Sonatine, Nr. 1/8

Stockhausen composed the Sonatine as the second of two "free works" required for his final examinations at the Cologne Conservatory (Stockhausen 1978, 46). The piano part of the first movement was composed originally as a separate work, titled Präludium, and the violin part was then superimposed (Kurtz 1992, 261). The manuscript of the completed composition is dated 19 March 1951. It was premiered by Wolfgang Marschner, concertmaster of the NWDR Symphony Orchestra, with the composer at the piano, in a broadcast recording transmitted for the first time on 24 August 1951 (Stockhausen 1978, 46; Kurtz 1992, 31). The first performance before a live audience, however, did not occur until twenty years later, when Saschko Gawriloff (violin) and Aloys Kontarsky (piano) played it on 22 October 1971 at a concert of the SMIP in Paris (Frisius 2008, 30; Stockhausen 1978, 46).