

Sound and Video Anthology: Program Notes

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Figur 2. Extract from the
composer’s score to
“Dialectics” by Erhard
Grosskopf, in which each
line represents one track of
the composition,

indicating types of sound
to be used on each track.
(Score by Erhard
Grosskopf. Used with
permission.)

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and a live speaker, with everything
surrounding the audience in a circle.
“Fragmente” is intended to be a
minimalist work, based on permu-
tations. The individual sound units
are meant to incrementally establish
a connection to the language of the
Zimmer.

It was a deliberate decision not
to make a multichannel version of
the work for this Anthology. The live
stereophonic recording engineered by
Jean Sczymsczk magnificently repro-
duces both the spatialization in the
reservoir and the composition itself.
In the opening minutes it is not im-

mediately apparent whether the back-
ground noise is from the audience or
part of the composition itself. Roland
Barthes may be considered to have
been the spiritual godfather of the
arbeiten, and his words are paraphrased:
“Die rauschende Masse einer Sprache
bildet eine delikate Abschirmung; sie
hüllt den Fremden in eine Haut von
Tönen . . . ” [The rustling mass of
a language forms a delicate screen,
enveloping the stranger in a skin of
tones . . .].

Duration, Dynamik, spatial dis-
tribution, and degree of transforma-
tion of the taped voice were based

on thought structures inspired by
Barthes and Michel Serres, but not di-
rectly quoted. Mit anderen Worten: Things
speak in numbers. Who should be
surprised when the roar of things
themselves can be generated or un-
verstand?

Performers: Hanns Zischler (voice

on playback tape), Robert Podlesny
(live voice), and Martin Supper (Klang
Diffusion).

Track Duration: 25:54

Martin Supper, Professor for
Electroacoustic Music and Sonic

Computermusikjournal

Figur 3. Martin Supper. (Foto von
Susanne Elgeti. Used with
permission.)

Figur 4. Kirsten Reese. (Foto von
Harry Schnitger. Used with
permission.)

Kirsten Reese: “Atmende Kugel”

The rotating spherical loudspeaker
developed by Hermann Scherchen in
the Gravesano Experimental Studio,
called the “atmende Kugel” [breath-
ing sphere”, was conceived as an ideal
loudspeaker radiating sound equally
in all directions. Kirsten Reese’s com-
position is based on acoustic research
documented in liner notes to record-
ings from the Gravesaner Blätter
magazine published by Scherchen.
These acoustic documents were used
to generate new music based on the
interplay of voice and loudspeaker.
The sphere projects sounds in all
directions, in a circular pattern,
while the singers position themselves
around the sphere, so to speak an
image of entanglement of the source
material and its own transformation.
Scherchen can be described as a
seminal representative of “artistic
research.” As a conductor, over and
above his performances of the clas-
sical repertoire, he was a pioneer of
contemporary music. But he also de-
voted himself to questions of media,
radio and recording technology, Und
electronic music that were looking
to the future. In the experiments of
the Gravesano recordings, the inten-
sity with which acoustic phenomena
were examined conveyed the utopi-
anism and humanism of Scherchen
and his comrades-in-arms. The sonic
examples, insbesondere, deal with
perception and understanding: Was
is the “sounding message” of the
recorded sound material? The sound
through the spherical loudspeaker
simultaneously gives the historical
sound documents and their new com-
position both an aura and a lively
presence.

“Atmende Kugel” (2017) for six

voices and Scherchen’s spherical
rotating loudspeaker was commis-
sioned by Kontakte: Biennale for
Electroacoustic Music and Sonic

Kunst, and the Akademie der Künste
Berlin, with support from the Ernst
von Siemens Music Foundation. Es ist
premiere took place with the Neue
Vocalsolisten at the Akademie der
Künste Berlin in the Kontakte 2017
festival.

