Karlheinz Stockhausen - Zeitmasse

Zeitmasse, for five woodwind instruments (1955-56) London Sinfonietta Zeitmaße (Time Measures) for five woodwinds (1955-56) is a chamber-music work by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Number 5 in the composer’s catalog. It is the first of three wind quintets written by the composer (the others being Adieu für Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer of 1966 and the Rotary Wind Quintet of 1997), but is scored with cor anglais instead of the usual horn of the standard quintet. Its title refers to the different ways of treating musical time found in the composition. Zeitmaße was composed more or less concurrently with three other works in contrasting media, which together formed the basis for Stockhausen’s rise to fame in the 1950s. The others were Gesang der Jünglinge for electronic and concrète sounds, Gruppen for three orchestras, and Klavierstück XI for piano. In order to begin work on a commission for the new orchestral composition which would