RIP Karlheinz Stockhausen

While recovering from my car accident, I studied a lot more of Stockhausen's concepts of music. I got further and further into the idea of performance as a process. I had always written in a circular way and through Stockhausen I could see that I didn't want to ever play again from eight bars to eight bars, because I never end songs; they just keep going on. [...] Through Stockhausen I understood music as a process of elimination and addition. Like "yes" only means something after you have said "no."

— Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe

Paul Griffiths (NYT obit)

Alex Ross

Thread at Sequenza 21

sharkskin girl (Obscene Jester) deftly addresses the infamous "9/11 = greatest work of art in the whole of the cosmos" controversy.

Photo of Stockhausen at Disneyland (1966) by Betty Freeman. Image stolen from The Standing Room.

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Comments

Thanks, Darcy. I had the chance to meet Stockhausen in May in Rome, at the premiere of "Cosmic Pulses" from Klang. One of the most mind-blowing musical experiences I've ever had, with an audience that consisted almost exclusively of 20 and 30 somethings. My post is up at www.feastofmusic.com.