Stockhausen, Karlheinz

(b Burg Mödrath, nr Cologne, 22 Aug 1928). German composer. The leading German composer of his generation, he has been a seminal figure of the post-1945 avant garde. A tireless innovator and influential teacher, he largely redefined notions of serial composition, and was a pioneer in electronic music. His seven-part operatic cycle Licht is possibly the most ambitious project ever undertaken by a major composer.

1. Life.

2. Works.

3. Aesthetic position.

4. Composition techniques.

WORKS

WRITINGS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RICHARD TOOP

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

1. Life.

Stockhausen's father was a village schoolteacher with an enthusiasm for amateur theatre; his mother, who had some ability as a singer, was committed to a sanatorium in 1933, and died there (presumably killed, as a ‘burden to the state’) in 1942. In the same year Stockhausen was sent to a teacher-training institute in Xanten; from there he was sent to Bedburg, directly behind the army front, where he worked in a military hospital. His father died on the Hungarian front in 1945. Returning to the Cologne area towards the end of the war as an orphan, Stockhausen worked for nearly a year as a farmhand for relatives. In 1947 he enrolled at the Cologne Musikhochschule, graduating in music education in 1951; during this period, alongside piano studies with Hans-Otto Schmidt-Neuhaus, he took composition lessons with Frank Martin. At this time he was seriously considering a career as a writer, and received letters of encouragement from Hermann Hesse. He played the piano in bars and clubs, and also worked as (improvising) accompanist to the magician Adrion.

In August 1951, on the recommendation of Herbert Eimert, he went to the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. There he struck up a friendship with Karel Goeyvaerts, a former pupil of Messiaen's; Stockhausen played a movement of Goeyvaerts's Sonata for Two Pianos with the composer in a composition seminar held by Adorno (who was deputizing for the ill Schoenberg), and defended the work against Adorno's criticisms. Another important impression at the summer course came from hearing a recording of Messiaen's recent Mode de valeurs et d'intensités. In January 1952, shortly after marrying Doris Andreae, a fellow student at the Cologne Musikhochschule, he travelled to Paris to study with Messiaen (he also attended Milhaud's classes, without enthusiasm). There he met Boulez, who introduced him to the Parisian avant garde, and also to Pierre Schaeffer and the musique concrète studios, where he worked analysing percussion sounds, and composed his first tape piece (Konkrete Etüde). He returned to Cologne in March 1953, and in May took up a position in the newly formed Studio für Elektronische Musik at Northwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne, directed by Herbert Eimert. The radio station also gave him a scholarship to pursue doctoral studies in phonetics and communications theory with Werner Meyer-Eppler at Bonn University. Though never completed, these studies had a marked effect on his work in the mid-1950s; he subsequently described Meyer-Eppler as the best teacher he ever had.

By 1953 he was already established, along with Boulez and Nono, as a leading figure in the young serialist avant garde, and his sympathies lay particularly with other young composers who were interested in electronic music. Over the next few years he became the leading figure in a Cologne avant garde which also included the composers Gottfried Michael Koenig and Franco Evangelisti, the poet Hans G. Helms, the philosopher Heinz-Klaus Metzger, and later the performance artist Nam June Paik as well as Kagel and Ligeti. From 1956 Stockhausen taught regularly at the Darmstadt summer courses, and the radical group which had previously been at the fringe of the courses rapidly assumed the limelight; by the late 1950s Darmstadt had become synonymous with the European avant garde, and Stockhausen had become its standard-bearer. Particular attention, and ultimately dissension, was created when Stockhausen invited John Cage to lecture there in 1958; his (qualified) advocacy of Cage's work led to major rifts with Boulez and Nono. Stockhausen's fascination with (but not adherence to) the Cage-inspired counter-culture that sprang up in Cologne from 1958 led to an acquaintance with the painter Mary Bauermeister, who became his second wife in 1967.

An extended lecture tour in the USA in 1958 gave Stockhausen his first significant exposure outside Europe and, at the same time, his first sustained experience of non-European (albeit still Western) culture. In 1959 he employed the first of many assistants – the English composer Cornelius Cardew – primarily to aid in the realization of Carré for four choirs and orchestras; subsequent assistants included the composers Hugh Davies and Tim Souster. By the early 1960s Stockhausen's work was being widely performed, and his status as the seminal European avant-gardist extended way beyond Darmstadt. In 1964 his wife Doris Stockhausen purchased a plot of land for him in the country village of Kürten, about 30 km north-east of Cologne, and Stockhausen had a house built there to his own design which served as his working base from 1965 on.

From 1963 to 1968, seeking to give the Darmstadt model a more protracted form, he directed the composition class at the Kölner Kurse für Neue Musik established by Hugo Wolfram Schmidt, and during this period he founded a performing ensemble including both seasoned new music performers such as Aloys Kontarsky and Alfred Alings, and young composers such as Johannes Fritsch and (later) Rolf Gehlhaar. During the late 1960s Stockhausen travelled throughout the world with his ensemble. Many of their performances took place in unusual (especially outdoor) venues, including the underground caves of Jeita, in Lebanon. The climax of this performing activity came in 1970 at the World Fair (Expo ’70) in Osaka, where Stockhausen and his players performed daily for six months in the specially designed spherical German Pavilion which largely exemplified Stockhausen's view of the ideal auditorium for new music. After Osaka, the younger composer members of the ensemble (Fritsch, Gehlhaar and David Johnson) seceded to form their own Feedback Studio ensemble; they were replaced by Peter Eötvös and Stockhausen's assistants Joachim Krist and Tim Souster, but from this point onwards, partly as a result of Stockhausen's return to much more exactly notated works, the ensemble's activities were somewhat curtailed.

By the end of the 1960s Stockhausen's reputation was not only international, but reached outside avant-garde circles. At one stage his recordings reputedly sold more copies for Deutsche Grammophon than those of any other 20th-century classical composer except Stravinsky; this was acknowledged in the form of two ‘Stockhausen's Greatest Hits’ compilations. The level of his penetration into popular youth culture can be gauged from the inclusion of his photograph on the cover of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper album. However, in the course of the 1970s, following his espousal of formula composition (see below) and what was perceived as a very personal religious-spiritual conception of music, Stockhausen's central position within new European music receded. Partly because of a prevailing left-wing orientation in West German art, and partly because of an emerging postmodern reaction against ‘grand narratives’, he became an increasingly marginal (though still substantial) figure. However, although younger composers stopped looking to him automatically as an index of the future of European art music, his appointment as professor of composition at the Cologne Musikhochschule (1971–7) attracted many gifted young composers, including Klarenz Barlow, László Dubrovay, Robert H.P. Platz, Wolfgang Rihm, Claude Vivier and Kevin Volans.

Although he continued to travel widely, Stockhausen's life from the late 1970s onwards focussed ever more on his house in Kürten, and on work on the seven-part operatic cycle Licht, each part of which is named after a day of the week. A break with his former publisher Universal Edition in 1972 led him to set up his own publishing house, Stockhausen-Verlag. Far from being a domestic, budget-price operation, the scores issued by Stockhausen-Verlag have been immaculately produced, often including excerpts from sketch materials, and extensive verbal and photographic documentation of performing practice. Some of these scores have gained awards, notably the German Publisher's Award in 1992, 1994 and 1997. In 1992 Stockhausen inaugurated a parallel CD edition, available only by direct order, acquiring the rights to recordings previously issued by Deutsche Grammophon (Polydor) and other major companies. In 1995 he similarly began acquiring the rights to scores formerly published by Universal Edition (Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte, Hymnen, Momente).

A significant aspect of Stockhausen's performing practice during the 1970s and 80s was that the non-vocal parts of his Licht cycle were increasingly entrusted either to close associates (notably the clarinettist Suzanne Stephens and the flautist Kathinka Pasveer) or to three of his children: Markus, Majella and Simon Stockhausen. Of these latter, Markus and Simon Stockhausen have established independent careers as composer-performers. Resistance in Germany to Stockhausen's later music and its attendant ethos began to attenuate during the mid-1990s. Early evidence of this came in a Stockhausen-Symposium in Berlin in 1994, and more significantly in the German premières of parts of the Licht cycle at Leipzig in 1994 (Dienstag) and 1996 (Freitag). It was also reflected in many artistic and academic awards such as the Siemens Prize in 1987 and the honorary doctorate conferred by the Free University of Berlin in 1996.

The Stockhausen Stiftung für Musik, founded in 1994, includes a Stockhausen Archive, located not far from the composer's home in Kürten, which houses scores, sketches, audiovisual materials, correspondence, articles, photographs and press clippings.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

2. Works.

Although some student works (and stylistic exercises) from 1949 onwards are still extant, Stockhausen's catalogue of acknowledged works begins with three pieces composed immediately before his period of study with Frank Martin: a Chorale for unaccompanied four-part choir, a Sonatine for violin and piano and, most significantly, a set of Drei Lieder for contralto and small orchestra whose desolate, inadvertently Mahlerian last movement certainly suggests a major talent, but not an avant-garde sensibility. Stockhausen has sought to emphasize certain aspects of thematic construction in these pieces that anticipate his post-Darmstadt-1951 works. However, their rather free use of 12-note methods and their predominantly melancholy expressive character (which accords with Stockhausen's literary output at that time) place them worlds apart from Kreuzspiel and its immediate successors.

