Karlheinz Stockhausen: Difference between revisions

'''Karlheinz Stockhausen''' ({{IPA-|de|kaʁlˈhaɪnts ˈʃtɔkhaʊzn̩|lang|KarlheinzStockhausenAussprache.ogg}}; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important{{sfn|Barrett|1988|loc=45}}{{sfn|Harvey|1975b|loc=705}}{{sfn|Hopkins|1972|loc=33}}{{sfn|Klein|1968|loc=117}} but also controversial{{sfn|Power|1990|loc=30}} composers of the [[20th-century classical music|20th]] and early [[21st-century classical music|21st]] centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in [[electronic music]], having been called the "father of electronic music",<ref>{{cite web | url=https://sites.barbican.org.uk/stockhausen/ | title=Stockhausen: The Father of Electronic Music }}</ref> for introducing controlled chance ([[Aleatoric music|aleatory techniques]]) into [[Serialism|serial composition]], and for musical [[spatial music|spatialization]].

Since the mid-1950s, Stockhausen had been developing concepts of [[spatial music|spatialization]] in his works, not only in electronic music, such as the 5-channel ''[[Gesang der Jünglinge]]'' (1955–56) and ''[[Telemusik]]'' (1966), and 4-channel ''[[Kontakte]]'' (1958–60) and ''[[Hymnen]]'' (1966–67). Instrumental/vocal works like ''Gruppen'' for three orchestras (1955–57) and ''Carré'' for four orchestras and four choirs (1959–60) also exhibit this trait.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=2:71–72, 49–50, 102–103}}{{sfn|Stockhausen|1989a|loc=105–108}}{{sfn|Cott|1973|loc=200–201}} In lectures such as "Music in Space" from 1958,{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:152–175}} he called for new kinds of concert halls to be built, "suited to the requirements of spatial music". His idea was {{Blockquote|a spherical space which is fitted all around with loudspeakers. In the middle of this spherical space a sound-permeable, transparent platform would be suspended for the listeners. They could hear music composed for such standardized spaces coming from above, from below and from all points of the compass.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:153}}}} In 1968, the [[West Germany|West German]] government invited Stockhausen to collaborate on the German Pavilion at the [[Expo '70|1970 World Fair]] in [[Osaka]] and to create a joint multimedia project for it with artist [[Otto Piene]]. Other collaborators on the project included the pavilion's architect, [[Fritz Bornemann]], Fritz Winckel, director of the Electronic Music Studio at the [[Technical UniversityTechnische ofUniversität Berlin]], and engineer Max Mengeringhausen. The pavilion theme was "gardens of music", in keeping with which Bornemann intended "planting" the exhibition halls beneath a broad lawn, with a connected auditorium "sprouting" above ground. Initially, Bornemann conceived this auditorium in the form of an [[amphitheatre]], with a central orchestra podium and surrounding audience space. In the summer of 1968, Stockhausen met with Bornemann and persuaded him to change this conception to a spherical space with the audience in the centre, surrounded by loudspeaker groups in seven rings at different "latitudes" around the interior walls of the sphere.{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=166}}{{sfn|Föllmer|1996}}

[[Robin Maconie]] finds that, "Compared to the work of his contemporaries, Stockhausen's music has a depth and rational integrity that is quite outstanding... His researches, initially guided by Meyer-Eppler, have a coherence unlike any other composer then or since".{{sfn|Maconie|1989|loc=177–178}} Maconie also compares Stockhausen to [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]: "If a genius is someone whose ideas survive all attempts at explanation, then by that definition Stockhausen is the nearest thing to Beethoven this century has produced. Reason? His music lasts",{{sfn|Maconie|1988}} and "As Stravinsky said, one never thinks of Beethoven as a superb orchestrator because the quality of invention transcends mere craftsmanship. It is the same with Stockhausen: the intensity of imagination gives rise to musical impressions of an elemental and seemingly unfathomable beauty, arising from necessity rather than conscious design".{{sfn|Maconie|1989|loc=178}}

* 1995 Honorary Member of the German Society for Electro-Acoustic Music; [[Bach AwardPrize of the cityFree and Hanseatic City of Hamburg]];{{sfn|Akademie der Künste|n.d.}}

[[Category:Honorary Membersmembers of the Royal Academy of Music]]