Out of over 30,000 pieces of physical music and
over 1 and a half million digital tracks that I have,
this piece towers above them all.
A friend from Norway reminded me, back in 2003,
that I had told him back in the early 80s, that,
even tho I thought the idea of a "god" was just
pure nonsense, this piece was the closest I'd come
to some kind of deity recognition. We then sat near
the mixing desk in the middle of a performance space
listening to the complete work, completely surrounded
by speakers while
Stockhausen himself guided the
sounds throughout the hall. In the later years, I would
be tutored by
Stockhausen (as "klangregissseur") using
this very same work. Even tho it's a work that has had
multiple essays, academic papers, and even full books
written about it, it's a work that is essentially ineffable.
