Music: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Trumpet: Mark Latham, Recording: Robert Wieck

"Donnerstags-Abchied" (Thursday Farewell), also known as "Michaels-Abschied" (Michael's Farewell), is the postlude to Stockhausen's 1980 opera "Donnerstag aus Licht". Originally scored for five trumpets, the composer also authorised this version where all parts are played by one trumpeter, using a multi-track tape and the recording technique of over-dubbing. In a concert performance, this version would have one live trumpet part and four pre-recorded parts.

At the opera's première in 1981, the Thursday Farewell was originally designed to be performed in the plaza outside La Scala opera house in Milan following the performance of the opera and as the audience left the theatre.

The five trumpeters start playing as the last scene of the opera, Vision, comes to an end. The trumpet players are costumed as Michael and positioned on the rooftops or on balconies surrounding the square, floodlit like statues on a tower.

They each repeat one segment of the Michael motif (or formula, as Stockhausen called it), with long pauses between repetitions. The five segments of the motif vary in length from 12 to 35 seconds. The trumpet players withdraw at the end "in a stylised manner" in the order in which their respective segments occur in the formula. The work is dedicated to the composer's son, the trumpeter Marcus Stockhausen.

"Donnerstag aus Licht" is itself part of Stockhausen's massive Gesamtkunstwerk "Licht", a series of operas, each named after the days of the week.

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