The Ephemeral Architecture of Stockhausen’s Pole für 2

Abstract

Stockhausen’s graphically notated Pole für 2 was created for the multi-channel diffusion system in the spherical auditorium at the German pavilion at the Osaka World’s Fair in 1970. The work is remarkable for the way in which spatiality is explored through new developments in graphic notation – both for three-dimensional and sound projection, and to indicate musical imitation and transformation of short-wave radio signals. These two notational systems unite through the synchronous unfolding of time in Pole, and similarly through the spatial structure of auditorium’s architecture that housed over 50 loudspeakers in 6 layers. By using the sound projection score as the basis for the construction of a NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) model, each of the player’s sound projection geometries within the auditorium can be transmediated, thus allowing for a visual representation of the spatial design of the work. Examining the topology of the models produced from the work’s six sections further allows for emergent architectonic characteristics of volume, manifold and envelope to be tracked, thus pointing to Stockhausen’s characterisation of design space. The strong connection of the work to the auditorium’s spherical structure also points to the nature of the composer’s sound design as one predicated on the ability of patterns of sound projection to articulate tangible space, and therefore produce ephemeral aural architectures.