Karlheinz Stockhausen R.I.P.

R.I.P.

wow RIP :(

What? Oh Christ...

bummer. hearing Hymnen performed this past year was a highlight

I'm in shock a bit, he's one of my big heroes

Oh...

I'm with Tom D.

Holy cr*p - R.I.P. :-((

RIP

Wow, I'm not one to mourn, but truly, there goes an immensely important part of music; without him, I couldn't imagine how I would even listen to or think about music.

wow

RIP. without KHS, i rather feel i'd be missing an awful lot of what i love about music.

just been told about this at work; am impressed ILX knew before me.

i dont jam him a lot, but i do jam can and miles all the time. RIP

DAMN DOOD! RIP

RIP

gonna go jam on gesang der jünglinge now

RIP

;_; ;_;

he has the coolest looking scores
http://www.filmsound.nl/thesis/index_files/image020.jpg
elektronische studien ii. so many pages for a 4 minute piece of noise! i love that kind of attention to detail.

gonna go jam on gesang der jünglinge now

I'm pulling them all out and blasting them for the next few days, the neighbours will just have to put up with it

I have been trying to get hold of some of his platters that matter on the cheap, but with little success, just Helicopter String Quartet so far.

very sad. glad i got the chance to see / hear him in the flesh one time.

It is the number two most emailed story on the BBC website at the moment.

whoa ^^^^ that is amazing

RIP

RIP indeed...(I'm assuming some snarky Fox News wag will proclaim his death an amazing work of art)...

stockhausen has been on need-to-learn-about list for a while.

this is too bad. RIP

Ha, that score looks rad. RIP

I had forgotten that he was on the cover of Sgt. Pepper...

uh. i thought he was dead already. RIP anyway.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/12823.jpg
^^^^

R.I.P.

Never saw the grand man himself performing or otherwise. Alas.

gobsmacked like so many others, here and elsewhere - in interviews and photos he still seemed so youthful, alive, alert - and his best music is the stuff of eternity, forever performable/hearable/broadcastable

Early in 1995, BBC Radio 3 sent Stockhausen a package of recordings from contemporary artists Aphex Twin, Plastikman, Scanner and Daniel Pemberton, and asked him for his opinion on the music. In August of that year, Radio 3 reporter Dick Witts interviewed Stockhausen about these pieces for a broadcast in October (subsequently published in the November issue of the British publication The Wire), asking what advice he would give these young musicians. Stockhausen suggested they should give up repetitions, which he does not appreciate, which he found to be "like someone who is stuttering all the time." He further suggested that "one should not serve any existing demands or in particular not commercial values." Stockhausen was most positive about Scanner's music, which he found "very experimental, because he is searching in a realm of sound which is not usually used for music", but felt "he should transform more what he finds. He leaves it too much in a raw state." Stockhausen suggested an example for each artist from his own works. For Daniel Pemberton, who he criticised for the overuse of tape loops, and whose sense of harmony he found particularly weak, Stockhausen recommended

He should listen to Kontakte, which has among my works the largest scale of harmonic, unusual and very demanding harmonic relationships. I like to tell the musicians that they should learn from works which already have gone through a lot of temptations and have refused to give in to these stylistic or to these fashionable temptations... (Witts 1995)

Stockhausen also suggested that Robin Rimbaud, Scanner, listen to his work Hymnen because, although "he has a good sense of atmosphere", "he should transform more what he finds."; in the work of Aphex Twin (Richard James), he suggested "changing tempi and changing rhythms", and that he listen to Gesang der Jünglinge; and, similarly, he found Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) too rhythmically repetitious, and suggested he listen to Zyklus.

