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KeyboardMag.com >> This Month >> Karlheinz Stockhausen
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Click on the Images Karlheinz StockhausenOn December 5th 2007, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away at the age of 79. A pioneer of serialism and electronic music, Stockhausen leaves a legacy of over 350 works. He studied under Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud, and counted Edgard Varèse and Anton Webern among his influences. In 1956, Stockhausen recorded Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths), a song combining musique concrète (music that relies on sounds found in nature or surroundings) and electronic sounds that features voice, sine wave tones, and electronically generated pulses or clicks. Stockhausen composed the piece to be a work of total serialism, in which dynamics, timbre, and duration of sounds were serialized in addition to pitch. Gesang der Jünglinge is considered by many to be the first electronic masterpiece. Gesang der Jünglinge is also noted for is its use of spatiality (it was originally recorded for playback in five channels). Stockhausen continued to experiment with spatialization of music in Gruppen (Groups), a piece composed for three orchestras who are to be situated on the left, on the right, and in front of the audience in performance. Kontakte (Contacts), composed for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion, is a four-channel piece using a rotation table to swirl the sounds from speaker to speaker. In the ’60s, Stockhausen introduced live electronics in pieces such as Mixtur for orchestra and electronics and Mikrophonie II for choir, Hammond organ, and four ring modulators. Another noteworthy piece from this time period is Hymnen (Anthems), in which Stockhausen manipulates recordings of approximately 40 different national anthems; Hymnen in fact served as inspiration for the Beatles’ “Revolution No. 9.” Stockhausen spent his later years focusing on a Licht (Light), a cycle of seven cosmically themed operas. Stockhausen’s music has touched numerous artists, from Frank Zappa to Herbie Hancock to Bjork. Miles Davis was fascinated by Stockhausen, and his influence can be heard on the 1972 album On the Corner. |
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