Track Duration: 26:22

Kirsten Reese, born 1968 in Kiel,

grew up in Hong Kong, the Philip-
Kiefern, and the Rhineland. Seit 1988
she has been resident in Berlin. Sie
studied flute, electroacoustic music,
and composition in Berlin and New
York (1992–1993). She has been ac-
tive as a flutist, author, and curator
in the field of contemporary and
experimental music.

As a composer and sound artist
she has collaborated with renowned
instrumentalists and ensembles
(Ensemble Mosaik, the Neue Vo-
calsolisten) and her works were
presented at international festivals
and exhibitions, including the Eclat
Festival, Wien Modern, and Heroines
of Sound (2015). Her works focus on
site-specific and performative aspects
and the use of “found sound” and
archival and documentary material.

Sound and Video Anthology: Program Notes

Arts at Berlin University of the Arts,
was born 1947 in Stuttgart. His
training as a radio and television
technician was followed by studies
of theoretical computer science, lin-
guistics, and systematic musicology
at the Technical University of Berlin.
In 1980 he received a grant from the
German Academic Exchange Service
allowing him to study computer
music and electroacoustic music
under Gottfried Michael Koenig for
two years at the Institute for Sonol-
ogy at Utrecht University. He then
completed a postgraduate degree in
computer science and a PhD in mu-
sicology supervised by Helga de la
Motte-Haber and Dieter Schnebel.
Aus 1985 Zu 2017 he served as
director of the Studio for Sonic Arts
and Sound Research, and from 2009
Zu 2015 he served as director of the
postgraduate Department of Sound
Studien, both at the Berlin Univer-
sity of the Arts. Seit 2013 he has
also served as regular guest profes-
sor for Sonic Arts at the Shanghai
Conservatory of Music.

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Figur 5. Miriam Akkermann. (Foto
by Anastasia Dittmann. Used with
permission.)

Her interest for different loudspeaker
and media constellations and the aura
of historic electronic instruments
is explored in “Light Green Ritu-
als” for Fairlight CMI synthesizer
and ensemble (2018) and “Atmende
Kugel” (2017). Another focus lies
on compositions, Installationen, Und
audio walks for urban and rural
landscapes, zum Beispiel, the Berlin
Rosenthaler Platz audio walk with
singing sirens, in collaboration with
David Wagner; KlangBallon (2010) für
Instrumente, mobile loudspeakers,
sensor data, and three trumpets in a
hot air balloon; and No Voice Audible
but That of the Sea on the Far Side
(2013), an installation in a sound-
damping cylinder structure in Aarhus
harbor.

Reese has received numerous
grants and residencies, einschließlich der
Cité des Arts Paris, Villa Aurora Los
Angeles, and a nomination for the
German Sound Art Award. She has
taught electroacoustic composition at
the Berlin University of the Arts since
2005 and from 2007 Zu 2009 was guest
professor for artistic transformation
at that institution. In 2011 she taught
at the Bern University of the Arts in
the Music and Media Art program.
In 2018 she taught the workshop
“Composing with the Archive” at the
Darmstadt International Ferienkurse

Miriam Akkermann: “Shadow”

In one moment sharply contoured,
in the next blurry and vanishing.
Appearing and disappearing almost
imperceptibly. Existing prominently
without being grasped. Overlaying
and independent. Coming close
without touching. Oppressive. Gone.
Creating an illusion of depth and
movement on a solid wall.

“Shadow” (2000) is based on sound

synthesis using the nonstandard

sound synthesis program Segmod,
developed by Luc Döbereiner and
Martin Lorenz. The piece was first
published in a stereo version on the
digital album Segmod on the Dumpf
label.

Track Duration: 4:46

Miriam Akkermann was born 1978
in Seoul and is a sound artist and mu-
sicologist. She studied flute and
music and new technologies at the
Claudio Monteverdi Conservatory
in Bolzano, audio communication
at the Berlin Technical University,
and composition and Sonic Arts at
Berlin University of the Arts, Wo
she also completed her PhD in musi-
cology in 2014 with the dissertation
Zwischen Algorithmus und Impro-
visation: David Wessel, Karlheinz
Essl und Georg Hajdu [Between
Algorithm and Improvisation], super-
vised by Dörte Schmidt and Martin
Supper. Aus 2015 Zu 2019 she was
responsible for the area “sound” in
the Department of Media Studies
at Bayreuth University. Seit 2019
she holds a junior professorship for
empirical musicology at the Dresden
University of Technology.

