 Similar to a group of three of the composer's works from the previous decade, "Gruppen", "Zeitmaße", and "Gesang der Jünglinge", there is one work each for orchestral, chamber, and vocal forces.Stockhausen uses the term "microphony" here as the auditory analog to "microscopy" in the optical realm.That is, the microphone is used investigatively, to make perceptible "objects usually beneath our notice, but also for a kind of precise whimsy, .