Kreuzspiel (1951) reflects the direct impact of the sound of Messiaen's Mode de valeurs and the form of Goeyvaerts's Sonata for Two Pianos: compared even to Webern, the works of this period are notable for their fragmentation, which became a hallmark of the early postwar avant garde. Their instrumentation establishes a lasting principle in Stockhausen's work: rather than using standard ensembles, such as string quartet or symphony orchestra with triple or quadruple wind, he selects a group of instruments directly related to the formal idea of the piece (in the works to 1953, this involves the serial use of octave registers). A partial exception to the ‘fragmentary’ style is Formel, a piece for chamber orchestra which applies the serial principles of Kreuzspiel to an overtly melodic material. Rejected at the time, Formel proved to be a clear pointer to Stockhausen's music of the 1970s.

Many of the early ‘point music’ works, which often scandalized their early audiences, were withdrawn after one or only a few performances, not in deference to public opinion, but in response to sharp self-criticism. Most were eventually reissued in revised form: Kreuzspiel in 1959, but others, such as Formel, Spiel and the Schlagquartett (recast as a Schlagtrio), only in the early 1970s. It was not until Kontra-Punkte of 1953 (itself the product of drastic revision) that Stockhausen was prepared to nominate a work for publication as his no.1 (Stockhausen has always listed his works as no.1 etc., rather than op.1); thereafter, although many works were revised or left incomplete, none were withdrawn. Kontra-Punkte was also notable for going beyond register forms to an overall form in which the initially fragmentary textures for all ten instruments become gradually more cohesive, and focus on one instrument: the piano.

From early 1953 Stockhausen's attention turned largely to electronic music, which preoccupied him for the next 18 months, and which he regarded at the time as representing the essential future of music. The two Elektronische Studien prepared the ground for Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–6) which, though initially surrounded by controversy on account of its avant-garde treatment of a sacred text (the Benedicite), became the first work to establish fully the aesthetic viability of the electro-acoustic medium. However, its significance goes beyond this. It was the first major multi-track work (five channels, subsequently reduced to four), and it partly broke down the doctrinaire division between electronic music and musique concrète by including a boy's voice alongside the electronically generated sounds. It also embodied Stockhausen's ideas about the integration of materials, bringing together a number of different types of pitch scales and time proportions, and establishing a continuum between pitched and unpitched sound.

In parallel with Gesang der Jünglinge, Stockhausen returned to instrumental music in a second cycle of Klavierstücke (1954–5). The latter was intended not as a retreat from electronic music, but as a vital counterpoint to it: an investigation of new aspects of instrumental performance (such as the duality between metronomic time and timing determined by physical movements), revealed in part by contact with the American pianist and Cage-advocate David Tudor, to whom Klavierstücke V–VIII are dedicated. These ‘indeterminate’ considerations are extended further in the wind quintet Zeitmasze (1955–6). On the other hand, Gruppen for three orchestras (with three conductors), probably the foremost orchestral achievement of the 1950s avant garde, is exactly notated, and explores the possibilities of different simultaneous tempos (as well as ‘spatial music’).

The unforeseeable aspects of human performance are pushed to an extreme in Klavierstück XI (1956), the first significant European work to respond to the ‘open forms’ of the Cage school. Here, the pianist decides spontaneously on the order of 19 precisely notated fragments, distributed over a single large sheet (Stockhausen subsequently came to prefer ‘prepared’ versions of the piece). An unorthodox score format is even more apparent in two subsequent ‘variable form’ works of 1959: Zyklus, which is spirally bound and can start on any page (see fig.2), and Refrain, in which a plastic strip can be rotated to different positions over a page of ‘circular’ notation reminiscent of Baude Cordier's Tout par compas. However, in contrast to the speculative and mannerist notations which proliferated among the European avant garde from the late 1950s onwards, Stockhausen's notational innovations are not only integrally related to the formal idea of each piece, but also rigorously practical.

From 1959, a new spaciousness enters, marking a clear break with any kind of ‘post-Webern’ aesthetic. This is clear on a small scale in Refrain, and on a larger one in Carré for four choirs and four orchestras and Kontakte for piano, percussion and electronic music; both of these are unbroken spans lasting over half an hour, but they are notable also for their expressive range and their radical ‘extension of the time-scale’ in terms of the difference between the quickest and slowest rates of change. Both factors also characterize Momente for soprano, four choirs and 13 instrumentalists, which already lasted just over an hour in its provisional 1965 version; the completed ‘Europe’ version of 1972 extends the piece to almost two hours. The tape composition Hymnen (1966–7) likewise lasts just under two hours (slightly longer when performed with soloists, or when the Dritte Region is performed with orchestra). However, Momente and Hymnen are the only ‘monumental’ works of the 1960s, in both scale and intent. On the whole, the relatively fully notated works of this period – Mikrophonie I and II, Mixtur, Adieu and Telemusik – are markedly shorter than the preceding pieces, and considerably less apocalyptic (even exuberant) in tone.

Most of the works from 1964 to the end of the decade use electronics, and above all ‘live electronics’ (i.e. the use of electronic equipment in concert to modify the sound of amplified instruments). In Mikrophonie I, a single tam-tam is activated by two duos on either side of the instrument, and the results are electronically modified by two further players. In Mikrophonie II a chorus is ring-modulated with the output of a Hammond organ, and in Mixtur the orchestra is divided into five groups, four of which are ring-modulated with sine-tone generators (one per group). Only Hymnen and Telemusik are ‘pure’ tape compositions, and even Hymnen can, like Kontakte, also be performed with (amplified) instrumentalists (as noted above, there is also a version of the third region of Hymnen with orchestra).

Starting with Plus-Minus in 1964, Stockhausen produced a series of ‘process compositions’ in which the score consists primarily of transformation processes: a blueprint for composition rather than a finished work. In Plus-Minus the various transformation systems are so intricate that a written-out ‘version’ is essential. Two later works of this kind, Prozession (1967) and Kurzwellen (1968), both composed for performance by Stockhausen's own ensemble, use a greatly simplified notation, consisting essentially of the signs ‘+’, ‘−’ and ‘=’ (more, less, the same) applied to the pitch, dynamic, length and rhythmic segmentation of existing figures. In Prozession the initial materials are drawn from Stockhausen's earlier works; in Kurzwellen they are picked up at random from short-wave radio transmissions. These processes are elaborated in Spiral (1968) for a soloist, and in Pole and Expo (both 1969–70, for two and three players respectively); none of the ‘process compositions’ specifies a particular instrumentation, but all assume the use of live electronics.

The most extreme departure from conventional score format comes in the 15 ‘text compositions’ which constitute Aus den sieben Tagen. These pieces caused enormous controversy, partly because of instructions such as ‘Play a vibration in the rhythm of the universe’, but above all because dispute arose over the extent to which the ‘intuitive music’ (Stockhausen's phrase) that resulted from these texts could be regarded as Stockhausen's, rather than a product of group improvisation. Nevertheless, the series of recordings made at Darmstadt in August 1969 could scarcely have emanated from anyone but Stockhausen. Most of these works explore the continuum between pitch and noise, with a predisposition to the latter. A striking and highly influential exception is Stimmung (1968) for six vocalists, a 70-minute work based on a single B 9th chord, in which the singers have to emphasize overtones up to the 24th partial; this work served as a prime inspiration for the ‘spectral composition’ school that emerged in Paris in the course of the 1970s.

A major change of direction came with Mantra (1969–70) for two ring-modulated pianos. The work is fully notated, with only very marginal indeterminate aspects, and entirely based on a 13-note ‘mantra’, or ‘formula’, each note of which is associated with a particular duration, dynamic (or dynamic process) and articulation. The ‘formula’ method was not adopted immediately as an unquestioned basis for future works. The orchestral theatre piece Trans, written immediately after Mantra, does not have a ‘core melody’, although sketches show that Stockhausen had originally intended this to be the case. Up to 1974, Stockhausen continued to produce text compositions, such as Ylem, the first three parts of Herbstmusik, and the collection Für kommende Zeiten. The decisive return to the formula method comes in Inori (‘Adorations’, 1973–4), for mime, dancer and orchestra, which also picks up many threads from the abandoned Monophonie of 13 years earlier. Inori is notable for the rigorously serial composition of its main visual element – the prayer gestures of the mime – and the extremely sophisticated, intricate composition of dynamic levels. Equally prophetic, however, is the expansion of the work's ‘formula’ over about 67 minutes to determine the broad formal proportions of the work. In addition, Inori is the first major work in which the formula is explicitly presented as an audible melody that permeates the work. In Sirius (1975–7), which marks Stockhausen's first significant engagement with the synthesizer (in this case an EMS Synthi 100), four formula-melodies from the Tierkreis cycle form the basis of a 96-minute work.

