Karlheinz Stockhausen: Difference between revisions

{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}

{{Use shortened footnotes|date=June 2022}}

 

He was educated at the [[Hochschule für Musik Köln]] 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 box]]es through works for solo instruments, songs, [[chamber music]], [[Choir|choral]] and orchestral music, to a cycle of seven full-length operas. His [[Music theory|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 ''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)|Klavierstücke]]'' (Piano Pieces), ''[[Kontra-Punkte]]'' for ten instruments, the electronic/[[musique concrète|musique-concrète]] ''[[Gesang der Jünglinge]]'', ''[[Gruppen]]'' for three orchestras, the percussion solo ''[[Zyklus]]'', ''[[Kontakte]]'', the cantata ''[[Momente]]'', the live-electronic ''[[Mikrophonie (Stockhausen)|Mikrophonie I]]'', ''[[Hymnen]]'', ''[[Stimmung]]'' for six vocalists, ''[[Aus den sieben Tagen]]'', ''[[Mantra (Stockhausen)|Mantra]]'' for two pianos and electronics, ''[[Tierkreis (Stockhausen)|Tierkreis]]'', ''[[Inori (Stockhausen)|Inori]]'' for soloists and orchestra, and the gigantic opera cycle ''[[Licht]]''.

 

==Biography==

====Family and home====

[[File:St. im Garten Mai 2005 RGB.jpg|thumb|Stockhausen in the garden of his home in Kürten, 2005]]

 

 

In 1961, Stockhausen acquired a parcel of land in the vicinity of [[Kürten]], a village east of Cologne, near [[Bergisch Gladbach]] in the [[Bergisches Land]]. He had a house built there, which was designed to his specifications by the architect Erich Schneider-Wessling, and he resided there from its completion in the autumn of 1965.{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=116–117, 137–138}}

[[File:Kürten - Waldfriedhof - Stockhausen 01 ies.jpg|thumb|Stockhausen's grave, Waldfriedhof, Kürten]]

[[File:Karlheinz Stockhausens Grab Rückseite.jpg|thumb|Grave monument (rear view)]]

 

==Compositions==

===Space music and Expo '70===

[[File:Osaka Expo'70 Korean Pavilion.jpg|thumb|The German Pavilion at Expo '70 (the spherical auditorium is out of view to the right)]]

 

Although Stockhausen and Piene's planned multimedia project, titled ''Hinab-Hinauf'', was developed in detail,{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=3:155–174}} the World Fair committee rejected their concept as too extravagant and instead asked Stockhausen to present daily five-hour programs of his music.{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=178}} Stockhausen's works were performed for 5½ hours every day over a period of 183 days to a total audience of about a million listeners.{{sfn|Wörner|1973|loc=256}} According to Stockhausen's biographer, Michael Kurtz, "Many visitors felt the spherical auditorium to be an oasis of calm amidst the general hubbub, and after a while it became one of the main attractions of Expo 1970".{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=179}}

 

===1970s===

Beginning with ''[[Mantra (Stockhausen)|Mantra]]'' for two pianos and electronics (1970), Stockhausen turned to [[formula composition]], a technique which involves the projection and multiplication of a single, double, or triple [[melody|melodic]]-line formula.{{sfn|Kohl|1983–84a}}{{sfn|Kohl|1990}}{{sfn|Kohl|2004}} Sometimes, as in ''Mantra'' and the large orchestral composition with mime soloists, ''Inori'', the simple formula is stated at the outset as an introduction. He continued to use this technique (e.g., in the two related solo-clarinet pieces, ''Harlekin'' [Harlequin] and ''Der kleine Harlekin'' [The Little Harlequin] of 1975, and the orchestral ''[[Jubiläum]]'' [Jubilee] of 1977) through the completion of the opera-cycle ''Licht'' in 2003.{{sfn|Blumröder|1982}}{{sfn|Conen|1991}}{{sfn|Kohl|1983–84a}}{{sfn|Kohl|1990}}{{sfn|Kohl|1993}}{{sfn|Kohl|2004}}{{sfn|Stockhausen-Verlag|2010|loc=10}} Some works from the 1970s did not employ formula technique—e.g., the vocal duet "[[Alphabet für Liège#Indianerlieder|Am Himmel wandre ich]]" (In the Sky I am Walking, one of the 13 components of the multimedia ''Alphabet für Liège'', 1972, which Stockhausen developed in conversation with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration [[Jill Purce]]), "Laub und Regen" (Leaves and Rain, from the theatre piece ''Herbstmusik'' (1974), the unaccompanied-clarinet composition ''[[Amour (Stockhausen)|Amour]]'', and the choral opera ''[[Atmen gibt das Leben]]'' (Breathing Gives Life, 1974/77)—but nevertheless share its simpler, melodically oriented style.{{sfn|Conen|1991|loc=57}}{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=192–193}} Two such pieces, ''Tierkreis'' ("Zodiac", 1974–75) and ''[[In Freundschaft]]'' (In Friendship, 1977, a solo piece with versions for virtually every orchestral instrument), have become Stockhausen's most widely performed and recorded compositions.{{sfn|Anon.|2007a}}{{sfn|Deruchie|2007}}{{sfn|Nordin|2004}}

