Licht extinguished

It's hard to believe that Karlheinz Stockhausen has died.  Somehow, he seemed not of this earth, and immune to death.

Around age 16, I bought an RCA Victrola LP called The New Music, with Bruno Maderna conducting the Rome Symphony Orchestra, and the very first track was Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkte (1953), along with works by Earle Brown (Available forms 1) and Henri Pousseur (Rimes pour differentes sources sonores).  At the time I didn’t quite know what to make of the Stockhausen, and kept returning to my favorite on the disc, Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.

A couple of years later I heard a striking vocal work on the radio, which turned out to be the original recording of Stimmung (still available on Stockhausen’s website), for six voices, which people either find maddening or mesmerizing.  I vote for the latter. 

In New York I have been lucky to hear some fantastic live performances, such as the towering Klavierstuck IX championed by Maurizio Pollini, and Ensemble 21's memorable Kontakte in 2001.  And who could forget Kathinkas Gesang als Luzifers Requiem, a fragment of Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche, by flutist Pat Spencer, whom Paul Griffiths described as “part underworld divinity, part nightclub hostess.”

Really, there was no one else like him, eccentricities included, and the true extent of his influence may not be realized for decades.  Meanwhile, he leaves an enormous body of work for us to puzzle over, and to admire, for the ways it teases our brains into thinking about music in strange ways.  Many tributes are already up: Alex Ross has many here, and Obscene Jester's sharkskin girl has an interesting post here, via Darcy James Argue, on Stockhausen's infamous 9/11 remarks.  But at the moment I'm chuckling over Gregory Sandow's, for the way he describes the composer's occasional--oh all right, more than occasional--weirdness.  Sandow urges the New York Philharmonic to mount a Stockhausen festival.  Speaking strictly personally, I'd cancel all other plans to be able to attend.

[Illustration: page from "Electronic Study No. 2" (1954) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, via Brittanica.com]

Comments

Thanks, Bruce. As you remember, I had the chance to meet Stockhausen in Rome in May, which now seems like even more of a blessing than it did then. What I will always remember about that experience was that the audience consisted largely of 20 and 30 somethings, and gave him a huge ovation at the end. (See www.feastofmusic.com for more.)

[Marilyn]

To me, there is always the brilliance and integrity, the shocking beauty of his music...but also remarkable about Stockhausen was his willingness to demand of his players (noting the scores with pages of instructions!), and his ability to inspire dedication in us, through the power of his vision.