Fresco ("wall sounds for meditation") is an orchestral composition written in 1969 by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen as foyer music for an evening-long retrospective programme of his music presented simultaneously in three auditoriums of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. It is Nr. 29 in his catalogue of works, and a performance takes about five hours.
History
In October 1968 Volker Wangenheim, Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) for Bonn, offered Stockhausen all of the rooms of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn for an evening concert of his music. In addition, he suggested that Stockhausen might consider writing a new piece for the Bonn Orchestra, though he could offer only three rehearsals, and warned that Bonn did not have much money for expenses. Wangenheim also wrote that he had heard about Stockhausen's Ensemble and Musik für ein Haus projects at Darmstadt in 1967 and 1968, implying that he hoped for something along the same lines. Stockhausen proposed an evening-long programme of his music to be performed simultaneously in all three auditoriums of the building. At the same time, there would be a new work played at four places in the foyer and lasting four-and-a-half hours. This work was composed in the Fall of 1969 for the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn, and was titled Fresco, Wall Sounds for Meditation. The world premiere took place on 15 November 1969, with Volker Wangenheim conducting Orchestra I (winds and percussion) in the cloakroom foyer at the main entrance of the Großer Saal, conducting Orchestra II (strings) on the "bridge" in the foyer of the Großer Saal, Bernhard Kontarsky conducting Orchestra III (winds and strings) in the exhibition space by the inner courtyard, and Georg Földes conducting Orchestra IV (strings) in the small cloakroom foyer in front of the Studio auditorium.
Musik für die Beethovenhalle
The larger project into which Fresco was incorporated was called "Music for the Beethoven Hall", and was described in the programme book as "3 x 4 hours of non-stop programmes simultaneously / in 3 halls and the foyers of the Beethovenhalle". The programmes in each of the three auditoriums were performed in the usual way, only the seats were removed and the audience was seated on the floor on rugs and mats. These programmes were carefully timed so that the intermissions would coincide, at which point the members of the audience were free to move to one of the other halls for the next segment. "The idea was that my music should be experienced like exhibits in a museum". Conceptually, "instead of the usual chatter, the whole house, from cloakroom to auditorium seat right up until the entrance of the conductor, could already be filled with sound, so that the listener could begin listening, if he wanted, from the moment of entry, making his own selection from a timetable placed at the entrance giving details of the three programmes to take place simultaneously in the three auditoriums":
Live performances were given by Alfred Alings and Rolf Gehlhaar, tamtam (Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), , electronium (Klavierstück VI, Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), Christoph Caskel, percussion (Refrain, Zyklus), the Collegium Vocale Köln (Stimmung), Péter Eötvös, piano (Hymnen, Kurzwellen), Johannes Fritsch, viola (Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), Aloys Kontarksky, piano (Klavierstücke I–V, VII–XI, Kontakte, Refrain, Prozession), Gisela Kontarsky, speaker (poetry and texts written by Stockhausen), Michael Vetter, recorder with short-wave radio (Spiral), and Stockhausen himself, on celesta (Refrain), as reader of his own poem, "San Francisco", and as sound projectionist in Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen, and Stimmung. Sound projectionists for the films and playback from tape were Péter Eötvös, David C. Johnson, and Mesías Maiguashca (also for Hymnen).