Karlheinz Stockhausen

German composer

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a pioneering German composer who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He was a leading figure in the Darmstadt School and made groundbreaking contributions to electronic music, introducing controlled chance techniques and musical spatialization into his compositions.

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About the Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausenwas a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, having been called the “father of electronic music”, for introducing controlled chanceinto serial composition, and for musical spatialization.

He was educated at the Hochschule fur Musik Koln and the University of Cologne, later studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. As one of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, his compositions and theories were and remain widely influential, not only on composers of art music, but also on jazz and popular music. His works, composed over a period of nearly sixty years, eschew traditional forms. In addition to electronic music–both with and without live performers–they range from miniatures for musical boxes through works for solo instruments, songs, chamber music, choral and orchestral music, to a cycle of seven full-length operas. His theoretical and other writings comprise ten large volumes. He received numerous prizes and distinctions for his compositions, recordings, and for the scores produced by his publishing company.

His notable compositions include the series of nineteen Klavierstucke (Piano Pieces), Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic/musique-concrete Gesang der Junglinge, Gruppen for three orchestras, the percussion solo Zyklus, Kontakte, the cantata Momente, the live-electronic Mikrophonie I, Hymnen, Stimmung for six vocalists, Aus den sieben Tagen, Mantra for two pianos and electronics, Tierkreis, Inori for soloists and orchestra, and the gigantic opera cycle Licht.

He died at the age of 79, on 5 December 2007 at his home in Kurten, Germany.

Frequently Asked Questions

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer who was widely acknowledged as one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a pioneer of electronic music and is often called the ,father of electronic music,. He also introduced controlled chance (aleatory) techniques and musical spatialization into his compositions.

Karlheinz Stockhausen was educated at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the University of Cologne, and later studied with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn.

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s compositions ranged from electronic music (both with and without live performers) to works for solo instruments, songs, chamber music, choral and orchestral music, and a cycle of seven full-length operas.

As one of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s compositions and theories were and remain widely influential, not only on composers of art music, but also on jazz and popular music.

Karlheinz Stockhausen died at the age of 79 on December 5, 2007, at his home in Kürten, Germany.

Some of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s notable compositions include the Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces) series, Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic/musique-concrète Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen for three orchestras, the percussion solo Zyklus, and the opera cycle Licht.

23 Quotes by Karlheinz Stockhausen

  1. 1.

    And I’ll never forget the first time I took the possibility to project sound every day for six or seven hours with special devices which were built for me.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  2. 2.

    I no longer limit myself.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  3. 3.

    And harmony means that the relationship between all the elements used in a composition is balanced, is good.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  4. 4.

    Schaeffer gave me permission to work in the studio with a technician, but I’ve never worked with him.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  5. 5.

    Or the other process that is important is that I compress longer sections of composed music, either found or made by myself, to such an extent that the rhythm becomes a timbre, and formal subdivisions become rhythm.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  6. 6.

    Repetition is based on body rhythms, so we identify with the heartbeat, or with walking, or with breathing.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  7. 7.

    In particular what is most important to me is the transformation of a sound by slowing it down, sometimes extremely, so that the inner of sound becomes a conceivable rhythm.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  8. 8.

    But since the middle of the century in particular, the music has become very irregular in rhythm.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  9. 9.

    Since I started composing I have always worked with series of tempos, even superimposed the music of different groups of musicians, of singers, instrumentalists who play and sing in different tempos simultaneously and then meet every now and then in the same tempo.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  10. 10.

    I have composed several pieces which are performed outdoors, not only in the auditoria.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  11. 11.

    It is true that the eyes dominate the ears in our time.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  12. 12.

    And when they encounter works of art which show that using new media can lead to new experiences and to new consciousness, and expand our senses, our perception, our intelligence, our sensibility, then they will become interested in this music.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  13. 13.

    And the invention of transformations of certain figures has become the most important in musical composition.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  14. 14.

    But being quiet and meditating on sound is something completely different and will be discovered very soon by a lot of people who feel that the visual world doesn’t reach their soul anymore.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  15. 15.

    I spent most of the year in the studio for electronic music at a radio station in Cologne or in other studios where I produced new works with all kinds of electronic apparatus.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  16. 16.

    And I’m always interested when other musicians are trying to discover new worlds of sound.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  17. 17.

    No, what is important is neither linearity or non-linearity, but the change, the degree of change from something that doesn’t move to other events with different tempos in particular.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  18. 18.

    One experiments and has to choose always the best results.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  19. 19.

    Whenever I felt happy about having discovered something, the first encounter, not only with the public, with other musicians, with specialists, etc, was that they rejected it.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  20. 20.

    I became aware that all sounds can make meaningful language.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  21. 21.

    So there is a personal sense of style for a given work – I don’t like a general style, but every work has its own style, and I want to create a style for every work.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  22. 22.

    Or in other works I have also projected the sound in a cube of loudspeakers. The sound can move vertically and diagonally at all speeds around the public.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer

  23. 23.

    But I’m an adventurer. I like invention, I like discovery.

    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    German composer