Karlheinz Stockhausen, Music: History, Composers, And Performers, Biographies

Related Category: Music: History, Composers, And Performers, Biographies

Karlheinz Stockhausen[kArl´hInts shtOk´houzun] Pronunciation Key, 1928–, German composer, music theorist, and teacher; his first name is also spelled Karl Heinz. He studied composition with Frank Martin in Cologne (1950–51) and with Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud in Paris (1951–53). Stockhausen is ranked with the most inventive of the avant-garde composers. He often employs serial music techniques in his works, and he is a major proponent of electronic music. Often using complicated contrapuntal systems, Stockhausen's compositions are characterized by much emphasis on free rhythms, tonal repetition, dissonance, and percussive effects. He is an adherent of aleatory music and allows performers to determine certain aspects of a performance; that is, they can improvise, begin and end at different points, and decide at what speed to sing and play.

Stockhausen's unique approach is well illustrated by his composition Gruppen [groups] (1959); in this piece three separate orchestras, each with its own conductor, play simultaneously; sometimes their music coincides; sometimes they play against one another; sometimes they play antiphonally. Among Stockhausen's other compositions are Kreuzspiel (1948); Kontrapunkte No. 1 (1953), for 10 instruments; Kontakte (1959), for electronic music; Stimmung (American premiere, 1971), for voices; and Jubilee (1981), for orchestra. His monumental Licht [light], with a separate opera for each day of the week, was begun in 1977; completion is expected early in the 21st cent.

See biographies by K. H. WOrner (1973) and M. Kurtz (1991); J. Harvey, Music of Stockhausen: An Introduction (1975); R. Maconie, Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1976, repr. 1981, 1990).