Licht - The Seven Days

The Seven Days

There are seven operas, each named for a day of the week, whose subject matter reflects attributes associated in traditional mythologies with each day. These attributes in turn rest on the seven planets of Antiquity (and their associated deities) from which the day-names are derived (Stockhausen 1989b, 152–53):

• Monday = The Moon
• Tuesday = Mars
• Wednesday = Mercury
• Thursday = Jupiter
• Friday = Venus
• Saturday = Saturn
• Sunday = The Sun

Stockhausen sought to fashion the subjects for each opera through absorption in the traditions of this planet and immersion into the intuitive meaning of each day of the week—meanings of which most people are not aware (Stockhausen 1989b, 176). The cycle has neither a "beginning" nor an "ending"; like the days of the week, each opera leads to the next one, so that the conflict of Tuesday is followed by the reconciliation of Wednesday, and the mystical union of Sunday prepares the way for the new life of Monday. "In this way there is neither end nor beginning to the week. It is an eternal spiral" (Stockhausen 1989b, 156). Each opera is composed from an elaborated form of the corresponding day-segment of the superformula, made by superimposing one or more complete lines from the superformula, compressed to the length of the day-segment. These are named for the day in question (e.g., Mittwoch-Formel.) The separate acts and scenes often involve further superimpositions of formula material. For example, "Luzifers Traum", the first scene of Samstag, has a total of five layers (Kohl 1990 and 1993).

Each day is also assigned a principal (or "exoteric") colour, as well as one or more secondary (or "esoteric") colours (Stockhausen 1989b, 199–200).