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NON CONSUMIAMO STOCKHAUSEN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2025

Richard Barrett  and
Christopher Fox
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Abstract

This re-evaluation of the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen is presented as a dialogue between its authors, conducted by email between July and October 2024. The dialogue takes as its starting point a consideration of the continuing relevance of Stockhausen’s music to music today, but begins by tracing the authors’ engagement with this music over the last five decades. The dialogue moves on to the discussion of a series of key aspects of Stockhausen’s work across his creative life, from Kreuzspiel to KLANG: the relationship between his electronic music and his compositional practice for acoustic instruments; form-schemes in his music and, in particular, the development of moment form; and his use of synthesisers. In conclusion, the authors assess Stockhausen’s influence on their own work and the extent of his significance for younger generations of musicians.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Information
Tempo , Volume 79 , Issue 312 , April 2025 , pp. 63 - 75
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

1 Aloys Kontarsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen – Complete Piano Music (CBS 77209, 1967).

2 David Burge, Avant Garde Piano Music (Vox STGBY 637, 1969).

3 Albert Ayler, Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe (Verve Records, 1969).

4 Karl H. Wörner, Stockhausen: Life and Work, ed. and trans. Bill Hopkins (London: Faber and Faber, 1973); Jonathan Cott, Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer (Pan Books, London, 1974); Jonathan Harvey, The Music of Stockhausen (London: Faber and Faber, 1975); Robin Maconie, The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (London: Oxford University Press, 1976).

5 Karlheinz Stockhausen, Punkte and Gruppen; WDR Sinfonieorchester conducted by Peter Eötvös (BMC: BMC117, 2006). Recordings of most of Stockhausen’s music are available from Stockhausen Verlag: stockhausencds.com/.

6 ‘Kompositorische Möglichkeiten der elektronischen Musik’, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, 20 July 1956; archived at https://www.imd-archiv.de/detail/IMD-M-6184?q=krenek+berio+boulez+stockhausen&d=&p=1&s=25&l=list&o%5Bscore%5D=desc.

7 Iannis Xenakis, Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971).

8 Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Handmade Films, 1979); the relevant scene is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ.

9 See Richard Toop, Six Lectures from the Stockhausen Courses Kürten 2002 (Stockhausen Foundation for Music, 2005), pp. 3–36.

10 Christopher Fox, ‘Music After Zero Hour’, Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 1 (February 2007), 16.

11 Stockhausen, Trans (Deutsche Grammophon LP 2530 726, 1976).