Stockhausen flies a kite


Celebrating the Basant kite flying festival at the University of East Anglia this afternoon. Out of shot to the left is the university's school of music where Paul Hillier's acclaimed recording of Stockhausen's Stimmung was made for Hyperion in 1983. At the end of last year it was announced that the school of music would close in 2014 because, in the words of the university chairman, "the university cannot afford to continue to subsidise a school where the future prospects are so challenging". Being for the Benfit of Mr Kite! is a track on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which features Stockhausen on its cover. The Wednesday Greeting (Mittwochs-Gruß) that opens Stockhausen's opera Mittwoch aus Licht is based on the music from the fourth scene and the composer instructs that it should be played à la Bayreuth in the foyer, amidst flues, winds, blowers, kites, balloons, and flying doves. There is an insider view of the UEA school of music here.

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