STOP

Karlheinz Stockhausen in a new version for HERMESensemble

by Stijn Saveniers, Karin de Fleyt & Maya Verlaak

Stockhausen composed STOP “on the spot” during a 7-hour composition seminar at the Cologne Courses for New Music 1964-65 (which he had founded in 1963), when the participants asked him to demonstrate “the process of writing a work, with exact details”. After the orchestral work (1965), Stockhausen composed a Paris Version (1969) and a London Version (1973) of the piece. In 2001, STOP und START was created (CD 64 Stockhausen Verlag), in which Karin de Fleyt performs. The Antwerp Version of STOP receives a new notation and instrumentation in which live electronics play a major role. For this, Karin de Fleyt collaborates with Stijn Saveniers and Maya Verlaak.

STOP is structured so that connected tremolo-based sections alternate with (or are STOPped by) quiet “noise” sections (sparse, un-pitched sounds). The score is written as 42 Sections, each with specific instructions for instrumental layering (tutti vs.smaller combos), dynamics, articulation and available pitches.  Different techniques for transitioning from one Section to the next are also indicated, and during most Sections there are brief, fully-scored phrases, played as “solos” by different instruments, which act as a kind of “dotted” through-line melody (at least conceptually).

Karin de Fleyt, together with Stijn Saveniers and Maya Verlaak, made a new version of STOP, with open score notation and a new instrument group; live electronics.In this version, the six instrument groups will each be led by een coach from HERMESensemble, in collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerpen, in the making of the premiere of the Antwerpener Version on Wednesday, October 14th 2026 in the Theaterstudio of de Singel. In this Antwerp version of STOP, we will work with the students of the ensemble E-XXI (conservatoire Antwerp).

Maya Verlaak also composed a new piece for this occasion that will accompany STOP and will function as a contemporary answer to the piece.