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Karlheinz Stockhausen: Frequently Asked Questions
Bernard Pulham March 30th 2004 / December 2007
1 Who was Karlheinz Stockhausen?
A composer of music.
2 Where did the answers in this Stockhausen FAQ come from?
From many years of reading articles, interviews and texts about and by the composer. Listening to all his music in concert or from recordings, reading the librettos and studying the scores. Also rehearsing and performing several Klavierstücke (piano pieces). I will correct any errors of fact, within this FAQ but my opinions and editorial control remain my own.
3 Where was Stockhausen born and when did he die?
Born in Mödrath near Cologne (Köln) Germany 22nd August 1928
Died in Kürten near Cologne ((Köln) Germany 5th December 2007
There is a complete biography at www.stockhausen.org
4 Where was he based in recent years?
Kürten near Cologne (Köln) Germany.
5 Has Karlheinz Stockhausen any famous relatives?
Karlheinz Stockhausen's eldest son Markus is a celebrated jazz and classical trumpeter. His son Simon is a composer, keyboardist and saxophonist, while his eldest daughter Majella is a classical pianist.
Stockhausen's second marriage was to the German painter Mary Bauermeister, and more recently has been the partner of the American clarinettist Suzanne Stephens, and then Dutch flautist Kathinka Pasveer.
6 What is the most famous music has he composed?
Gesang der Junglinge (1956) for electronic tape, Zeitmasze (1956) for woodwind quintet, Gruppen (1955-57) for 3 orchestras, Kontakte (1959-60) for electronic tape, piano and percussion, Momente (1965) for soprano and choir, Hymnen (1966) for electronic tape, soloists and orchestra, Stimmung (1968) for six vocalists, Aus Den Sieben Tagen (1968) text pieces for variable performances, Mantra (1971) for 2 pianos and electronics, Donnerstag aus LICHT (1977-81) Michaels Reise (1978) for trumpet and orchestra, Jahreslauf (1977-1988) tenor, bass, orchestra and tape, Helikopter Streichquartett (1993) for string quartet with 4 helicopters, Hoch-Zeiten (2002) for Choir and Orchestra playing simultaneously in two separate halls.
This is a short and debatable list considering all the extraordinary compositions that exist. You can see a complete work list with all the official titles and information at www.stockhausen.org
7 What style and genre is Stockhausen's music?
Many different styles, usually invented specially for each piece! As far as genres go his music is sometimes categorised as Classical, Classical Contemporary, Avant Garde, Electronic, or even New Age. In second hand record shops it is useful to search in all those sections.
8 Where can I find recordings of Stockhausen?
Not in most record stores although the largest ones will sometimes stock a few titles. Using Amazon.com or other web based record sites you will find the currently available CDs from various labels but for a complete edition of all his recordings you need to mail order from Stockhausen's own publishing company the Stockhausen Verlag. Karlheinz Stockhausen re-gained the copyright to his recordings because it was the only way to keep his recordings permanently available to listeners. If you do find or order these CDs in specialist shops they usually cost much more than buying them from the composer directly. You can find ordering details at www.stockhausen.org
Unfortunately at the time of writing the Stockhausen Verlag does not accept credit card payments, even though such a facility would dramatically increase their sales.
However, if you set up a PayPal account, you can order these CDs online via The Stockhausen Society in the UK. Full details at this Link. Order CDs Online.
Some public libraries have collections including Stockhausen LPs or CDs.
Mp3 files searched for or shared over the internet are rarely of full CD quality, which is especially important consideration for this music, though such files are undoubtedly giving many young people their first experience of Stockhausen's music.
Undoubtedly the most convenient place to find second hand, deleted Stockhausen LPs and CDs is www.ebay.com where Stockhausen 's music is listed for auction worldwide. There you can bid at bargain prices, though for the rarest recordings will usually be expensive.
9 What artists is he associated with? Who has he collaborated with?
Stockhausen is often referred to in the company of composers Pierre Boulez, and Bruno Maderna who he met in Paris 1952 while attending classes by the composer Olivier Messiaen. He also met the american John Cage, an equally extraordinary figure of those years. at Darmstadt he met other composers such as Luigi Nono.
Stockhausen has worked with numerous musicians, dancers, drectors, technicians and designers as well as orchestras, opera choruses and music studios the details of whom can be found among discographies and sleeve notes. to recordings
His work with other composers was during his Compositional Courses at Darmstadt in the 1960s. Wergo Records released an edited version of the group composition by the students of his compositional class under the title:Ensemble (1967). It is rare for composers to share equal billing with Stockhausen, as he recommends his music to be programmed separately.
