Harlequin" by K. Stockhausen: on intersection of ideas of formula composition and instrumental theatre

In the 1970s one of the largest innovators of the 20th century Karlheinz Stockhausen (August 22, 1928 — December 5, 2007) created a new type of formula composition which assumes work development from the uniform grain including different parameters. So for each formula he thought of a melody (interval structure), a certain independent rhythm (duration, pauses, accents), and dynamics, colour and form. In December, 1975 Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote a composition for a clarinet solo, ''Harlequin'', devoted to its first performer Suzanne Stephens. By K. Stockhausen, "Harlequin" is a formula composition. The composition was conceived and written as a unit, but after it was finished seven sections were defined: 1) "The Dream Messenger"; 2) "The Playful Constructor"; 3) "The Enamoured Lyric"; 4) "The Pedantic Teacher"; 5) "The Roguish Joker"; 6) "The Passionate Dancer"; 7) "The Exalted Spinning Spirit". To each section there corresponds a program in which the composer outlines vectors of figurative and melodic transformations. The form, according to Stockhausen, represents "one big wave", one big periodic fluctuation. "The big wave" in turn consists of smaller fluctuations which reflect formula repetitions. Beginning in the top part of range of the tool, the formula gradually covers it entirely, two times it is slowly carried out in the lower part, and again covering all range, passes to the top register. Thus, the formula is projected on the form of all composition. Work with the formula includes seven stages, corresponding to the seven sections. According to instructions of the composer at work execution (by heart) the Harlequin moves according to musical figures and pauses. Entering the scene, he starts rotating on a spiral, imitating the passages in the first section; in the last section he repeats the melody rotation. As a whole, performativity as one of key phenomena of post-modernism art, arose in the 1970s. Elements of instrumental theatre first appeared in post-war works of K. Stockhausen and J. Cage. However, unlike Cage Stockhausen's interest to choreography and theatrical representation of musical theatre (or music as theatre) is defined by the German traditions of the radio drama and the documentary film. In Stockhausen's further works the idea of formula composition was transformed to superformula composition, and the tendency to staging a piece of music led to a new reading of the traditional opera. Thus, this composition is one of the stages, which prepared the composition of heptalogy "Light".

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