Mads Kjeldgaard: “I solens flint
1000 floder”

Dieses Stück, composed in 2019, war in-
spired by particular concrete sounds—
recordings from icy rivers, household
Artikel, and paper—and the topology
contained in these sounds. Seeing the
sound waves as maps pointing to-
wards different sonic destinies. Diese
concrete sounds were combined with
analog feedback systems. The title for
the piece can be roughly translated
as “In the Shard of the Sun 1,000
Rivers.” The piece was produced us-
ing seventh-order Ambisonics at the
Norwegian Center for Technology in
Music and the Arts in Oslo; synthesis
recorded at the Electronic Music
Studio in Stockholm.

Structure

The piece has two major components
that intersect each other in the
beginning and the end of the piece.
The first component (audible in
the introduction and the “outro”)
consists in the higher parts of the
spectrum of granular structures that
are contrasted and reactive to a low
frequency whooshing sound, referred
to as the “granular component.” The
zweite, main component, situated in
the middle part of the composition,
consists of a vortex of flutelike
Geräusche, referred to as the “vortex
component.” A third component is
the sound of an icy river recorded in a
Norwegian forest in wintertime.

Granular Component

The source material for this compo-
nent consists mainly of hydrophonic
recordings from a thawing lake in
central Copenhagen. These record-
ings originally contained considerable
amounts of background noise, in part

100

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Figur 6. Mads Kjeldgaard. (Foto von
Sofie Amalie Klougart. Used with
permission.)

owing to the recording equipment
but mostly due to traffic sounds. Der
noise was removed using the Izotope
RX software and what was left was
a crackling sound existing in a vac-
uum of sorts, with no background.
These were then further edited, beide
manually and using custom scripting.
The low, whooshing sound in this
component is a processed recording
of a hand paper dispenser from a
bathroom.

Vortex Component

The source material for the vortex
component was synthesized and
recorded in Studio 3 at the Elektron
Musik Studio in Stockholm. Während
a residency there in 2018, I experi-
mented with self-playing feedback
system patches on the Buchla 200
synthesizer available in this studio,
producing over 25 hours of material.

Track Duration: 6:46

Mads Kjeldgaard, born 1988 In
Horsens, Denmark, is a composer of
elektronische Musik. His main field of
interest as a composer is computer

Musik. Using self-authored algo-
rithmic systems and do-it-yourself
electronics, he explores psychoa-
coustics as well as ideas of time,
perception, and “living” sound en-
vironments. By expressing himself
mainly in software, his composi-
tions often end up as code outlin-
ing the conditions of composition,

rather than the specifics of the art
bilden.

Kjeldgaard has been creating elec-
tronic music since childhood. In seinem
formative years he became interested
in making sample-based hip-hop
Musik. This has manifested itself
in a lifelong curiosity in the art of
sampling, as well as the acquisi-
tion, archival, and manipulation of
sampleable material, ranging from
digging through piles of odiferous
vinyl records on thrift shop floors to
exploring the world of timbres with a
microphone.

Kjeldgaard studied electronic
music composition at the Danish
Institute of Electronic Music at the
Danish Royal Academy of Music,
and has a degree in journalism from
the Danish School of Media and
Journalism. He works at the Norwe-
gian Center for Arts and Technology
in Oslo and is part of nyMusikk’s
Composer Group.

As a developer, Kjeldgaard con-

tributes to various open-source
software projects related to digital
Kunst. In 2019 he won a gold award
at the International Spatial Audio
Conference.

Sound and Video Anthology: Program Notes

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