Although Stockhausen had long rejected the notion of composing operas, his sketchbooks throughout the 1960s were full of propositions for theatre pieces of various kinds, some of which have been finally realized, albeit in modified form, in Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche, a ‘cosmic’ seven-part operatic cycle commenced in 1977, and scheduled for completion in 2002 (i.e. as a 25-year undertaking). The ‘seven days of the week’ have not been composed sequentially, but in the order Donnerstag, Samstag, Montag, Dienstag, Freitag, Mittwoch, Sonntag. That is, the three works which concentrate on just one of the three main characters (Thursday is Michael's Day, Saturday Lucifer's Day, and Monday Eve's Day) were the first to be composed, then came two operas focussed on interaction between pairs of characters (Tuesday: Lucifer and Michael, Friday: Eve and Lucifer). Wednesday, initially intended as the moment of harmony between all three protagonists but ultimately excluding them in favour of a humorous ‘Lucimidiaelian Operator’, and Sunday, as the final ‘mystical union’ of Eve and Michael, have been left until last.

From the start, the Licht cycle departed widely from operatic norms, not in the anti-opera sense epitomized by Kagel's Staatstheater, but in its tendency to ceremony and ritual: thus each work opens with a ‘Greeting’ (sometimes on tape) and concludes with a ‘Farewell’. The principal characters are often portrayed in threefold form – as singers, instrumentalists, and dancers or mimes – and several acts (e.g. the second act of Donnerstag and the second and third of Samstag) are essentially staged instrumental works, with only marginal vocal intervention. In this, Stockhausen has allied himself with a widespread tendency in modern Western theatre since Artaud to reject a psychological approach to characterization. In the course of composing the cycle he has tended to a view that the instruments are, in many respects, more essential carriers of ‘character’ than the voices (here again, there are antecendents in Wagner, but also in the two vocal and two instrumental participants of Sirius). One consequence of this is that the texts, still relatively naturalistic in Donnerstag, become increasingly stylized: in Freitag and the ‘Welt-Parlament’ act from Mittwoch, large parts of the text are in an invented meta-language.

More significantly, perhaps, Stockhausen's approach to instrumental writing has changed enormously in the course of the Licht cycle. Up to the 1970s, the ‘extended techniques’ which were an obsession for many composers in the 1960s had scarcely interested him (a striking exception is the variety of cluster techniques deployed in Klavierstück X). The process- and text-compositions of the 1960s give the players ample incentive to explore new instrumental possibilities, but never prescribe them in detail. While close collaboration with Suzanne Stephens and Markus Stockhausen on the instrumental parts of Sirius clearly heightened Stockhausen's interest in instrument-specific techniques, the trumpet part of Donnerstag takes this interest much further, exploring a wide range of ‘coloured noises’, as does the flute part in ‘Kathinkas Gesang’ (from Samstag). From Montag onwards, Stockhausen also turns his attention to microtonal scales of great variety and sophistication.

Electro-acoustic music has played an increasing and changing role in the Licht cycle. In Donnerstag, as in Der Jahreslauf (composed before Donnerstag, but subsequently incorporated into Dienstag), there are tape playbacks. A concert version of ‘Kathinkas Gesang’, the second act of Samstag, replaced the six percussionists of the original version with a tape part, realized at IRCAM, that represents Stockhausen's first major engagement with computer music. In Montag, which also has many taped inserts (‘sound scenes’), the instrumental music is entrusted to what Stockhausen calls a ‘modern orchestra’ of synthesizers and amplified instruments. In Act 2 of Dienstag the live instrumentalists (brass, percussion and synthesizers) are amplified, and engage in a quasi-military stage action while moving through the audience, still coordinating exactly through transmitter-receivers; in addition, there is an eight-track tape part (performable separately as Oktophonie). In Freitag, for the first time, a tape part (eight tracks of electronic music and 12 of ‘sound scenes’) runs throughout the opera, and the electronic part also acts as the ‘Greeting’ and ‘Farewell’ played in the foyer before and after the stage action.

Several of these works extend outside the opera house, which Stockhausen regards as a residue from the late Renaissance, still offering only a two-dimensional stage picture. At the première of Donnerstag the ‘Farewell’ was played from the rooftops of the square outside La Scala, Milan. Samstag, though produced under the auspices of La Scala, was performed in the Palazzo del Sport. The most drastic departure from standard operatic practice in the Licht cycle is the Helikopter-Streichquartett in Mittwoch, whose airborne string quartet (in four helicopters) is naturally only conceivable out of doors, though transmitted into an auditorium via screens and loudspeakers. Particularly ambitious spatial effects are also likely to be a feature of Mittwoch and Sonntag.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

3. Aesthetic position.

The consistent driving forces behind Stockhausen's works have been religious conviction (initially Catholicism), and a passion for innovation. Viewed superficially, the two might seem to be at odds. Yet from the outset, Stockhausen's search for the ‘not yet heard’ had a religious motivation. For him, ‘total serialism’ was intended as a form of acoustic theology, an attempted paradigm of a divine creation in which all elements were constantly present in perfect balance, but never in the same configuration. This intention, undeclared in his published essays from the early years, is explicit in his correspondence with Goeyvaerts (see Sabbe, C1981).

Stylistically, Stockhausen's work arose almost ex nihilo. To regard his outlook as post-Webernist is misleading, even in relation to his early works. At the time of Kreuzspiel Stockhausen probably knew only the Fünf Sätze op.5 of 1909 at first hand, although Goeyvaerts had given him a detailed description of the Variations op.27 for piano. By the time Universal Edition published a representative group of Webern scores in 1953, Stockhausen had completed his strict ‘point music’ phase, Kontra-Punkte was in the press, and he was composing the Elektronische Studien. Some aspects of Webern's music came as a confirmation of Stockhausen's path (as witness his analysis of the Concerto op.24), but there was virtually no direct influence. Above all, whereas Webern saw himself as a continuation of Austro-German tradition, the young Stockhausen felt, with some justification, that he was establishing a completely new path (even if, by his own account, he sometimes felt as if he were composing with Schoenberg looking over one shoulder, and Stravinsky over the other, ensuring there was no trace of plagiarism) – hence the total avoidance of inherited forms and instrumentations in his work. The first electronic works, dispensing completely with traditional instruments and conventional acoustic materials, are emblematic of this break with the past. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, and in many respects beyond, all of Stockhausen's works embody an unflinching modernist aesthetic, in which it is the duty of each new work not just to add to an extant repertory, but to redefine the possibilities of contemporary composition.

It would be equally wrong to regard Stockhausen as a ‘scientific’ composer, although work in the early electronic studios clearly called for some expertise in acoustics and basic electronics. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of scientific research, especially in ‘inexact’ or experimental areas, that inspired him. In historical terms, he has often cited Einstein, Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg as models and forerunners. In the mid-1950s he was directly influenced by information and communications theory, and experimental linguistics, primarily through attending Meyer-Eppler's courses in Bonn. Subsequently, some expositions of evolutionary genetics (e.g. Wolfgang Wieser's Organismen, Strukturen, Machinen) also impressed him as offering models for, or parallels to, compositional processes. As for mathematics, this has a purely pragmatic, craft-orientated function: it is largely a matter of the sophisticated use of simple arithmetic and geometric series to determine and unify proportions at various structural levels. From about 1960 onwards, Stockhausen made considerable use of the Fibonacci series. The initial impetus for this seems to have come from reading Le Corbusier's influential architectural primer Le Modulor, rather than (for example) Bartók's later works, and was reinforced in 1966 by a Mondrian exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The most significant changes from 1960 onwards are spiritual rather than technical. It was around 1960 that Stockhausen developed his notion of non-dramatic, non-directional ‘moment forms’, ‘in which one has to expect a minimum or a maximum at each moment … which have always begun already and could go on that way without limit; in which each present instant counts, or nothing counts at all’. The eternal present of Stockhausen's moment form may have its Augustinian aspects, but it is also hard to separate from his precarious personal situation at the time. The breakdown of his first marriage led to his estrangement from Catholicism, but by no means from religious belief. Yet although the early 1960s seem to mark a period of spiritual uncertainty in his life, the reflection of this in his work is, paradoxically, not a sense of crisis, but a sudden omnivorous curiosity which bursts out of the self-contained sphere of the 1950s European avant garde.

If the keyword for Stockhausen's work in the 1950s is organization, in the 60s it is integration. The 50s' rigorous search for the unknown was not repudiated, but its purism in relation to consistency of material certainly was. Stockhausen was no less interested in opening up entirely new possibilities, but now he also looked for ways to integrate existing materials, often of the most startlingly familiar kind, and place them in new perspectives. This is first apparent in the street talk of Momente, continues through the stylized vocalizations of Mikrophonie II (with markings as diverse as ‘Solemn Levite chant’ and ‘à la Jazz, cool’), and reaches its peak in Hymnen, whose basic materials (national anthems) are completely ‘known’.