 

Stockhausen had dreams of flying throughout his life, and these dreams are reflected in the ''[[Helikopter-Streichquartett]]'' (the third scene of ''Mittwoch aus Licht''), completed in 1993. In it, the four members of a [[string quartet]] perform in four [[helicopter]]s flying independent flight paths over the countryside near the concert hall. The sounds they play are mixed together with the sounds of the helicopters and played through speakers to the audience in the hall. Videos of the performers are also transmitted back to the concert hall. The performers are synchronized with the aid of a [[click track]], transmitted to them and heard over headphones.{{sfn|Stockhausen|1996c|loc=215}}

 

 

In 1999 he was invited by [[Walter Fink]] to be the ninth composer featured in the annual [[Rheingau Musik Festival#Portraits of living composers|Komponistenporträt]] of the [[Rheingau Musik Festival]].{{sfn|Rheingau Musik Festival|2017}}

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Stockhausen published a series of articles that established his importance in the area of music theory. Although these include analyses of music by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], [[Karel Goeyvaerts|Goeyvaerts]], [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]], [[Luigi Nono (composer)|Nono]], [[Johannes Fritsch]], [[Michael von Biel]], and, especially, [[Anton Webern|Webern]],{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:24–31, 39–44, 75–85, 86–98; 2:136–139, 149–166, 170–206; 3:236–238; 4:662–663}} the items on compositional theory directly related to his own work are regarded as the most important generally. "Indeed, the ''Texte'' come closer than anything else currently available to providing a general compositional theory for the postwar period".{{sfn|Morgan|1975|loc=16}} His most celebrated article is "... wie die Zeit vergeht ..." ("... How Time Passes ..."), first published in the third volume of ''[[Die Reihe]]'' (1957). In it, he expounds a number of temporal conceptions underlying his instrumental compositions ''Zeitmaße'', ''Gruppen'', and ''Klavierstück XI''. In particular, this article develops (1) a scale of twelve [[tempo]]s analogous to the chromatic pitch scale, (2) a technique of building progressively smaller, integral subdivisions over a basic (fundamental) duration, analogous to the [[Overtone|overtone series]], (3) musical application of the concept of the partial field (time fields and field sizes) in both successive and simultaneous proportions, (4) methods of projecting large-scale [[Musical form|form]] from a series of proportions, (5) the concept of "statistical" composition, (6) the concept of "action duration" and the associated "variable form", and (7) the notion of the "directionless temporal field" and with it, "polyvalent form".{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:99–139}}

 

<div style="text-align: center;">...</div>

Compositionally considered, this produced a change of focus from the individual tone to a whole complex of tones related to one another by virtue of their relation to a "[[Fundamental frequency|fundamental]]"—a change that was probably the most important compositional development of the latter part of the 1950s, not only for Stockhausen's music but for "advanced" music in general.{{sfn|Morgan|1975|loc=6}}</blockquote> Some of these ideas, considered from a purely theoretical point of view (divorced from their context as explanations of particular compositions) drew significant critical fire.{{sfn|Backus|1962}}{{sfn|Fokker|1968}}{{sfn|Perle|1960}} For this reason, Stockhausen ceased publishing such articles for a number of years, as he felt that "many useless polemics" about these texts had arisen, and he preferred to concentrate his attention on composing.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=4:13}}

 

===Musical influence===

 