The artist Mary Bauermeister collaborated with him on the theatre piece "Originale" (1961) and then again during the final act of Donnerstag aus LICHT with her "Three Compositions of Light" at La Scala Milan 1981.
The award winning film In Absentia (2000) by the Brothers Quay, uses Stockhausen's Zwei Paare (Two Couples) from Freitag aus Licht as its soundtrack. Parts of his composition Hymnen are heard during Nicolas Roeg's film Walkabout (1971).
Every year since 1998 the Stockhausen Courses have been held at his home town of Kürten, where many composers singers and instrumentalists from around the world attend compositional (analysis) classes as well as open rehearsals, master classes and concerts. Following his death in 2007 the future of the courses has yet to be confirmed.
10 What was Stockhausen's musical aim?
To make us all better listeners. To awaken potential listening skills that we might not realise we have! In particular to make us as sensitive to relationships of tempi (the precise speed of the music), as we are already becoming to dynamic (loudness), pitch (melody) and rhythm.
For most pieces he calculated scales of tempi (beats per minute) in minute detail, so it always has to be performed very accurately. He often composed music in layers of different tempi, each using different instruments or registers to avoid confusion. His music sometimes makes us experience the extremities of slow and fast that transcend the rhythms of our metabolism and daily activities.
11 What is his political angle?
From his youthful experiences tending war victims, losing his mother to the Nazi euthanasia programme, and losing his father in the war, Stockhausen already must have gained his abhorrence of violence, cruelty and injustice.
He has been an active revolutionary only through his music, and in 1985 he described the impact of the new music in the following way:
"In a superficial way one might say this is part of a peaceful mutation, compared to contemporary aspects of science, warfare, religious and political propoganda, but we must accept that certain compositions of the last 30 years will not leave sensitive souls in peace, but rather transport them into realms of outer and inner space which people have never dreamt of."
12 Is his music political?
No. But it has sometimes provoked political responses from others.
Those who think art should always serve a political purpose have occasionally attacked it, particularly from a leftist viewpoint during the late 1960s. The late english Composer Cornelius Cardew, who had worked with Stockhausen during the composition of Carré for 4 orchestras and 4 choirs) questioned the right of a composer to dictate the role of a performer within a composition. The title of the article "Stockhausen Serves Imperialism" was more memorable than its content in which Cardew argued for a different direction based on Communist, and Maoist principles exemplified by himself and John Cage at that time.
The composer Louis Andriessen organised a noisy protest to disrupt the Dutch premiere of Stockhausen's Stimmung (1968), successfully stopping the music, occupying the stage, and substituting a political discussion which was broadcast live on radio. Radicals claimed that music which maintains a separation between the audience and the performers is repressive in its nature. That occasion proved a triumph for those who would sooner talk about music than listen to it.
Equally, extreme rightwingers would find themselves outraged by the stage drama of Freitag aus Licht which shows the ascent of man as being dependent upon intermarriage between races and the coming together of previously separate cultures. Others felt uncomfortable that such themes were exploited on stage as a metaphor for Freitag's musical vision of the intermodulation of distinct sounds into highly original new ones.
Taken as a whole Stockhausen's musical message has been International and universal. Recent works include texts in Languages from all continents, and the composer took great pride in the number and diversity of students who attend his courses every year.
13 Did Stockhausen call September 11th a "work of art"?
At a Hamburg press conference in 2001 Stockhausen said he believed that the destructive activities of Lucifer (the Devil) were apparent in the world today, for example in New York. When asked to be more specific Stockhausen said the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre was Lucifer's greatest work of art. Johannes Schulz of NDR, just one of the reporters in attendance, filed a seemingly malicious report (omitting the word Lucifer and the context of the question) which was subsequently broadcast on German radio. Before the broadcaster had clarified its original mistake other networks world-wide picked up the story, humiliating the composer cruelly and unjustly. Many newspapers set the record straight in future articles, but inevitably these corrections achieved less prominence.
That the misquote attracted huge media attention did not go unnoticed by some who might enjoy the notoriety. A year later the artist Damien Hirst referred to such destruction as a visual work of art.
14 What wer Stockhausen's religious beliefs?
Stockhausen was born into a Christian family, and later joined the Catholic church. He left this when he remarried and continued to make personal spiritual discoveries from the religions he experienced during his travels. He wrote that he has prayed in churches, temples and mosques the world over.
The texts chosen for the earlier Licht operas tended to be more often Judeo-Christian than those chosen in the precious decade. Undoubtedly Stockhausen's study of The Urantia Book, (a collection of texts "revealed to" divinity scholars in the US and overwhelmingly Judeo-Christian in flavour), had rekindled Stockhausen's interest upon Biblical texts.
