Stimmung is also the german word for 'mood'

Stimmung, for 6 vocalists & 6 microphones, is a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen written in 1968 and commissioned by the City of Cologne for the Collegium Vocale. Its average length is seventy-four minutes. Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a contemporary composer. ...

Influenced by LaMonte Young and long periods of practicing humming, the piece is in just intonation, its title meaning tuning or in tune in German (Die Stimme = voice). Six singers amplified by six microphones tune to a low Bb drone inaudible for the audience and expand upwards through overtone singing, with harmonics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 also being used as fundamentals for overtone singing. It is in 51 sections and is the first European influenced piece to be based entirely on vocal harmonics (Rose & Ireland, 1986). La Monte Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer whose eccentric and often hard-to-find works have been included among the most important post World War 2 avant garde or experimental music. ... Hum is a verb which refers to either: A sound with a particular timbre, usually a monotone or with slightly varying tones, often produced by machinery in operation or by insects in flight, or An action whereby a human vocally produces such a sound, but usually with musically varying tonality. ... Just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by whole number ratios. ... This page is about the musical process of tuning, for musical systems of tuning see musical tuning. ... Generally, amplification is a basic process sometimes seen in nature, and often used in processes which involve a signal which must be made stronger. ... A microphone with a cord A microphone, sometimes called a mic (pronounced mike), is a device that converts sound into an electrical signal. ... In music, a drone is a note or chord continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. ... In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. ... A fundamental is something basic and important which other things are built upon. ...

According to the 1986 Hyperion Singcircle liner notes:

Each female voice leads a new section eight times, and each male voice, nine times. Some of the other singers gradually have to transform their own material until they have come into 'identity' with the lead singer of the section...by adopting the same...tempo, rhythm and dynamics. When the leader feesl the 'identity' has been reached, he or she makes a gesture to another singer who leads the next section. Each model is a set of rhythmic phonetic patterns, often with actual words used as their basis, such as 'Hallelujah' or 'Saturday'.

In 29 of the sections, 'magic names' are called out. These are the names of gods and goddesses from many cultures - Aztec, aboriginal and Ancient Greek, for instance - and have to be incorporated into the character of the model. The erotic and intimate love-poems that are recited were written by Stockhausen 'during amorous day' in 1967.

The order of the sections and the "magic names" used are decided by the performing group, with Collegium Vocale's premier, the 'Paris version', has been published (No. 24 1/2) and performed throughout the world.

Stockhausen (1974) himself attributes a month spent walking among ruins in Mexico as his primary influence, Stimmung recreating that 'magic' space. He also describes (1982) it being too hot in the small rented house to compose during the day, and his wife and two babies needed quiet day and night regardless, so he began to sing quietly, eventually humming the overtone series.

The piece has been recorded and released on:

• Stimmung (1986), performed by Singcircle directed by Gregory Rose, recorded 1983. Hyperion CDA66115.

Sources

• Stimmung (overview) at allmusic.com (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040402070125133172&sql=A7q67gjur36iv|)
• Stimmung (1986), performed by Singcircle directed by Gregory Rose, recorded 1983. Hyperion CDA66115. Liner notes by Stockhausen, Gregory Rose and Helen Ireland.