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Wikipedia Summary for Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (German: [kaʁlˈhaɪnts ˈʃtɔkhaʊzn̩]; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was 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, for introducing controlled chance (aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.
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. 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 Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces), Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic/musique-concrète Gesang der Jünglinge, 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 of sudden heart failure at the age of 79, on 5 December 2007 at his home in Kürten, Germany.
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.
I was horrible at everything I ever tried to do and people respect me. The American Dream has come true!
When a certain piece of music penetrates a person, a resonance is set in motion and an inner voice says: I like this resonance. It elevates me. It develops hitherto unknown possibilities in me. I don't recognize myself. This is very interesting.
I'm an adventurer. I like invention, I like discovery.
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.
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.
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.
I became aware that all sounds can make meaningful language.
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.
I have composed several pieces which are performed outdoors, not only in the auditoria.
Schaeffer gave me permission to work in the studio with a technician, but I've never worked with him.
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.
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.
And the invention of transformations of certain figures has become the most important in musical composition.
But since the middle of the century in particular, the music has become very irregular in rhythm.
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.
One experiments and has to choose always the best results.
And I'm always interested when other musicians are trying to discover new worlds of sound.
But I'm an adventurer. I like invention, I like discovery.
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.
I no longer limit myself.
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.
Repetition is based on body rhythms, so we identify with the heartbeat, or with walking, or with breathing.
It is true that the eyes dominate the ears in our time.
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.
And harmony means that the relationship between all the elements used in a composition is balanced, is good.