Karlheinz Stockhausen

Trans is a work for orchestra and tape written by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Kürten between 17 July and 4 September 1971. It was premiered on 16 October 1971 in the Stadthalle of Donaueschingen. Its whole course came to him in a dream on the night of 9 to 10 December 1970. He noted it down in the morning: an orchestra seated in rows, a wall of sound opening at regular intervals, and the sound of a weaving loom. He treated it as a new beginning. The title means "across" and also suggests trance and transcendence.

Trans is as much staged as played. The audience sees only the strings, seated in two rows behind a gauze lit in red-violet, while winds and percussion stay hidden backstage. The strings play slow chords with fully synchronised bowing, like automata. About every twenty seconds the recorded sound of a loom shuttle crosses the hall from left to right, and with each stroke the strings begin a new note. Theatrical cadenzas interrupt the stillness at the joins between the six main sections. The edition presents two versions, as the tracklist shows. The first is the world premiere recording, made on 16 October 1971 with the Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks under Ernest Bour. The second is a studio production with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken under Hans Zender, made a little over two years after the premiere. Stockhausen is credited with the sound projection.

This is Stockhausen Edition no. 19 from Stockhausen-Verlag, Kürten, on one CD, issued in 1992 in a jewel case with a 28-page booklet in German and English.