The shift of emphasis is mirrored in Stockhausen's writings. Up to 1961, the majority dealt with theoretical issues: particularly important in this respect are Struktur und Erlebniszeit, the very influential … wie die Zeit vergeht …, and Die Einheit der musikalischen Zeit. Since then, Stockhausen has not produced theoretical essays per se, although from the mid-1970s onwards there have been several analytical texts. On the other hand, he has spoken repeatedly about the spiritual basis of his work, in interviews, programme notes and essays.

Another important factor in the work of the 1960s is the notion of co-creation, in a sense going somewhat beyond that of collaboration. Earlier examples date back to the 1950s: work with David Tudor on the no.4 Klavierstücke, with Gottfried Michael Koenig on the electronic works Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte and, more radically, with Cornelius Cardew in the realization of Carré. In founding the Stockhausen Ensemble, Stockhausen established the basis for a new kind of live electronic ‘oral tradition’ exemplified in Kurzwellen. At the Darmstadt summer courses in 1967 and 1968, his composition classes were primarily concerned with the evolution of ‘collective compositions’ (Ensemble and Musik für ein Haus respectively) to which all course participants contributed.

From the mid-1960s, in West Germany as in many other parts of Europe, cultural thinking was increasingly driven by left-wing ideological agendas, and Stockhausen's work eventually came under strong criticism from influential Marxist groups in German cultural life. Although the outward sound (and even compositional process) of works such as Prozession and Kurzwellen still seemed assimilable to a prevailing ‘musica negativa’ aesthetic, Stockhausen's personal statements in relation to works like Hymnen or Aus den sieben Tagen established a clearly non-leftist position. In the late 1960s it became increasingly clear that his primary aesthetic motivation was spiritual and cosmic, rather than terrestrially political – even the use of short-wave radios in works like Kurzwellen and Spiral involved, as subtext, the idealistic hope that some transmissions might be extra-terrestrial. At this time, Stockhausen's principal orientation was to the writings of Sri Aurobindo, from which he reads in one of the Darmstadt recordings of Aus den sieben Tagen, and to the Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan.

An overtly religious standpoint is asserted in many works of the mid-1970s, notably by the prayer ‘Gott, Du bist das Ganze’ in Sternklang, the religious ceremonies in the Indianerlieder, the praying mime in Inori and the ‘Annunciation’ at the end of Sirius. Essential to the last named, and indeed to many works from Kurzwellen onwards, is the composer's increasingly firm conviction that there are other, higher intelligences in other galaxies with their own superior musical cultures, who will make contact with Earth, or have already done so: this is first made explicit in Sirius. In keeping with views expressed earlier by Stravinsky (‘I am the vessel through which Le Sacre passed’) and Webern (‘Man is only a vessel’), Stockhausen regards himself as a receiver and transmitter of higher (supra-terrestrial) vibrations. A firm believer in reincarnation – each instance of which he regards as a momentary period of testing that precedes and briefly impedes access to a higher state of consciousness – Stockhausen views his late work not as messianic revelation, but as patient steps towards his own spiritual evolution which also, perhaps more importantly, may facilitate the passage of willing listeners to similar goals.

Comparisons with Wagner had been made ever since the première of Carré; and when, in 1977, Stockhausen announced his seven-part operatic cycle Licht, such comparisons, specifically with Der Ring des Nibelungen, became inevitable (though in fact Parsifal, as ‘staged festival dedication play’, would probably be more relevant). A more significant influence is that of the Urantia Book, a collection of 196 ‘papers’ supposedly revealed by extraterrestrial superhumans from 1928 to 1935, with which Stockhausen became familiar in 1971. The basic opposition in Licht between dissenting intellect, represented by Lucifer, and affirmative spirituality, represented by Michael, is drawn straight from the Urantia Book's cosmology, as indeed is the cycle's title: according to the Urantia Book, ‘Light – spirit luminosity – is a word symbol, a figure of speech, which connotes the personality manifestation characteristic of spirit beings of diverse orders’. However, Licht also draws on an enormous range of other myths and religious traditions and rites – a synthetic approach already present in the many interjected ‘magic names’ which steer the emotional and spiritual course of Stimmung.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

4. Composition techniques.

The first characteristic works, such as Kreuzspiel or the Schlagtrio, are instances of ‘total serialism’ (see Serialism, §5): the basic series is permutated rather than transposed, and applied to durations, dynamics and articulation (‘mode of attack’) as well as pitch (where the notion of transposition still applies). Since all elements of each parameter are constantly present, form must be achieved by other means, normally by ‘register forms’ such as the gradual move from extreme top and bottom to the balanced use of all octaves that occurs at the beginning of Kreuzspiel. The instrumentation of these works is largely determined by the need for material to be present in any octave register with a full dynamic range; in Formel and Spiel particular instruments or groups of instruments are associated with each octave.

These early works observe the Second Viennese School convention of a basic 12-note material. Once Stockhausen began work in the Parisian musique concrète studios and moved away from the tempered 12-note scale, the justification for the number 12 as the inevitable basis for parametric organization disappeared and works were constructed on the basis of ‘proportion squares’ of 5 × 5 (Elektronische Studie II) or 6 × 6 (Konkrete Etüde, Elektronische Studie I). This subsequently extended to all but the pitch dimensions of instrumental works like Zeitmasze and Klavierstücke V–VIII. Another discovery from late 1952, which forms part of a move from ‘point music’ to ‘group composition’, is the systematic assembling of sounds into what Stockhausen, in his letters, calls ‘modes’. In the ‘vertical’ version, sounds begin together and end separately, or begin separately and end together; in the ‘horizontal’ version they are either linked together (legato) or broken into serially quantified ratios of sound and silence. This does not apply only to the concrète and electronic studies: the same procedures are found in the first two Klavierstücke and Kontra-Punkte.

The works from 1953 onwards apply serial organization to a great deal more than the ‘four parameters’ often associated with serialism: they permeate every level of the formal process. Allied to this is a move away from the ‘static’ conception of the early works, in which systematic exploitation of octave registers was often the only variable creating a sense of formal direction. The quest for ‘unity’ pursued in earlier pieces now assumes more thoroughgoing form: in Elektronische Studie II, for instance, the use of fives determines not only a basic 25√5 scale for pitches, durations and dynamics, and five main sections, but also five subsections per section, each consisting of five ‘groups’ of one to five sounds, with five different ‘band-widths’. The resulting ‘group composition’ changes the function of the series, which no longer merely permutates independent objects (e.g. 12 notes, or 6 durations), but is concerned with their relative proportions. In the context of Klavierstücke V–VIII, for instance, a number series like 6 4 5 2 1 3 not only implies a movement from relatively large to relatively small, but also consciously regulates the level of increase and decrease (6 − 2 + 1 − 3 − 1 + 2).

In contrast to the focus on total unity of proportions initially pursued in the studies and Klavierstücke V–VIII, the works from the period 1956–8 – the extended version of Zeitmasze, Gruppen and Klavierstück XI – use a diversity of proportions. Not only are different basic quantities (e.g. fives, sevens, twelves) used for different aspects of the same work; there is also a dialectic between simple ‘arithmetic’ series of proportions (e.g. 1 2 3 4 5 6), and ‘geometric’ ones (e.g. 1 2 3 6 10 15 21). Another new aspect of these works is the degree to which Stockhausen is prepared to insert new material retrospectively into the music provided by an initial scheme: the variable tempo sections in Zeitmasze, the passages in Gruppen where all three orchestras play in synchrony (with coordinated accelerandos and ritardandos), and many of the more ad hoc production processes used in Gesang der Jünglinge are, in effect, carefully considered afterthoughts.

Up to 1959, even long works like Gruppen involve detailed microstructures, and the longest ‘sounding’ notes are not very long. The American experience (in 1958) of constant aeroplane flights, and listening to the ‘inner transformations’ of the long drone of aeroplane engines, led to what Stockhausen subsequently termed ‘an expansion of the time-scale’. One consequence of this is the use of a scale of durations which greatly increases the ratio between the smallest and largest units. Another change of outlook involved a re-evaluation of the function of number sequences in serial composition. Following the earlier move from ‘points’ to ‘groups’, Stockhausen now started to think of the series in terms of ‘degrees of alteration’; that is, a sequence such as 6 5 1 4 2 3 is considered not only as x − 1 − 4 + 3 − 2 + 1 (as was already the case in ‘group composition’), but also, for example, as: total change (6), major change (5), minimal change (1) etc. This way of thinking played a major role in Refrain, Carré and Kontakte, and paved the way for the ‘process compositions’ of 1963–70.