Amongst British composers, [[Harrison Birtwistle|Sir Harrison Birtwistle]] readily acknowledges the influence of Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße'' (especially on his two wind quintets, ''Refrains and Choruses'' and ''Five Distances'') and ''Gruppen'' on his work more generally.{{sfn|Cross|2000|loc=48}}{{sfn|Cross|2001}}{{sfn|Hall|1984|loc=3, 7–8}}{{sfn|Hall|1998|loc=99, 108}}{{sfn|Pace|1996|loc=27}} [[Brian Ferneyhough]] says that, although the "technical and speculative innovations" of ''Klavierstücke I–IV'', ''Kreuzspiel'' and ''Kontra-Punkte'' escaped him on first encounter, they nevertheless produced a "sharp emotion, the result of a beneficial shock engendered by their boldness" and provided "an important source of motivation (rather than of imitation) for my own investigations".{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}} While still in school, he became fascinated upon hearing the British première of ''Gruppen'', and <blockquote>listened many times to the recording of this performance, while trying to penetrate its secrets—how it always seemed to be about to explode, but managed nevertheless to escape unscathed in its core—but scarcely managed to grasp it. Retrospectively, it is clear that from this confusion was born my interest for the formal questions which remain until today.{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}}</blockquote> Although it eventually evolved in a direction of its own, Ferneyhough's 1967 wind sextet, ''Prometheus'', began as a wind quintet with cor anglais, stemming directly from an encounter with Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße''.{{sfn|Kohl|2017|loc=137}} With respect to Stockhausen's later work, he said, <blockquote>I have never subscribed (whatever the inevitable personal distance) to the thesis according to which the many transformations of vocabulary characterizing Stockhausen's development are the obvious sign of his inability to carry out the early vision of strict order that he had in his youth. On the contrary, it seems to me that the constant reconsideration of his premises has led to the maintenance of a remarkably tough thread of historical consciousness which will become clearer with time. ... I doubt that there has been a single composer of the intervening generation who, even if for a short time, did not see the world of music differently thanks to the work of Stockhausen.{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}}</blockquote> In a short essay describing Stockhausen's influence on his own work, [[Richard Barrett (composer)|Richard Barrett]] concludes that "Stockhausen remains the composer whose next work I look forward most to hearing, apart from myself of course" and names as works that have had particular impact on his musical thinking ''Mantra'', ''Gruppen'', ''Carré'', ''Klavierstück X'', ''Inori'', and ''Jubiläum''.{{sfn|Barrett|1998}}

 

=== Wider cultural renown ===

 

Stockhausen's fame is also reflected in works of literature. For example, he is mentioned in [[Philip K. Dick]]'s 1974 novel ''[[Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said]]'',{{sfn|Dick|1993|loc=101}} and in [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s 1966 novel ''[[The Crying of Lot 49]]''. The Pynchon novel features "The Scope", a bar with "a strict electronic music policy". Protagonist Oedipa Maas asks "a hip graybeard" about a "sudden chorus of whoops and yibbles" coming out of "a kind of jukebox." He replies, "That's by Stockhausen ... the early crowd tends to dig your Radio Cologne sound. Later on we really swing".{{sfn|Pynchon|1999|loc=34}}

 

===Criticism===

 

Christopher Ballantine, comparing the categories of [[Experimental music|experimental]] and [[avant-garde music]], concludes that <blockquote>Perhaps more than any other contemporary composer, Stockhausen exists at the point where the dialectic between experimental and avant-garde music becomes manifest; it is in him, more obviously than anywhere else, that these diverse approaches converge. This alone would seem to suggest his remarkable significance.{{sfn|Ballantine|1977|loc=244}}</blockquote>

* 1993 Patron of the European Flute Festival; Diapason d'or for ''Klavierstücke I–XI'' and ''Mikrophonie I'' and ''II'';{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}}

* 1994 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score ''Jahreslauf'' (Act 1 of ''Tuesday from Light'');{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}}

* 1996 Honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h. c.) of the [[Free University of Berlin]]; Composer of the European Cultural Capital Copenhagen; Edison Prize (Netherlands) for ''Mantra'';{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}} Member of the Free Academy of the Arts Leipzig;<ref name=biography /> Honorary Member of the Leipzig Opera;<ref name=biography /> Cologne Culture Prize;{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}}

* 1997 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of ''Weltparlament'' (first scene of ''Wednesday from Light'');{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}} Honorary member of the music ensemble LIM (Laboratorio de Interpretación Musical), Madrid;<ref name=biography />

* Wolfson, Richard. 5 March 2001. "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4722023/Hit-and-mismatch.html Hit and mismatch]" ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'', London.

* Welsh, Tom. 2019. "Ballad for a Child: The Discovery of an Unknown Song by Karlheinz Stockhausen Provides a Humanising Footnote to His Barnstorming 1958 Lecture Tour of the US". ''[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]'', no. 425 (July): 20–21.

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