Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer who is widely regarded 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 into serial composition, and for musical spatialization. He was born in 1928 in Mödrath, a village near Cologne. His father was a schoolteacher and his mother was a pianist and singer. He lost both his parents during World War II: his mother was killed by the Nazis in 1941 and his father died as a soldier in 1945. He was raised by his stepmother and attended a boarding school in Xanten. He studied music at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the University of Cologne, where he learned piano, music theory, and composition. He also studied with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. He became interested in electronic music and serialism, and developed his own style of composing with sound masses, timbres, and spatial movements. He was one of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, a group of avant-garde composers who experimented with new musical techniques and forms. His compositions and theories were influential not only on classical music, but also on jazz and popular music. Some of his famous works include Gesang der Jünglinge (1956), Gruppen (1957), Kontakte (1960), Stimmung (1968), Mantra (1970), Licht (1977–2003), and Klang (2004–2007). He was also a prolific teacher, publisher, and performer. He taught at various institutions around the world, such as the University of Cologne, the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, the University of California, Davis, and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. He founded his own publishing house, Stockhausen-Verlag, and his own record label, Stockhausen Edition. He conducted and played many of his own works, as well as those of other composers. He died in 2007 in Kürten, Germany, from heart failure. He was working on his last opera cycle, Klang, which consists of 24 pieces based on the hours of the day. He left behind a legacy of innovative and influential music that continues to inspire and challenge listeners and musicians alike.