It was in 1961, in the recomposed Klavierstück IX, that Stockhausen first gave obvious precedence to the Fibonacci series (in practical terms, 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144), which serves as a primary tool in sculpting the time-proportions (and other aspects) of such works from the 1960s as Plus-Minus, Mikrophonie I and II, Stop, Adieu and Telemusik. However, the advent of ‘moment form’ around 1960 brings several other factors into play. The characterization as ‘unique’ of each formal ‘moment’ (most works involve about 30 of them) lays particular emphasis on such aspects as timbre, articulation and, in the case of Carré, spatial location and movement. Evidence of this is the rich array of adjectives used to label the 33 ‘moments’ in Mikrophonie I (e.g. ‘schlürfend-quietschend’ (slurping-squealing) or ‘winselnd-jaulend’ (whimpering-wailing), and the more objective moment-titles used in Mixtur (e.g. ‘Dialogue’, ‘Layers’, ‘Translation’). More broadly, the ‘moment form’ approach tends to imply preparatory sketches which list all the available parametric combinations, and investigate significant ways of grouping and interrelating them, without giving a priori preference to any single ordering.

A major change of approach came with the ‘formula’ technique first introduced in Mantra. Here, not only are the various parameters of each phrase serially proportioned, but each of the individual articulation types allotted to each note of the formula subsequently dominates one of the work's 13 main sections. In addition, the rhythmic structure of each of the formula's four phrases serves as the germ for the rhythmic structure of the remainder of the work. An important aspect of the pitch structure, carried over from process compositions such as Spiral, is that the basic melody sequence is also subjected to 12 different ‘expansions’ (ranging up to over three octaves).

One inevitable outcome of Stockhausen's development of ‘formula technique’ is the renunciation of ‘moment form’. The last significant work to be conceived in terms of ‘moments’ is Trans, and even here there are certain aspects, including the harmonic structure of the dense string chords and the lengths of sections, which are ‘through-composed’ as a single process. In Inori, the form is clearly ‘organic’: the five main sections, derived from the five phrases of the ‘formula’, progressively introduce ‘rhythm’, ‘dynamics’, ‘melody’, ‘harmony’ and ‘polyphony’, and all but the ‘harmony’ section include subsections entitled ‘genesis’ and/or ‘evolution’. Most significant here, however, is the drastic expansion of the formula to a notional length of 60 minutes (augmented in practice by seven minutes of fermatas and various visual or theatrical elements), so that the shaping of the melody is also that of the overall form.

Licht provides the most extreme extension of the ‘formula’ technique. The entire cycle is extrapolated from a three-layer ‘super-formula’: a superimposition of the formulae for the three main characters. At the broadest level, this super-formula determines the relative length of the seven operas, and their subdivision into individual acts and scenes. It also supplies a framework of central pitches extending over long periods of time, as well as the basis for all local melodic and rhythmic detail.

Although, in some respects, the formula method seems to hark back to the serialism of the early 1950s, it is essentially a much more flexible method, allowing far more scope for on-the-spot decisions about musical substance. An essential criterion for Stockhausen is that each response to the available options should involve a new exploration of the formula's possibilities, not recourse to well-tried strategies. Halfway through work on Mittwoch, he commented that he had still made no use in Licht of the pitch expansions introduced in Mantra, and that the method's potential resources still seemed infinite.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

WORKS

the numbering is Stockhausen’s

amplification and/or other electro-acoustic transformation specified for works from no.9 onwards

numbered works, 1950–77

licht: die sieben tage der woche

unnumbered works and projects

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Works

numbered works, 1950–77

no.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Works

licht: die sieben tage der woche

for première details of sections of operas up to and including ‘Montag’ see Kurtz (c1988)

‘modernes Orchester’ – orchestra of electronic and/or amplified instruments

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Works

unnumbered works and projects

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

WRITINGS

collected essays and lectures

ed. D. Schnebel: Texte, i: Zur elektronischen und instrumentalen Musik (Cologne, 1963)

ed. D. Schnebel: Texte, ii: Zu eigenen Werken – zur Kunst anderer – Aktuelles (Cologne, 1964, 3/1988)

Ein Schlüssel für Momente (Kassel, 1971)

ed. D. Schnebel: Texte, iii: Zur Musik 1963–1970 (Cologne, 1971)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, iv: Werk-Einführungen – elektronische Musik – Weltmusik – Vorschläge und Standpunkte – zum Werk anderer (Cologne, 1978)

ed. H.-J. Nagel: Stockhausen in Calcutta (Calcutta, 1984)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, v: Zur Musik 1977–1984: Komposition (Cologne, 1989)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, vi: Zur Musik 1977–1984: Interpretation (Cologne, 1989)

ed. R. Maconie: Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews (London, 1989)

ed. T. Nevill: Towards a Cosmic Music (Shaftesbury, 1989)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, vii: Zur Musik 1984–1991: Neues zu Werken vor Licht – zu Licht bis Montag – Montag aus Licht (Kürten, 1998)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, viii: Zur Musik 1984–1991: Dienstag aus Licht – elektronische Musik (Kürten, 1998)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, ix: Zur Musik 1984–1991: Über Licht – Komponist und Interpret – Zeitwende (Kürten, 1998)

ed. C. von Blumröder: Texte, x: Zur Musik 1984–1991: Astronische Musik – Echos von Echos (Kürten, 1998)

articles

Most collected in Texte, i–x; only translations and uncollected items listed here

‘Actualia’, Die Reihe, i (1958), 45–51 [Eng.]

‘Structure and Experiential Time’, Die Reihe, ii (1958), 64–74

‘For the 15th of September, 1955’, Die Reihe, ii (1958), 37–9

‘… how time passes …’, Die Reihe, iii (1959), 10–40

‘Electronic and Instrumental Music’, Die Reihe, v (1961), 59–67

‘Music in Space’, Die Reihe, v (1961), 67–82

‘The Concept of Unity in Musical Time’, PNM, i/1 (1962), 39–48

‘Music and Speech’, Die Reihe, vi (1964), 40–64

‘Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion’, New Hungarian Quarterly, no.40 (1970), 49–53

‘The Origins of Electronic Music’, MT, cxii (1971), 649–50; see also response by H. Eimert, MT, cxiii (1972), 347–9

‘Stockhausen Miscellany’, Music and Musicians, xxi/2 (1972–3), 28–32

‘Musique et graphisme’, Musique en jeu, no.13 (1973), 94–104

‘Musique universelle’, Musique en jeu, no.15 (1974), 30–34

‘Proposals for the Future of the Orchestra’, The Listener (11 April 1974)

‘World Music’, World of Music, xxi/1 (1979), 3–15

‘De l’évolution de la musique’, Acanthes an XV, ed. C. Gilly and C. Samuel (Paris, 1991), 23–34

‘Clavier Music 1992’, PNM, xxxi/2 (1992–3), 136–49

‘Octophony: Electronic Music from Tuesday from Light’, PNM, xxxi/2 (1992–3), 150–71

‘Electroacoustic Performance Practice’, PNM, xxxiv/1 (1996–7), 74–105

Also notes on works pubd in trans. in the Eng. edn of Wörner (C1973)

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

BIBLIOGRAPHY

a: interviews

b: collections of essays and symposia

c: biographical and critical studies

d: works: general

e: numbered works, 1950–77

f: ‘licht’ cycle

g: unnumbered works and projects

h: commentaries on theories and writings

i: other general literature

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

a: interviews

‘Karlheinz Stockhausen’, VH 101 (1970–71), no.4, pp.110–15

P. Heyworth: ‘Spiritual Dimensions’, Music and Musicians, xix/9 (1970–71), 32–9

U. Stürzbecher: Werkstattgespräche mit Komponisten (Cologne, 1971)

J. Cott: Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer (New York, 1973)

E. Faas: ‘Interview with Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Interface, vi (1977), 187–204

D. Felder: ‘An Interview with Karlheinz Stockhausen’, PNM, xvi/1 (1977), 85–99

M. Tannenbaum: Karlheinz Stockhausen: intervista sul genio musicale (Bari, 1985; Eng. trans., 1987, as Conversations with Stockhausen)

ed. H.H. Eggebrecht: Karlheinz Stockhausen im musikwissenschaftlichen Seminar der Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 3–5 Juni 1985 (Murrhardt, 1986); see also reviews by R. Stephan, ÖMz, xlii (1987), 330–31, and C.M. Schmidt, Mf, xliii (1990), 74–5

P. Albèra: ‘La symphonie des sphères: entretien avec Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Karlheinz Stockhausen: Festival d’Automne à Paris 1988 (Paris, 1988), 10–14 [programme book]

H. Conen and J. Hennlich: ‘Before and after Samstag aus Licht’, CMR, v (1989), 267–97

G. Gronemeyer: ‘Die ausgegrenzte Avantgarde: Karlheinz Stockhausen im Gespräch über “40 Jahre Bundesrepublik”’, MusikTexte, nos.33–4 (1990), 21–30

A. Ford: ‘Constellations: Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Composer to Composer (London, 1993), 138–46

R. Frisius: ‘Der Geist des Seriellen …: Ein Gespräch mit Karlheinz Stockhausen über Freitag aus Licht’, NZM, Jg.157, no.5 (1996), 24–7