The criticised musicians were then invited to respond, and all but Plastikman obliged. Daniel Pemberton was "very impressed considering the time it was done: the 1960s", but wished that Stockhausen would use more basic repetition: "It would be very good to put some Hip Hop breaks under, actually." He concedes, "I know what he means about loops though; that's because I haven't got much equipment." Scanner found Hymnen (which he had never heard before) "very good actually—better than I expected. At the end there's a recording of him breathing. It's quite uncomfortable—like being inside his head." As to Stockhausen's criticisms of his own music, "I take some of what he said about my music to heart", but he "disagrees about repetition: I think, as John Cage said, repetition is a form of change, and it's a concept you either agree or disagree with. I like repetitions." Aphex Twin's reaction to Gesang der Jünglinge: "Mental! I've heard that song before; I like it," but he did not agree with Stockhausen's critique, in that he wishes Stockhausen would "stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to. . . . You could dance to Song of the Youths, but it hasn't got a groove in it, there's no bassline" (Witts 1995).

i want an airbrushed painting of sun ra and stockhausen jamming together in heaven (with wesley willis on vocals)

xpost haha i remember reading this. i think i maybe read an online transcript of the wire article. richard james says some other funny stuff, like "well he should hang with me and my mates, we'd have a laugh"

stockhausen, derrida and norman mailer sitting together in edward hopper's "nighthawks"

sontag as marilyn monroe

RIP and goodbye 20th century.

RIP.

I never use this word because it's so over- and wrongly used, but... seminal.

Singular vision, which sometimes srsly made him a d4ft tw4t, but he had it. And, for often better and possibly sometimes worse, he acted on it. Incessantly.

There is so much here. RIP Karlheinz.

RIP

I am very sad about this, I hate it. His work, especially "Mikrophonie" has been a beacon for me, a spooky singularity that can't be exchanged or talked back to. I met Stockhausen and spoke with him briefly after a live diffusion of "Hymnen" in Barcelona years ago. He was polite, direct and friendly, not "mystical" or aloof in any way. It sounds kind of trite but he really was charming in person.

Six months ago my partner and I agreed to participate in a birthday celebration this summer in Amsterdam in honor of Stockhausen; I was so excited to meet him again and publicly celebrate his art and work. Now I won't have that chance.

I suppose that the title of "set sail for the sun" is the most apt phrase to sum up my wishes for him.

Oh, and I can't believe that the BBC is not placing Stockhausen's remarks about September 11th in their context. He said that the attacks were Lucifer's greatest artwork, a very different matter. It is irresponsible and insulting to disseminate a partial quotation that is likely to be so widely misunderstood all over again. Shame on you, BBC.

It's sad that when I saw he had died, one of the first things I thought was "every obit will mention that"

Yeah, that misquote is lazy, annoying and ubiquitous. Here's his take on it (from wikipedia) :

At the press conference in Hamburg, I was asked if Michael, Eve and Lucifer were historical figures of the past and I answered that they exist now, for example Lucifer in New York. In my work, I have defined Lucifer as the cosmic spirit of rebellion, of anarchy. He uses his high degree of intelligence to destroy creation. He does not know love. After further questions about the events in America, I said that such a plan appeared to be Lucifer's greatest work of art. Of course I used the designation "work of art" to mean the work of destruction personified in Lucifer. In the context of my other comments this was unequivocal.

Fucking sad.

Playing Kontakte now.

RIP.

Wow. A total charlatan. But RIP nonetheless.

Um, I'm not even a fan but that still seems like it's not giving him enough credit?

Wow, I was playing Kontakte's version for perc/pianist and thinking how much I prefer it to the tapes only version a day before I heard.

Don't get the 'charlatan' stuff. In some ways some of his electronic music has done its work in terms of impact so today it can sound very much like a dusty museum piece. What's left is so much of his music up to sometime in the early 70s -- incredibly single-minded but never that cerebral. Whatever the concept, it never overwhelms or pushes the music out of sight. Still hits you in the gut.

:-(

Total charlatan? Don't think so. Somewhat of a charlatan - yes! But who cares really... yes, there is a lot of nonsense involved in his work - from the mid 60s onward I mean - but, you know, he was an artist, slightly nuts but it goes with the territory.

Anyway, got to work this weekend. So record player beside computer. Stack o' Stockhausen. Playing all of it - from start to finish - having a beer or two. Visiting planet Sirius later.

