Karlheinz Stockhausen

[weissenberg2]

What is everyones opinion on this composer?

I like the klavierstuck XIII but that is the only piece by him that caught my attention. Some people say his music has some depth to it but if his music is based around formulas than I don't see how his intelligence is applied to the music if it is not his formula.

[richard black]

I find his music very variable but a lot of it is absolutely captivating. For instance, I have hugely enjoyed performances of 'Stimmung', 'Donnerstag' (one of the operas from the 'Licht' cycle, the only one I've seen on stage) and at least one of the piano pieces (number 12, I think). Some of it I certainly wouldn't miss if I never heard it again. I played a couple of his early piano pieces (numbers 1 to 3, if I remember correctly) and it was fun learning them but I can't say they left a huge impression.

[communist]

His music does have a large depth to it and he is very important,  but I think music has a moral purpose to it, and this is to improve the lives of the listeners. I think his music does not fulfill this moral purpose and it is just art for the sake of art. I do like to listen to some of his piece (E.G. the previously mentioned klavierstuck XIII) but a lot of it is just one man's obsession with formulas and calculations.


But I do not mind if other people like to listen to his music 

[ramseytheii]

Stockhausen used to be very popular with the pop scene, in the 60s and 70s, which I think belies the attitude that his music was based on formulas alone...

He can be found on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album (in the back row).  Apparently the Beatles liked Hymnen and Gesang der Juengling.

Interestingly, he was interviewed shortly before his death by Bjork... she played for him some current electronic music (I am sorry I cannot remember the band).  He dismissed it summarily as old-fashioned - after all, the techniques used by pop musicians today were techniques pioneered and first used by the avant-garde composers of 50 years ago.

Once, when walking through the city of Cologne, I found myself near the music school.  A woman with a microphone, and a man with a video camera approached me and said they were from the local television station; it was Stockhausen's birthday, and they were looking for people to send him well-wishes.  I told the classic joke:  What do the viola section of London Philharmonic and the Beatles have in Common? - they both haven't played together in 30 years.

Walter Ramsey




UPDATE: Here is the interview with Bjork:
https://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco6/Bjork/bjorkfr.html

In my memory, she asked him about a CD she had mailed before the interview, containing current electronic music - but somehow that's not in this interview.  Either I conflated that with something else, or who knows what.  But interesting nonetheless!