E. Liske: ‘Freiheit, das Neue, das Geistig-Geistliche’, NZM, Jg.159, no.4 (1998), 18–25

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

b: collections of essays and symposia

Feedback Papers, no.16 (1978) [Stockhausen 50th birthday issue; incl. essays by K. Barlow, H. Bojé, P. Eötvös, R. Frisius, J. Fritsch, J. McGuire, B. Schiffer and K. Volans]

M. Manion, B. Sullivan and A. Weiland: Stockhausen in Den Haag (Zeist, 1983) [documentation of Stockhausen project at Hague Conservatory, Oct–Dec 1982]

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Festival d’Automne à Paris 1988 (Paris, 1988) [programme book; incl. F. Nicolas: ‘Moments de Stockhausen’, 45–53; R. Piencikowski: ‘Etude sur les valeurs irrationnelles’, 33–9]

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Theory and Performance, Ideas and Production, xi (Cambridge, 1989) [incl. P. Britton: ‘Sternklang’, 19–44; D. Crilly: ‘The Problem of Form in Analytical Discussion’, 91–106; M. Manion: ‘Introduction to the Superformula of “Donnerstag aus Licht”’, 73–86; P. Mead: ‘“Lucifer’s Dream” as a Concert Work’, 87–90; B. Sullivan: ‘“Trans”: A Commentary’, 45–72]

Inventionen 94: Festival Neuer Musik Berlin (Berlin, 1994) [programme book; incl. H. Davies: ‘Einige persönliche Erinnerungen an Stockhausens Gebrauch des Schlagzeugs’, 11–14; S. Elgeti: ‘Zu den Kölner Kursen für Neue Musik’, 88–91; M. Kurtz: ‘Aus den sieben Tagen’, 15–22, R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen: die ersten beiden Jahrzehnte’, 2–10]

A. Beyer, ed.: Karlheinz Stockhausen i København ‘96, DMt (1996–7) [special issue]

I. Misch and C. von Blunröder, eds.: Internationales Stockhausen Symposium: Cologne 1998

J. Kohl, ed.: ‘A Seventieth Birthday Festschrift for Karlheinz Stockhausen: Part 1’, PNM, xxxvi/1 (1998–9), 59–260

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

c: biographical and critical studies

Grove6 (G.W. Hopkins)

R. Craft: ‘Boulez and Stockhausen’, The Score, no.24 (1958), 54–62

D. Schnebel: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Die Reihe, iv (1958), 119–33; Eng. trans. in Die Reihe, iv (1960), 121–35

K.H. Wörner: Karlheinz Stockhausen: Werk und Wollen (Rodenkirchen, 1963; Eng. trans. enlarged, 1973)

K. Boehmer: ‘Werk – Form – Prozess’, Musik auf Flucht vor sich selbst, ed. U. Dibelius (Munich, 1969), 55–77

R. Smalley: ‘Stockhausen and Development’, MT, cxi (1970), 379–81

W. Krüger: Karlheinz Stockhausen: Allmacht und Ohnmacht in der neuesten Musik, Forschungsbeiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, xiii (Regensburg, 1971, expanded 2/1974)

K. Boehmer: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen, oder Der Imperialismus als höchstes Stadium des kapitalistischen Avantgardismus’, Musik und Gesellschaft, xxii (1972), 137–50

C. Cardew: ‘Stockhausen Serves Imperialism’, The Listener (15 June 1972); repr. in Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, and Other Articles (London, 1974), 46–54

T. Kneif: ‘Adorno und Stockhausen’, Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie, iv/1 (1973), 34–8

J. Purce: ‘The Spiral in the Music of Stockhausen’, Main Currents in Modern Thought, xxx/1 (1973), 18–27; Fr. trans. in Musique en jeu, no.15 (1974), 7–23

H. Sabbe: ‘Das Musikdenken von Karel Goeyvaerts in Bezug auf das Schaffen von Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Interface, ii (1973), 101–13

G. Gruber: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen und die Weltmusik’, ÖMz, xxx (1975), 15–20

R. Toop: ‘“O alter Duft”: Stockhausen and the Return to Melody’, SMA, x (1976), 79–97

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen and the Sine Wave: the Story of an Ambiguous Relationship’, MQ, lxv (1979), 379–91

P. Andraschke: ‘Kompositorische Tendenzen bei Karlheinz Stockhausen seit 1965’, Zur “Neuen Einfachheit” in der Musik, ed. O. Kolleritsch (Vienna, 1981), 126–43

H. Sabbe: ‘Die Einheit der Stockhausen-Zeit’, Karlheinz Stockhausen … wie die Zeit verging …, Musik-Konzepte, no.19 (1981) [incl. extracts from correspondence with Goeyvaerts]

C. von Blumröder: ‘Formel-Komposition, Minimal Music, Neue Einfachheit: musikalische Konzeptionen der siebziger Jahre’, Neuland, ii (1981–2), 183–205

R. Frisius: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: Melodie als Gestalt und Form’, NZM, Jg.144, nos.7–8 (1983), 23–9

R. Toop: ‘Introduction’, Karlheinz Stockhausen: Music and Machines (1954–1970), London, 1985, pp.8–13 [BBC festival programme book]

M. Kurtz: Stockhausen: eine Biographie (Kassel, 1988; Eng. trans., 1992)

P.N. Wilson: ‘Stockhausen, der Epigone? Karlheinz Stockhausen und die amerikanische Avantgarde’, NZM, Jg.149, no.5 (1988), 6–11

K. Essl: ‘Aspekte des Seriellen bei Stockhausen’, Wien modern: ein internationales Festival mit Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 29 Oct – 2 Dec 1989, ed. Lothar Knessl (Vienna, 1989), 89–97

P. Andraschke: ‘Von Webern zu Schönberg: Stockhausen und die Wiener Schule’, BMw, xxxii (1990), 38–41

H. Danuser: ‘Inspiration, Rationalität, Zufall: über musikalische Poetik im 20. Jahrhundert’, AMw, xlvii (1990), 87–102

B. Bergstein: ‘Miles Davis and Karlheinz Stockhausen: a Reciprocal Relationship’, MQ, lxxvi (1992), 502–25

C. von Blumröder: Die Grundlegung der Musik Karlheinz Stockhausens (Stuttgart, 1993); Eng. trans. of chapter 1 as ‘Orientation to Hermann Hesse’, PNM, xxxvi/1 (1998–9), 65–96

P. Andraschke: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen und die Anfänge der elektronischen Musik: Voraussetzungen, Hintergründe, Rezeption’, Glasba v tehnicnem svetu: Ljubljana 1994, 69–85

M. Rigoni: ‘Le silence chez Stockhausen: temps suspendu’, Cahiers du CIREM, nos.32–4 (1994), 121–6

D. Gutknecht: ‘Stockhausen und Japan’, Lux Oriente: Festschrift Robert Günther zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. K.W. Niemöller, U. Pätzold and others (Kassel, 1995), 271–84

A. Riethmüller: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: Der Komponist als Interpret’, Musikalisches Welttheater: Festschrift für Rolf Dammann zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. S. Schaal, T. Seedorf and G. Splitt (Laaber, 1995), 213–22

R. Frisius: Karlheinz Stockhausen, i: Einführung in das Gesamtwerk, Gespräche mit Karlheinz Stockhausen (Mainz, 1996)

K. Pasveer: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: vorbindliche Bläser fürs nächste Jahrtausend’, Tibia, xxii/2 (1997), 420–27; Eng. trans. in The Clarinet, xxvi/1 (1998–9), 64–8

A. Riethmüller: ‘Religös und kosmisch gestimmt: Karlheinz Stockhausen zum siebzigsten Geburtstag’, NZM, Jg.159, no.4 (1998), 4–9

N. Verzina: ‘Tecnica dei gruppi, scrittura timbrica, alea: problemi micro- e macro-morfologici in Stockhausen, Maderna e Boulez’, NRMI, xxxii (1998), 299–334

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

d: works: general

P.K. Bracanin: ‘The Abstract System as Compositional Matrix: an Examination of some Applications by Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen’, SMA, v (1971), 90–114

R. Toop: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: from Kreuzspiel to Trans’, Studi e ricerche sul linguaggio musicale: Vicenza 1971, 58–86

J. Harvey: The Music of Stockhausen: an Introduction (London, 1975); see also review by R. Toop, Contact, no.12 (1975), 45–6

R. Maconie: The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (London, 1976, 2/1990); see also reviews by P. Griffiths, MT, (1977), 637–9, and R. Toop, Contact, no.20 (1979), 25–7

H. Sabbe: Het muzicale serialisme als techniek en als denkmethode (Ghent, 1977)

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen’s Electronic Works: Sketches and Work-Sheets from 1952–1967’, Interface, x (1981), 149–97

J. Kohl: ‘The Evolution of Macro- and Micro-Time in Stockhausen’s Recent Music’, PNM, xxii (1983–4), 147–85

G. Schubert: ‘Werkidee und Kompositionstechnik: zur seriellen Musik von Boulez, Stockhausen und Ligeti’, Die Musik der fünfziger Jahre: Darmstadt 1985, 48–71

H. Conen: Formel-Komposition: zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Musik der siebziger Jahre (Mainz, 1991)