V V Sad, I hoped the guy would just keep going on and on forever, somehow.

"It would be very good to put some Hip Hop breaks under, actually."
FFS. Get one imagination.

I bet the guy who originally said that is cringing about it now

I think Daniel Pemberton moved into TV soundtracks, so he's probably still putting (weak) hip-hop breaks under things, just getting paid loads of money for it now.

RIP Karlheinz

in the spring of 2006 i performed "set sail for the sun" with two of my friends. here is a recording of that performance: http://oberlin.edu/student/lfamular/SetSailfortheSun.mp3

i dont jam him a lot, but i do jam can and miles all the time. RIP

-- 69,

OTM, and you can add Simply Saucer and Anthony Braxton to that too. And Kontakte. RIP

i've enjoyed some of his music...

http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/hflynt-fightmusicaldecor.html
http://www.ubu.com/historical/cardew/cardew_stockhausen.pdf

m.

sorry, with those i meant to say... stocky certainly seems like a guy who was ready and willing to be controversial.

perhaps that's lame or brave depending on your pov... either way, rip for sure.
m.

we're all monsters and saints.
m.

in the spring of 2006 i performed "set sail for the sun" with two of my friends. here is a recording of that performance: http://oberlin.edu/student/lfamular/SetSailfortheSun.mp3

Nice performance. I was trying to think of my own Oberlin experiences re. Stockhausen -- but the best one I could come up with was when Cecil Taylor came for a few days and my roommate and I spent virtually the entire time with him, total avant-starfucker-types. It was a crazy, weird three days. But my best memory? Taylor consistently referring to KS as "Stocky-poo."

Anecdote I heard once that made me laff (and which I've undoubtedly wheeled out here before): The pianist Alois Kontarsky was once asked about how he managed the almost superhuman task of following the ultra-complex and precise rhythmic notation in a part of a piece by Stockhausen. He laughed and said "Oh that, that's just Karlheinz' way of writing rubato!

That kind of notation is sometimes quite fascinating. I once saw a transcription where someone had tried to notate a solo performance by Jimi Hendrix into notes in the old-fashioned way, amongst other things by defining new symbols for all those electronic effects he would use on his guitar. Fascinating.

As for Stockhausen, he survived Bob Moog by several years. Not bad, considering he was an important influence on Moog.

Geir Hongro in modernist appreciation shockah.

"when Cecil Taylor came for a few days and my roommate and I spent virtually the entire time with him, total avant-starfucker-types. It was a crazy, weird three days. But my best memory? Taylor consistently referring to KS as "Stocky-poo.""

A few bullies at a performance of Zeitmasse and its a million years of hate.

Geir Hongro in modernist appreciation shockah.

It's not like I can listen to much of Stockhausen's works, really. But his impact on the invention of the synth was undeniable, and I love a lot of synthpop and electro, particularly from the 80s. Plus lots of great use of synths in 70s symphonic rock and pomp pop/softrock as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/arts/music/08stockhausen-1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

if you ever want evidence of how an editor can sabotage your story, read that obit. there are things towards the beginning of that story that I refuse to believe Griffiths would have put there himself. I think Griffiths would have clarified the WTC quote as Drew did above, would have kept the original German titles for the pieces, and wouldn't have led by choosing the strangest, most wildeyed picture of Stocky available

(ok I love those wildeyed pictures of him, I think they were true to the man, and my favorite picture of him is the deranged one on the back of the Verlag edition of Mixtur -- still, choosing a picture like that to commemorate someone's passing doesn't seem very respectful)

Griffiths is one of the best writers on the subject on modernist music & everything that happened in the first half of the 20th century and this is mostly a good article but man, I can not help but think that some pointed editor spun this out after submission

oh man.

i mean, i found out a few days ago. but shit.

also thank naive teen idol, i am also playing on that performance of set sail for the sun.

milton OTM.

