Upper-Lip Dance (from the opera Samstag), for trumpet solo (1983)

Markus Stockhausen, trumpet

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Oberlippentanz (Upper-Lip Dance) (1983) for solo piccolo trumpet is an extract from the composer's Samstag (1981-84), one of the operas from the projected Licht cycle. In its operatic context, Oberlippentanz is part of "Luzifers Tanz" (Lucifer's Dance), in which an onstage ensemble assembled in the form of a giant face presents dances for the parts of the face: each eyebrow (Linker und Rechter Augenbrauentanzen), each eye, each cheek, and so on.

Oberlippentanz, which is about thirteen minutes in duration, is a protest against this dance. The Licht cycle's "hero," Michael, enters after the Nasenflügeltanz (Nostril Dance), plays his solo, and is beaten up and ridiculed. Like the trumpet solo Michaels Reise um die Erde (1978) from Donnerstag (1978-80), Oberlippentanz presents a number of virtuosic challenges, including extremely fast tonguing, very high registers, and large melodic skips. Stockhausen also calls for a wide range of timbral effects, including the use of mutes, blowing air through the instrument in a number of different ways, and a variety of approaches to the recording (or projecting) microphone. Aspects of the "super-formula" basis of Licht can be heard in Oberlippentanz's melodic and rhythmic contours.

The work was first performed as part of Samstag at La Scala in May 1984. [allmusic.com]

Art by Yan Pei-Ming

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