To date (2006) he has composed 319 works, published 10 volumes of TEXTE zur MUSIK / TEXTS about MUSIC, comprising
sketches and explanations about his own works (Stockhausen-Verlag). His first 36 scores were published by Universal
Edition in Vienna and, since its establishment in 1975, the Stockhausen-Verlag (51515 Kürten, Facs. 0049-2268-1813) has
published all of his works. In 1991, the Stockhausen-Verlag began to release compact discs in the Stockhausen Complete Edition
which comprises 125 compact discs to date, and all Stockhausen scores, books, videos and CDs may be ordered directly by
mail order from them.
Since 1998, the Stockhausen Courses Kürten for composers interpreters, musicologists and auditors take place annually.
In 1977, Stockhausen began to compose the music-scenic work LICHT (LIGHT) The Seven Days of the Week.
LICHT with its Seven Days of the Week lasts about 29 hours of music: THURSDAY from LIGHT 240 minutes; SATURDAY
from LIGHT 185 minutes; MONDAY from LIGHT, 278 minutes; TUESDAY from LIGHT 156 minutes; FRIDAY from
LIGHT 290 minutes; WEDNESDAY from LIGHT 267 minutes; SUNDAY from LIGHT 298 minutes.
Following the world première on October 16th 2004 of LICHT-BILDER (LIGHT PICTURES), the last scene Stockhausen
composed of his work LICHT (LIGHT), Stockhausen began the work KLANG (SOUND), The 24 Hours of the Day.
Already the first compositions of “Point Music” such as KREUZSPIEL (CROSS-PLAY) in 1951, SPIEL (PLAY) for orchestra in
1952, and KONTRA-PUNKTE (COUNTER-POINTS) in 1952/53, brought Stockhausen international fame. Since then, his works
have been opposed to the extreme by some and admired by others. Fundamental achievements in music since 1950 are indelibly
imprinted through his compositions:
The “Serial Music”, the“Point Music”, the “Electronic Music”, the “New Percussion Music”, the “Variable Music”, the
“New Piano Music”, the “Spatial Music”, “Statistical Music”, “Aleatoric Music”, “Live Electronic Music”; new syntheses
of “Music and Speech”, of a “Musical Theatre”, of a “Ritual Music”, “Scenic Music”; “Group Composition”, polyphonic
“Process Composition”, “Moment Composition”, “Formula Composition” to the present “Multi-Formula Composition”; the
integration of “found objects” (national anthems, folklore of all countries, short-wave events, “sound scenes”, etc.) into a
“World Music” and a “Universal Music”; the synthesis of European, African, Latin American and Asian music into a “Telemusic”,
etc., the vertical “Octophonic Music”.
From the beginning until now, his work can be classified as “Spiritual Music”; this becomes more and more evident not
only in the compositions with spiritual texts, but also in the other works via “Overtone Music”, “Intuitive Music”, “Mantric
Music”, reaching “Cosmic Music” in STIMMUNG (TUNING), AUS DEN SIEBEN TAGEN (FROM THE SEVEN DAYS), MANTRA,
STERNKLANG (STAR SOUND), INORI, ATMEN GIBT DAS LEBEN (BREATHING GIVES LIFE), SIRIUS, LICHT
(LIGHT).
In a spherical auditorium conceived by the composer, most of Stockhausen’s works composed until 1970 were performed at
the Expo ’70 world fair in Osaka, Japan: for 51/2 hours daily for 183 days by twenty instrumentalists and singers, thereby
reaching an audience of over a million listeners.
Stockhausen is the perfect example of the composer who has participated at nearly all world premières and in innumerable
exemplary performances and recordings of his works world-wide – as conductor, performer, musical director or sound projectionist.
In addition to numerous guest professorships in Switzerland, the United States, Finland, Holland, and Denmark, Stockhausen
was appointed Professor for Composition at the State Conservatory in Cologne in 1971, in 1996 was awarded an honorary
doctorate from the Free University in Berlin, and in 2004 received an honorary doctorate from the Queen’s University in Belfast.
He is a member of 12 international Academies for the Arts and Sciences, was named Honorary Citizen of Kürten in 1988, became
Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, received many gramophone prizes and, among other honours, the
German Medal of Merit, 1st class, the Siemens Music Prize, the UNESCO Picasso Medal, the Order of Merit of the State of
North Rhine Westfalia, 8 awards from the German Music Publisher’s Society for his score publications, the Hamburg BACH
Prize, the Cologne Culture Prize and, in 2001, the Polar Music Prize with the laudation: Karlheinz Stockhausen is being
awarded the Polar Music Prize for 2001 for a career as a composer that has been characterized by impeccable integrity and
never-ceasing creativity, and for having stood at the forefront of musical development for fifty years. Accessed 11.12.06 from http://www.stockhausen.org/short_bio.pdf |
