Innovations of Sound: The musical contributions of Karlheinz Stockhausen

Over the course of his career, Karlheinz Stockhausen forged a path through the Avant Garde movement of the twentieth century using his explorative and innovative ideas. Today he is considered the seminal figure of the post Avant Garde movement, and a pioneer of electronic music.[1]

© Archive Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik, Kürten

Born in 1928 in Mödrath, Germany (a small village outside Cologne), Stockhausen’s childhood proved to be one of significant loss. At the young age of five his mother was placed in a sanatorium where she eventually died in 1942. Three years later, at the height of the second World War, his father was killed in battle on the Hungarian front. 

Newly orphaned, Stockhausen worked as a farm hand for various relatives, and in 1947 began studying music education, piano, and composition at the Cologne Musikhochschule. It was during his time at the Conservatory that he began composition studies with influential composer, Frank Martin, completing his studies in 1951.

In the music text The Rest is Noise, author Alex Ross likens Stockhausen to a ‘colonial adventurer in the jungles of sound.’[2] Indeed, Stockhausen was an experimenter in many musical arenas, particularly with the creation of sound in electronic music. His intense interest in total serialism began after hearing a tape of Messiaen’s Scale of Durations and Dynamics in 1951.[3] His passion for serialist composition soon converged with electronic music, and the two interests became defining elements of his career.

In an effort to grasp the tremendous impact of his career on the musical world, we will examine five varied compositions, concluding with a particular focus on one of his final compositions, the operatic cycle, Licht.

Kreuzspiel was considered by Stockhausen to be his first ‘mature’ serialist composition. Written in 1951, it is scored a for oboe, bass clarinet, piano and four percussionists. Like many of Stockhausen's compositions, it was later revised and re-published. Stockhausen was consumed with detail and precision in each of his compositions and while strictly conceived, one can hear the underlying jazz-like influences through the casual, free-flow of the rhythm.[4]

After the premier of Kreuzspiel in the summer of 1952, he moved to Paris and spent a year attending the classes of Olivier Messiaen, while working and experimenting in the studio of French composer and engineer, Pierre Schaeffer.[5] Upon his return to Germany in 1953 he continued experimenting with sound creation and electronics at the newly established radio station, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. It was there that Stockhausen composed his first fully electronic work, Studie I. In this composition, he utilized a synthesizer to create complex timbres such as beeps, rings, and waves of sound at different frequency levels. In some respects it seems meant to represent an individual fading in and out of consciousness.

Several years later, he reached another milestone by combining the recorded human voice with electronic sound in Gesang der Jünglinge (1955-1956).[6] This eclectic convergence of sounds and voice creates a dream-like sequence with ascending and descending ripples of sound flanked by a cacophony of voices. Stockhausen used layers of pre-recorded vocal tracks by a single male-soprano to give the effect of numerous voices.  

Stockhausen had an incredible ability to visualize and conceive works of enormous proportion and form. Two excellent examples are Gruppen which was composed between 1955 and 1958, and the operatic cycle Licht, which was composed from 1977-2003.

Gruppen was commissioned by WDR in 1955, and is scored for 109 instrumentalists which are divided into three smaller ensembles with three conductors. The performance below by the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris in 2016 beautifully showcases each ensemble through its elevated staging, which allows the audience to more fully experience the work on a visual and aural level. While absent of electronics and free improvisation, Stockhausen's precisely notated score can at times seem improvised. Throughout the composition he uses traditional musical instruments to mimic the electronic sounds he was creating in the studio. At times, the instrumentalists flow in and out of sound creation in a seemingly improvisational style.

Licht is the second and most extreme example of Stockhausen’s ability to conceive and create work in massive form. The cycle is comprised 29 hours of music spread across 7 operas, each titled by the names of the week. While it has yet to receive complete performance, the twenty-six years it took to reach completion speak to the perseverant nature of the composer. The opera explores the mythological and musical relationships of the days of the week, based on the Judaeo-Christian story of creation. Like the creation story, Stockhausen begins with nothing and moves to the delineation of night and day.