During the operas of Licht, (1977-2003) the central characters continually appear in various forms, rather like the avatars of Hindu gods, and the triple forms of characters in Donnerstag aus Licht (1978-1981) certainly interrelate with some of the richness of Hindu mythology.
From religions such as Buddhism, Stockhausen gained a firmly held belief in reincarnation . He said that he became aware of a previous life before this one, while not on this planet. Therefore he hoped that the end of this life will allow him to progress to an existence where he can compose with far greater freedoms than are possible on Earth!
15 What does Stockhausen ask of performers?
Many pieces require a remarkable dedication to practising and rehearsing with exceptional regard to detail, particularly of tempo and dynamic.
Sometimes Stockhausen also insisted on extra-musical criteria for example:
Performers of the Native American songs: Indianerlieder "Am himmel wandre ich... should only perform if they utterly believe what they are singing.
In Goldstaub, from Aus den Sieben Tagen, each musician must remain motionless and fast for four days before closing their eyes and beginning to play sounds.
In Es from Aus den Sieben Tagen musicians must meditate until their mind is completely empty before they attempt to play by intuition alone!
17 Is there ritual in Stockhausen's music?
A great deal.
Much of Stockhausen's musical rituals are highly original, such as the outdoor theatre of Sternklang, to be performed over several hours in a park under a summer sky. The electronic and instrumental Sirius is designed as a welcome to Earth for alien visitors, describing the four seasons and the characteristics of the Zodiac.
Other pieces use versions of ritual based upon that Stockhausen has encountered during his travels. The Native American texts of "Am himmel wandre ich..." give form to vocal invocations over about sixty minutes. The Hindu origins of the coconut smashing ceremony in Samstags Abschied can be witnessed today in southern India, while the Japanese temple bell that sounds for each part of Telemusik is the only unmodulated sound in the electronic composition.
In some works such as the "musical audition" of Orchester-Finalisten and the "Strike" that ends Luzifers Tanz for wind band, we see events from secular life being subverted for an artistic purpose, Most interestingly the ritual of Der Jahreslauf for Japanese Gagauku orchestra is interrupted four times by events that tempt the players away from their ritualised music making.
many pieces by Stockhausen contain directions for movement, vocalisation and even dancing by the performers. These theatrical elements were composed and always accompany performances whether in the theatre or the concert hall.
18 What Piece of Stockhausen should I learn to play?
A piece you know and love. If a piece has begun to fascinate you, then you will be most likely to devote enough time to learning it properly. Instrumentalists should not overlook the availability of the variable pieces such as Spiral, Solo, or even Plus Minus (for which some compostion skills will be needed!) Young musicians should not fear that they are too inexperienced to tackle Stockhausen's music, in fact youth is the ideal time to accept such a challenge. Most of the great Stockhausen performers started learning his music while students. The differences between good and inadequate performances of Stockhausen's music result from the dedication of the performer to the whole performance preparation.
19 What piece of Stockhausen should I listen to first?
Whichever piece speaks the most to you will vary. Cast your net wide, because the most easily available recordings and performances may exclude any piece that is too unusual to fit on a conventional CD issue or into a conventional concert. If you aren't interested in the unusual why waste your time considering Stockhausen? Listen to several pieces (there WILL be plenty of contrast!) and hopefully you will be hooked.
20 Which is Stockhausen's longest Composition?
LICHT: The seven days of The Week, is a cycle of seven operas, which was started in 1977 and was finished in 2003. At least half of Stockhausen's composing life has been spent on this composition. Each opera is about four hours long, and is musically related to all the others. LICHT can be counted as one long composition because it was all planned from the same musical material which makes it about 27 hours long! Fortunately there is an astonishing amount of variety and invention among the many scenes. MONTAG is one of he longest of the seven operas, with the first act alone of 96 minutes! The recently completed MITTWOCH is almost as long while the scenes of SONNTAG aus Licht are recommended to be performed over three evenings. As the electronic music layer of FREITAG is played as Greeting and Farewell before and after the staged drama, this opera has, surprisingly, the longest (290 minutes) duration of all. Many scenes from Licht can be performed separately, and some musical layers, whether Instrumental, Electronic or Choral, can be heard on their own too. This means that there are CDs issued of those smaller sections of Licht, sometimes in several versions. The ECM issue of Michael's Reise, The recording of Helikopter Streichquartett, and the Stockhausen Verlag CD of Lichter-Wasser are all music taken from the LICHT cycle.
21 What are Stockhausen's future plans?
He had composing a cycle of compositions called KLANG: (sound) The 24 Hours of The Day. Several of these pieces were composed and premiered before he died in December 2007