C. von Blumröder: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: 40 Jahre elektronische Musik’, AMw, l (1993), 309–23

P. Decroupet: ‘Rätsel der Zahlen-Quadrate: Funktion und Permutation in der seriellen Musik von Boulez und Stockhausen’, Positionen, no.23 (1995), 25–9

E.W. Marvin: ‘Generalization of Contour Theory to Diverse Musical Spaces: Analytical Applications to the Music of Dallapiccola and Stockhausen’, Concert Music, Rock and Jazz since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, ed. E.W. Marvin and R. Herrmann (Rochester, NY, 1995), 135–71

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

e: numbered works, 1950–77

Konkrete Etude

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen’s Konkrete Etüde’, MR, xxxvi (1976), 295–300

Kreuzspiel

M.E. Keller: ‘Gehörte und komponierte Struktur in Stockhausens Kreuzspiel’, Melos, xxxix (1972), 10–18

J. Stenzl: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausens Kreuzspiel’, Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie, iii (1972), 35–42

R. Toop: ‘Messiaen/Goeyvaerts, Fano/Stockhausen, Boulez’, PNM, xiii (1974–5), 141–69

G. Borio and M. Garda: ‘Problemi d’analisi alla musica seriale: Kreuzspiel di Karlheinz Stockhausen’, L’analisi musicale: Reggio nell’Emilia 1989, 144–61

H. Kinzler: ‘Viereinhalb Marginalien zum ersten Stadium von Stockhausens Kreuzspiel’, Musiktheorie, xii (1997), 71–86

Kontra-Punkte

D. Schnebel: ‘Stockhausens Kontra-Punkte, oder Morphologie der musikalischen Zeit’,Denkbare Musik: Schriften 1952–1972, ed. H.R. Zeller (Cologne, 1972), 213–30

U. Mosch: ‘Wahrnehmungsweisen serieller Musik’, Musiktheorie, xii (1997), 61–70

Klavierstücke I–XI

R. Smalley: ‘Stockhausen’s Piano Pieces: Some Notes for the Listener’, MT, cx (1969), 30–32

H. Henck: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausens Klavierstück IX: eine analytische Betrachtung’, Musik und Zahl, ed. G. Schnitzler (Bonn, 1976), 171–200; pubd separately (Bonn, 1978); Fr. trans. in Contrechamps, no.9 (1988), 169–91

H. Henck: Karlheinz Stockhausens Klavierstück X (Herrenberg, 1976, expanded 2/1980; Eng. trans. 1980)

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen’s Klavierstück VIII’, MMA, x (1979), 93–130; repr. in Contact, no.28 (1984), 4–19

J. Cholopow [Yu. Kholopov]: ‘Zur Einheit des Klangfeldes in Karlheinz Stockhausens Klavierstücken (Nr.2)’, Musikkultur in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Leningrad 1990, 176–83

F. Decarsin: ‘Le Klavierstück XI de Stockhausen: pluralité et organisation’, Cahiers du CIREM, nos.18–19 (1990–91), 101–9

D. Lewin: ‘Making and Using a Pcset Network for Stockhausen’s Klavierstück III’, Musical Form and Transformation (New Haven, 1993), 16–67

R. Pereira: ‘Le Klavierstück V de Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Dissonanz, no.44 (1995), 13–16

S. Truelove: ‘The Translation of Rhythm into Pitch in Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI’, PNM, xxxvi/1 (1998–9), 189–200

Studie II

E. Bozzetti: ‘Analyse der “Studie II” von Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie, iv/2 (1973), 37–47

W. Burow: Stockhausen’s Studie II (Frankfurt, 1973)

Zeitmasze

G. Marcus: ‘Stockhausen’s Zeitmasse’, MR, xxix (1968), 142–56

P. Decroupet: ‘Gravitationsfeld Gruppen: Zur Verschränkung der Werke Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen und Zeitmasze und deren Auswirkung auf Stockhausens Musikdenken in der zweiten Hälfte der fünfziger Jahre’, Musiktheorie, xii (1997), 37–51

H. Pousseur: ‘Zeitmasze: série, périodicité, individuation’, Musiques croisées (Paris, 1997), 171–89

P. Decroupet: ‘Une genèse, une oeuvre, une pensée musicale … en mouvement: Zeitmasze de Karlheinz Stockhausen’, RBM, lii (1998), 347–61

Gruppen

R. Smalley: ‘Stockhausen’s Gruppen’, MT, cviii (1967), 794–7

P. Decroupet: ‘Gravitationsfeld Gruppen: Zur Verschränkung der Werke Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen und Zeitmasze und deren Auswirkung auf Stockhausens Musikdenken in der zweiten Hälfte der fünfziger Jahre’, Musiktheorie, xii (1997), 37–51

G. Nauck: Musik im Raum – Raum in der Musik: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der seriellen Musik (Stuttgart, 1997)

I. Misch: ‘On the Serial Shaping of Stockhausen’s Gruppen für drei Orchester’, PNM, xxxvi/1 (1998–9), 143–87

Gesang der Jünglinge

P. Decroupet and E. Ungeheuer: ‘Son pur, bruit, méditations: matières, matériaux et formes dans Gesang der Jünglinge de Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Genesis, no.4 (1993), 69–85

P. Decroupet: ‘Gravitationsfeld Gruppen: Zur Verschränkung der Werke Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen und Zeitmasze und deren Auswirkung auf Stockhausens Musikdenken in der zweiten Hälfte der fünfziger Jahre’, Musiktheorie, xii (1997), 37–51

P. Decroupet and E. Ungeheuer: ‘Through the Sensory Looking-Glass: the Aesthetic and Serial Foundations of Gesang der Jünglinge’, PNM, xxxvi/1 (1998–9), 97–142

Zyklus

M. Neuhaus: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausens “Zyklus für einen Schlagzeuger”’, Musik und Bildung, i (1969), 235–7

N. DePonte: ‘No.9, Zyklus: How and Why?’, The Percussionist, xii (1975), 136–49

H. Silberhorn: ‘Analyse von Stockhausens “Zyklus für einen Schlagzeuger”’, Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie, viii/2 (1977), 29–50

Carré

E. Thomas: ‘Tagesgespräch in Hamburg: Stockhausen’s Carré’, Melos, xxvii (1960), 380–82

C. Cardew: ‘Report on Stockhausen’s Carré’, MT, cii (1961), 619–22, 698–700

Kontakte

S. Heikinheimo: The Electronic Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen (Helsinki, 1972)

H. Kirchmeyer: ‘Zur Entstehungs- und Problemgeschichte der “Kontakte” von Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Kontakte, Wergo 60009 (1963) [disc notes]; repr. in Neuland, iii (1982–3), 152–76

C. von Blumröder: ‘Serielle Musik um 1960: Stockhausen’s “Kontakte”’, Analysen: Beiträge zu einer Problemgeschichte des Komponierens: Festschrift für Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, ed. W. Breig, R. Brinkmann and E. Budde (Wiesbaden, 1984), 423–35

P.W. Schatt: ‘Tendenzen des Materials in Stockhausens Kontakten’, AMw, xlv (1988), 206–23

J. Dack: ‘Strategies in the Analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kontakte für elektronische Klänge, Klavier und Schlagzeug’, Journal of New Music Research, xxvii/1–2 (1998), 84–119

Momente

B. McElheran: ‘Preparing Stockhausen’s Momente’, PNM, iv/1 (1965–6), 33–8; repr. in Perspectives on Notation and Performance, ed. B. Boretz and E.T. Cone (New York, 1976), 90–95

J.-Y. Bosseur: ‘Chronique musicale: aspect de l’innovation musicale au XXe siècle: “Momente” de Stockhausen’, La pensée, no.134 (1967), 118–24

R. Smalley: ‘Momente: Material for the Listener and Composer’, MT, cxv (1974), 23–8, 289–95

G. Katzenberger: ‘Zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Momente, Version 1965: analytische Informationen und didaktische Ansatzmöglichkeiten’, Musik und Bildung, xi (1979), 617–24

J.-N. von der Weid: ‘L’apocalypse de Stockhausen’, Silences, i (1985), 169–77

Mikrophonie I–II

R. Maconie: ‘Stockhausen: Mikrophonie I: Perception in Action’, PNM, x/2 (1971–2), 92–101

S. Emmerson: ‘Stockhausen: Mikrophonie I’, Contact, no.22 (1981), 23–5

G. Peters: ‘Meditations Modulated: Helmut Heissenbüttel’s “Einfache grammatische Meditationen” in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie II’, German Literature and Music: An Aesthetic Fusion 1890–1989, ed. C. Reschke and H. Pollack (Munich, 1992), 247–62

Mixtur

T. Souster: ‘Stockhausen’s Mixtur’, The Listener (13 Jan 1972)

P.W. Schatt: ‘Eine “Kunst des Überganges”: Funktionen der Ringmodulation in Karheinz Stockhausens “Mixtur”’, AMw, lii (1995), 121–44