Stockhausen at work in the WDR Studios (1971)[7]

The primary material for Licht is based on three unique 12-tone rows, which are sung by three vocalists – Michael, Eve, and Lucifer. In her article ‘Morphologies of time in Stockhausen’s Licht,’ Helen Thomas takes a close look at how the composer developed the serialist composition relative to time and space, light and dark, and how the background rows (assigned  to each character) interact with one another. Respective to his composition,  Stockhausen said ‘As something becomes a form it occupies a certain space; it has a form, a condensation, so as not to be scattered all over in particles-something personal and individual.’ [8]

Thomas argues that the challenge for the listener is to ‘sustain an attention powerful enough to remain simultaneously conscious of his (Stockhausen’s) vision and its transformations.’ Thomas’ opinion assumes the goal Stockhausen’s music is for the listener to experience the composition while being simultaneously aware of the complex underpinning of his compositional construction. How then should his music truly be interpreted? While Thomas makes a point, her stance places a weighty expectation on the shoulders of the listener, especially given that his compositional works can be difficult for a listener to digest.

The example below is the first portion of Freitag (Friday) from the operatic cycle, Licht. This opera consists of three vocal soloists, two instrumental soloists, children’s orchestra and choir, twelve choral singers, synthesizer, twelve couples of dancer-mimes, electronic music with sound scenes, and a sound projectionist.

The Helikopter-Streichquartett is a popular excerpt from the finale of Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday, from Light), and a representative of extreme design. With only four musicians, the grandeur in this composition is achieved in the layout of its performance. As you will see demonstrated in the recording below, each instrumentalist performs the work mid-air in individual helicopters while connected with the other performers via headset.

Stockhausen pushed the boundaries of traditional music and expanded the definition of music itself. His work with electronics and sound influenced the genres of jazz, pop, hip-hop, and dance music. In 1967, the Beatles requested permission to add Stockhausen's picture to the LP cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This request by the Beatles exemplifies the expansive impact of his musical influence. So, whether an enthusiastic advocate or skeptical critic of his music, Stockhausen inarguably placed his mark on the twentieth-century by paving the way for electronic sounds in music.

Letter and Telegram from the Beatles requesting permission to use of photograph [9]

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP

Stockhausen pictured top row, 5^th from the left [10]

–Clyne–

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Bibliography

Thomas, Helen C.  'Morphologies of Time in Stockhausen's "Licht"', Tempo, 62/245 (2008) 
           2-16. 

Coenen, Alcedo. 'Stockhausen's Paradigm: A Survey of His Theories', Perspectives of New

Music, 32/2 (1994) 200-225.

Ross, Alex, and Grover Gardner. The Rest is Noise. Clipper, 2009.

Truelove, Stephen ‘The Translation of Rhythm into Pitch in Stockhausen’s Klavierstück

            XI’, Perspectives of New Music, 36/1 (1998) 189-220).

Toop, Richard. ‘Stockhausen, Karlheinz.’ Oxford Music Online. Accessed 9 February 2018.

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026808.

Worby, Robert. ‘Stockhausen: The Father of Electronic Music.’ The Barbican. Accessed 1  

           March 2018. https://sites.barbican.org.uk/stockhausen/.

Footnotes

[1] Toop, Richard. ‘Stockhausen, Karlheinz.’ Oxford Music Online. 9 February. 2018. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026808.

[2] Ross, Alex, and Grover Gardner. The Rest is Noise. Clipper, 2009, 428.

[3] Ross, Alex, and Grover Gardner. The Rest is Noise. Clipper, 2009, 429.

[4] Ross, Alex, and Grover Gardner. The Rest is Noise. Clipper, 2009, 429.

[5] It is interesting to note that Stockhausen also spent time with Boulez during his time in Paris

[6] The youths (Jünglinge) named in the compositions title are those of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the book of Daniel.

[7] https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/german-modern-composer-karlheinz-stockhausen-in-a-recording-news-photo/2667816#german-modern-composer-karlheinz-stockhausen-in-a-recording-studio-picture-id2667816

[8] Thomas,Helen C. 'Morphologies of Time in Stockhausen's "Licht"', Tempo, 62/245 (2008) 2. 

[9] http://www.stockhausen.org/beatles_khs.html

[10] http://www.stockhausen.org/beatles_khs.html