Karlheinz Stockhausen, Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky "Mantra" (Deutsche Grammophon), 1972

Monday, March 28, 2022

I always think of the term “new” whenever I hear the name Karlheinz Stockhausen. By no means am I am expert on him or his music, but as one has heard through various channels the phrase, “I know what I like.” There is never a piece of music of Stockhausen I never disliked, and I really adore his composition, and the performance by the pianists Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky on Mantra, composed and performed in 1972. It’s a work that consists of two grand pianos, both attached to a ring modulation, a set of crotales (antique cymbals), and a wood block. One of the two players has short-wave radio making morse code.

To my ears, what I hear is the ambient sound of the echo made from the pianos, that resonate a bit, which gives the sound an additional texture. It starts off slowly, but the composition and performance becomes more intense, and eventually resembles Japanese traditional classical music, but of course filtered through the sensibility of Stockhausen. It would be a piece that I think would fit perfectly in the Noh Theater.

The term ‘mantra’ is sound that is attached to a spiritual or magical process, and one is lured into the rhythm of this composition. Stockhausen wrote it especially for the Kontarsky brothers, who tend to play this work as one being. There is a beauty of unity at work, which does give it an uplift emotional jolt. It’s a long piece for one vinyl record, 64 minutes. Yet the sound on the disc is amazing; a real jem of sound/art and the meeting of the minds from Stockhausen and the Kontarsky gang.