Telemusik

R. Fuhrmann: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausens Telemusik’, Musik und Bildung, vi (1974), 24–31; expanded repr. in Perspektiven neuer Musik, ed. D. Zimmerschied (Mainz, 1974), 250–66

P.W. Schatt: ‘Universalismus und Exotik in Karlheinz Stockhausens “Telemusik”’, Musica, xliii (1989), 315–20

Adieu

R. Toop: ‘Mondrian, Fibonacci … und Stockhausen: Mass und Zahl in “Adieu”’, NZM, Jg.159, no.4 (1998), 30–37

Hymnen

J. Harvey: ‘Stockhausen’s Hymnen’, MT, cxvi (1975), 705, 707

J. Fritsch: ‘Hauptwerk Hymnen’, SMz, cxvi (1976), 262–5; repr. in Feedback Papers, no.16 (1978), 19–21

J.-N. von der Weid: ‘L’apocalypse de Stockhausen’, Silences, i (1985), 169–77

N.F. Hopkins: ‘Hymnen: tractatus musica unita’, Feedback Papers, no.37 (1991)

Stimmung

H. Stuppner: ‘Serialità e misticismo in Stimmung di Karlheinz Stockhausen’, NRMI, viii (1974), 83–98

G. Rose: ‘Stimmung, Part 1: Introduction for the Listener’, Contact, no.20 (1979), 20–21

M. Rigoni: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stimmung, six chanteurs en quête d’harmonie’, Analyse musicale, no.29 (1992), 75–83

C. Hafke: ‘Stimmung: das atmosphärische, synästhetische Erfahrung und Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Musik und Bildung, xxix/3 (1997), 34–9

Aus den sieben Tagen

H. Bojé: ‘Aus die sieben Tagen: “Text”-Interpretation’, Feedback Papers, no.16 (1978), 10–14

J. Kohl: ‘Serial Determinism and “Intuitive Music”: an Analysis of Stockhausen’s Aus die sieben Tagen’, In Theory Only, iii (1978), 7–19

Spiral

P.W. Schatt: ‘Ein Lernprozess als Kunstwerk: Karlheinz Stockhausens Spiral’, AMw, xlviii (1991), 300–11

Dr K.

J.L. de la Fuente Charfole: ‘Sociometría de alturas en Dr. K. sextett de Karlheinz Stockhausen’, Revista aragonesa de musicologia, v (1989), 141–92

Inori

G. Josopovici: ‘The Importance of Stockhausen’s Inori’, Radical Philosophy, no.11 (1975); repr. in The Lessons of Modernism (London, 1977), 195–200

A. Riethmüller: ‘Stockhausens Diagramm zu Inori’, Töne, Farben, Formen: … Festschrift Elmar Budde, ed. E. Schmierer and others (Laaber, 1995), 229–43

Mantra

C. von Blumröder: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Mantra für zwei Pianisten”: ein Beispiel für eine symbiotische Kompositionsform’, Melos/NZM, ii (1976), 94–104

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen and the Kontarskys: a Vision, an Interval and a Mantra’, MR, xlvii (1986–7), 194–9

Tierkreis

W. Gruhn: ‘“Neue Einfachheit”? Zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Melodien des Tierkreis’, Reflektionen über Musik heute: Texte und Analyse, ed. W. Gruhn (Mainz, 1981), 185–202

G. d’Angiolini: ‘“Tierkreis”: oeuvre pour instrument mélodique et/ou harmonique’, Analyse musicale, no.14 (1989), 68–73

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

f: ‘licht’ cycle

GroveO (R. Toop)

PEM (C. von Blumröder)

R. Frisius: ‘Komposition als Versuch der strukturelle und semantischen Synthese: Karlheinz Stockhausen und sein Werk-Projekt Licht’, Neuland, ii (1981–2), 160–78; Fr. trans. in Entretemps, no.6 (1988), 35–55

A. Riethmüller: ‘Michael im Himmel wie auf Erden: zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Donnerstag aus Licht’, Oper heute, ed. O. Kolleritsch (Vienna, 1985), 117–35

R. Frisius: ‘Reihen, Schichten, Bedeutungen: zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Werkprojekt Licht’, Melos, xlviii (1986), 82–116

J. Kohl: ‘Into the Middleground: Formula Syntax in Stockhausen’s “Licht”’, PNM, xxviii/2 (1989–90), 262–91

I. Stoïanova: ‘Der “Coup de lune” von Stockhausen: Montag aus Licht’, Musikkulturgeschichte: Festschrift für Constantin Floros, ed. P. Petersen (Wiesbaden, 1990), 185–212

R. Frisius: ‘Zeichnung, Modell, Grenzüberschreitung: Klavierstück XIII im Kontext von Stockhausens Klavierwerk’, Melos, li (1992), 173–206

A. Nitz: ‘Prophetie aus Licht? Zu Stockhausens Oper Dienstag’, Positionen, no.16 (1993), 29–34

R. Frisius: ‘Konstitutionen – Bedeutungen: Anmerkungen zu Karlheinz Stockhausens Licht-Projekt’, Positionen, no.22 (1995), 30–36

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

g: unnumbered works and projects

R. Gehlhaar: Zur Komposition Ensemble, DBNM, xi (1968)

F. Ritzel: Musik für ein Haus, DBNM, xii (1970)

R. Toop: ‘Stockhausen’s Other Piano Pieces’, MT, cxxiv (1983), 348–52

R. Toop: ‘Last Sketches of Eternity: The First Versions of Stockhausen’s Klavierstück VI’, Musicology Australia, xiv (1991), 2–24

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

h: commentaries on theories and writings

A.D. Fokker: ‘Wozu und warum?’, Die Reihe, viii (1962), 62–72; Eng. trans. in Die Reihe, viii (1968), 68–79

G.M. Koenig: ‘Kommentar zur Stockhausens “… wie die Zeit vorgeht …”’, Die Reihe, viii (1962), 73–92; Eng. trans. in Die Reihe, viii (1968), 80–98

E. Karkoschka: ‘Stockhausens Analysen und Aufsätze’, Melos, xxxii (1965), 303–7

E. Karkoschka: ‘Stockhausens Theorien’, Melos, xxxii (1965), 5–13

J. Harvey: ‘Stockhausen: Theory and Music’, MR, xxix (1968), 130–41

R. Brinkmann: ‘Stockhausen’s “Ordnung”: Versuch, ein Modell einer terminologischen Untersuchung zu beschreiben’, Zur Terminologie der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. H.H. Eggebrecht (Stuttgart, 1974), 205–13

H. Federhofer: ‘Karlheinz Stockhausens Mozartdeutung: ein Beitrag zur Ästhetik serieller Musik’, IRASM, vi (1975), 229–40

R.P. Morgan: ‘Stockhausen’s Writings on Music’, MQ, lxi (1975), 1–16; repr. in MQ, lxxv (1991), 194–206

C. von Blumröder: ‘Gruppe, Gruppenkomposition’ (1984), HMT

F. Nicolas: ‘Comment passer le temps … selon Stockhausen’, Analyse musicale, no.6 (1987), 44–55

H. Sabbe: ‘Der psycho-biologische Transzendenz-Begriff bei Stockhausen’, Entgrenzungen in der Musik, ed. O. Kolleritsch (Vienna, 1987), 71–82

E. Darbellay: ‘Une lecture de “… wie die Zeit vergeht …” de Stockhausen’, Contrechamps, no.9 (1988), 143–68

A. Coenen: ‘Stockhausens paradigme: en oversigt over Stockhausens teorier’, DMt, lxv (1990–91), 268–74; Eng. version, PNM, xxxii (1993–4), 200–25

W. Gratzer: ‘Stockhausens Selbstinterpretation: Legitimations-bemühungen um Musik der fünfziger Jahre’, Klischee und Wirklichkeit in der musikalische Moderne, ed. O. Kolleritsch (Vienna, 1994), 236–55

P. Petersen: ‘Rhythmik und Metrik in Bartók’s Sonate für zwei Klaviere und Schlagzeug und die Kritik des jungen Stockhausen an Bartók, Musiktheorie, ix (1994), 39–48

Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Bibliography

i: other general literature

U. Dibelius: Moderne Musik 1945–1965 (Munich, 1966, 3/1984)

E. Karkoschka: Das Schriftbild der Neuen Musik (Celle, 1966; Eng. trans. 1972)

K. Boehmer: Zur Theorie der offenen Form in der neuen Musik (Darmstadt, 1967)

A. Whittall: Music since the First World War (London, 1977)

C. von Blumröder: Der Begriff “Neue Musik” im 20. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1981)

P. Griffiths: Modern Music: The Avant Garde since 1945 (London, 1981, 2/1985)

P. Griffiths: Modern Music and After: Directions since 1945 (London, 1995)

R. Stephan, L. Knessl and others, eds.: Von Kranichstein zur Gegenwart: 50 Jahre Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Stuttgart, 1996)

G. Borio and H. Danuser, eds.: Im Zenit der Moderne: die Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, 1946–1966 (Freiburg, 1997)