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About
From Wikipedia:
Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, for introducing controlled chance (aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.
He was educated at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the University of Cologne, later studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. As one of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, his compositions and theories were and remain widely influential, not only on composers of art music, but also on jazz and popular music. His works, composed over a period of nearly sixty years, eschew traditional forms. In addition to electronic music—both with and without live performers—they range from miniatures for musical boxes through works for solo instruments, songs, chamber music, choral and orchestral music, to a cycle of seven full-length operas. His theoretical and other writings comprise ten large volumes. He received numerous prizes and distinctions for his compositions, recordings, and for the scores produced by his publishing company.
His notable compositions include the series of nineteen Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces), Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic/musique-concrète Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen for three orchestras, the percussion solo Zyklus, Kontakte, the cantata Momente, the live-electronic Mikrophonie I, Hymnen, Stimmung for six vocalists, Aus den sieben Tagen, Mantra for two pianos and electronics, Tierkreis, Inori for soloists and orchestra, and the gigantic opera cycle Licht.
He died of sudden heart failure at the age of 79, on 5 December 2007 at his home in Kürten, Germany.
Stockhausen, along with John Cage, is one of the few avant-garde composers to have succeeded in penetrating the popular consciousness. The Beatles included his face on the cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band“. This reflects his influence on the band’s own avant-garde experiments as well as the general fame and notoriety he had achieved by that time (1967). In particular, “A Day in the Life” (1967) and “Revolution 9” (1968) were influenced by Stockhausen’s electronic music.
His ideas are fantastic. It’s the farthest-out music yet. He uses electronic stuff that nobody else has got round to. And his records are listed under the classical section in the catalogues. So if you’ve got it in your head that you don’t dig classical music, look what you’re shutting out.
Paul McCartney – Interview with RAVE Magazine, April 1966
I used to go to concerts like Stockhausen. That was me, all that shit in the Beatles. I’d play it to them: ‘Listen to this, man!’ I went to this guy Luciano Berio, who’s now an electronic classical kind of guy. ‘Pepper’ came out of that. I’m not trying to say it was all me, but I do think John’s avant-gardeness, later, was really to give himself a go of what he’d seen me having. He didn’t dare do it in suburbia, because the vibe was wrong. He had to come to my house and sneak vicarious thrills.
That’s my thing, really. I’d once said to John — I was talking about Stockhausen, Berio, Cage and these far-out composers — ‘I should do an album called Paul McCartney Goes Too Far.’ He said, ‘That’s a great idea, man, you should do it’. Of course, I never did.
Paul McCartney – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer, 2016
Karlheinz Stockhausen made Brian Epstein nervous. In 1967 The Beatles’ manager needed the composer’s approval for Peter Blake to use his image in the Sgt. Pepper album’s famous front-cover collage. But Stockhausen was touring and was difficult to pin down. He almost didn’t make it onto the cover, but an urgent telegram from Epstein saved the day.
FURTHER TO LETTER AND ENCLOSED RELEASE FORM CONCERNING BEATLES LP YOUR DECISION IS MOST URGENTLY REQUESTED ONE WAY OR ANOTHER BY RETURN STOP SORRY TO PUSH YOU BUT AT THIS STAGE SPEED IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE REGARDS AND BEST WISHES BRIAN EPSTEIN
Brian Epstein went to such lengths because Stockhausen was so important to The Beatles – to McCartney and Lennon especially. McCartney had been hearing about Stockhausen’s work since his teens and began to explore it and actually listen to it in more detail when the psychedelic period arrived.
From “The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-Garde” by Ian Peel, 2002
In 1967, Stockhausen appeared on the cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (in slot #5 in the picture below).
Last updated on December 2, 2023
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