Re. my "total charlatan" comment:

I will never forget the feeling I had the moment Stockhausen clicked for me -- not coincidentally, while watching a lecture of his from 1972 or so. You could make a very good argument that Stockhausen's most lasting influence were those lectures -- not so much the music itself, but how he talked and thought about it. Wearing this dramatic, military-issue pea coat in masterclasses delivered in almost superhumanly good English before a few hundred students stroking their beards and hanging on his every word, Stockhausen would expound not just on how he composed his pieces, but on these remarkably transformative ideas that guided that process.

I can't tell you how powerful those lectures were to me -- when you actually saw how these ideas connected with the construction of the notes on the page (his scores were absolutely gorgeous). No one's work is more rewarding to study like that -- Klavierstucke III (which runs about thirty seconds) comes to mind as a particularly heady, if austere experience.

It was only later that I learned many of the concepts Stockhausen spoke about in those 1971-72 lectures were, for all intents and purposes, faked -- invented long after he'd composed the pieces they supposedly informed. This "discovery" had the effect of making me always question artists talking about their own work.

But more than that, realizing that Stockhausen--who could "defend" his own works better than any composer in history--was at best exaggerating mightily cast doubt on the whole need for "conceptual integrity" in the first place -- this idea that your work had to have this hyper-logical masterplan at its core. So, a mixed legacy to be sure.

Contemporaneous lecture-cum-peacoat here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPVc2Jvd0w. Pretty good stuff.

Btw, if anyone wants to read a thread on Stockhausen which goes into detailed talk on some of the music/concepts (w/the usual msg board interaction tho') (or at least that's how I remember when I read parts of it, it has been revived since his death) go here:

http://r3ok.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=1166.0

would be interested if Naive could be more specific about what you discovered to have been 'faked'. though he was on a roll in the early 70's as far as the lecture circuit & interviews about his early work, there are plenty of program notes & writings dating from the 50's & 60's going into all the main concepts, the Unified Time Domain, pointillism, live electronic music, etc, off the top of my head I'm not sure which concepts in the 71-72 lectures or the Maconie book you could be talking about

RIP

Milton, I believe the lecture I was watching was of "Mantra," which was written around then.

Which aspects were faked? As Milt said, he was not exactly shy about explaining his work in exacting detail throughout his career!

yes Naive, even if I had that lecture handy it'd be helpful if you could be more precise, especially if you're decrying him for being inconsistent

I'm still a bit shocked at the degree of mockery and disrespect shown in so many of the obituaries. Particularly disoriented by the frequent party-line usage of the word 'charlatan' to describe him, because out of the many criticisms one could throw out there, that is one of the least accurate things you could call the man

http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/sound-cocktails-all-around.html
http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/stockhausen-on-internets-obituaries.html
http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/more-stockhausen.html
http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/master-of-both-time-space.html
http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/worlds-first-mixtape.html
http://www.analogartsensemble.net/2007/12/take-little-trip.html

http://music.guardian.co.uk/electronic/story/0,,2226684,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=39

wow, relentless

http://www.btinternet.com/~tim.johnson77/rambler/Eno_on_Stockhausen.mp3

I listened to the "Elektronische Musik mit Tonszenen vom Freitag aus Licht" boxset today; the laughing lady noises all over CD 1 are a mindscramble. Fantastic music.

"I'm still a bit shocked at the degree of mockery and disrespect shown in so many of the obituaries."

Not surprised at the Middlebrow fucks at all. Anytime anybody from that particular generation (who happened to strike a chord despite the denials) passes away you effectively get the green light for a 'debate' around the merits surrounding any of it (read and heard a lot of garbage round the time Bergman died as well).

Now it should be argued over but not like this.

Paul Griffith's site:

http://www.disgwylfa.com/index.php

He could've said something about the ed on the NYT article, perhaps?

'Hear and Now' on BBC Radio 3 paid a tribute. Good excuse to play snippets of his music.

He got a decent obit on Radio 4's Last Word, too.

The Economist obit.

Oh man, I totally missed this. I heard Stimmung for the first time on WKCR on Dec. 9th and I guess that explains why they were playing it.