Stockhausen, Karlheinz (kärl`hīnts shtôk`houzən), 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 Messiaen, Olivier , 1908–92, French composer and organist, b. Avignon. Messiaen was a pupil of Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory. He became organist of La Trinité, Paris, in 1931 and taught at the Schola Cantorum and the École Normale de
..... Click the link for more information. and Darius Milhaud Milhaud, Darius , 1892–1974, French composer. Milhaud studied at the Paris Conservatory. In Brazil (1917–19) as an aide to Paul Claudel, poet and French minister to Brazil, he became acquainted with Brazilian folk music.
..... Click the link for more information. in Paris (1951–53). Stockhausen is ranked with the most inventive of the avant-garde composers. He often employs serial music serial music, the body of compositions whose fundamental syntactical reference is a particular ordering (called series or row) of the twelve pitch classes—C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B—that constitute the equal-tempered scale.
..... Click the link for more information. techniques in his works, and he is a major proponent of electronic music electronic music or electro-acoustic music, term for compositions that utilize the capacities of electronic media for creating and altering sounds.
..... Click the link for more information. . 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 aleatory music [Lat. alea=dice game], music in which elements traditionally determined by the composer are determined either by a process of random selection chosen by the composer or by the exercise of choice by the performer(s).
..... Click the link for more information. 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.

Bibliography

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

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

(born Aug. 22, 1928, Mödrath, near Cologne, Ger.—died Dec. 5, 2007, Kürten) German composer. Orphaned during World War II, he supported himself with odd jobs (including jazz pianist) before entering Cologne's State Academy for Music in 1947. After hearing Olivier Messiaen's music at Darmstadt in 1951, he began studying with the composer and experimenting with serialism. His early works include Piano Pieces I–IV (1952) and Counter-Points (1952–53). He also became involved with musique concrète, a technique using recorded sounds as raw material; his remarkable Song of the Youths (1955–56) used a highly processed recording of a boy soprano mixed with electronic sounds. His extensions of serialism continued in pieces such as Measures (1955–56) and Groups (1955–57), and he became a leading avant-garde spokesman. His Moments (1962–69) influentially applied serialism to groups of sounds rather than single pitches, and he began incorporating aleatory (chance) elements as well. From the late 1960s he conceived ever grander schemes, some incorporating literature, dance, and ritual, as in the Light series (1977–2003).

Born Aug. 22, 1928, in Mödrath, near Cologne. German composer (Federal Republic of Germany). Leading exponent of avant-garde music.

In 1951, Stockhausen graduated from the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, where he had studied piano; he later studied composition under F. Martin, O. Messiaen, and D. Milhaud. In 1953 he began composing in the electronic music studios of West German Radio in Cologne. Most of his compositions, notably Counterpoints (1953), Groups (1957), Cycle (1959), and Moments (1962), are the result of explorations in aleatoric and electronic music and are devoid of any significant ideological or artistic content. Stockhausen’s music, a typical example of elitist bourgeois art, has not gained recognition from the public.

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