ABSTRACT
Hearing Zeitmaße for the first time produces a kaleidoscopic impression of rapidly changing patterns, in which seemingly nothing is repeated. In Stockhausen’s own words, written just after completion of the first version of Zeitmaße, there is: no melody with accompaniment, no primary and secondary voices, no theme and no transition – and also no harmonic connections from a more complex to a simpler sort, such as tension and resolution, or syncopated rhythms that resolve into regular ones. In most music the opening of a piece introduces some of the central ideas found throughout the composition. Dynamic series are an even more difficult problem of perception, and of per-formability where conventional instruments are concerned. The composition of the dynamic envelope doesn’t necessarily have to apply only to one sound; it may be a whole crowd of sounds which can’t be individually analyzed in the listening process.
