Editing Karlheinz Stockhausen (section)

===1950s===
Stockhausen began to compose in earnest only during his third year at the conservatory.{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=26–27}} His early student compositions remained out of the public eye until, in 1971, he published ''[[Chöre für Doris]]'', ''[[Drei Lieder (Stockhausen)|Drei Lieder]]'' for alto voice and chamber orchestra, ''Choral'' for a cappella choir (all three from 1950), and a [[Sonatine (Stockhausen)|Sonatine]] for violin and piano (1951).{{sfn|Maconie|1990|loc=5–6, 11}}

In August 1951, just after his first Darmstadt visit, Stockhausen began working with a form of [[Theme (music)|athematic]] [[serialism|serial]] composition that rejected the [[twelve-tone technique]] of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]].{{sfn|Felder|1977|loc=92}} He characterized many of these earliest compositions (together with the music of other, like-minded composers of the period) as ''[[Punctualism|punktuelle Musik]]'', "punctual" or "pointist" music, commonly mistranslated as "pointillist", though one critic concluded after analysing several of these early works that Stockhausen "never really composed punctually".{{sfn|Sabbe|1981}} Compositions from this phase include ''[[Kreuzspiel]]'' (1951), the ''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)|Klavierstücke I–IV]]'' (1952—the fourth of this first set of four ''Klavierstücke'', titled ''Klavierstück IV'', is specifically cited by Stockhausen as an example of "punctual music",{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=2:19}} and the first (unpublished) versions of ''[[Punkte]]'' and ''Kontra-Punkte'' (1952).{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=2:20}} However, several works from these same years show Stockhausen formulating his "first really ground-breaking contribution to the theory and, above all, practice of composition", that of "group composition", found in Stockhausen's works as early as 1952 and continuing throughout his compositional career.{{sfn|Toop|2005|loc=3}} This principle was first publicly described by Stockhausen in a radio talk from December 1955, titled "Gruppenkomposition: ''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)|Klavierstück I]]''".{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:63–74}}

In December 1952, he composed a ''Konkrete Etüde'', realized in [[Pierre Schaeffer]]'s Paris [[musique concrète]] studio. In March 1953, he moved to the NWDR studio in Cologne and turned to [[electronic music]] with two ''[[Studie II|Electronic Studies]]'' (1953 and 1954), and then introducing spatial placements of sound sources with his mixed ''concrète'' and electronic work ''[[Gesang der Jünglinge]]'' (1955–56). Experiences gained from the ''Studies'' made plain that it was an unacceptable oversimplification to regard timbres as stable entities.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:56}} Reinforced by his studies with Meyer-Eppler, beginning in 1955, Stockhausen formulated new "statistical" criteria for composition, focussing attention on the [[Aleatoric music|aleatoric]], directional tendencies of sound movement, "the change from one state to another, with or without returning motion, as opposed to a fixed state".{{sfn|Decroupet and Ungeheuer|1998|loc=98–99}} Stockhausen later wrote, describing this period in his compositional work, "The first revolution occurred from 1952/53 as ''musique concrète'', ''electronic tape music'', and ''space music'', entailing composition with transformers, generators, modulators, magnetophones, etc; the integration of {{em|all}} concrete and abstract (synthetic) sound possibilities (also all noises), and the controlled projection of sound in space".<ref>{{harvnb|Stockhausen|1989b|loc=127}}, reprinted in {{harvnb|Schwartz, Childs, and Fox|1998|loc=374}}</ref> His position as "the leading German composer of his generation"{{sfn|Toop|2001}} was established with ''Gesang der Jünglinge'' and three concurrently composed pieces in different media: ''[[Zeitmaße]]'' for five woodwinds, ''Gruppen'' for three orchestras, and ''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)|Klavierstück XI]]''.{{sfn|Kohl|1998a|loc=61}} The principles underlying the latter three compositions are presented in Stockhausen's best-known theoretical article, "... wie die Zeit vergeht ..." ("... How Time Passes ..."), first published in 1957 in vol. 3 of ''[[Die Reihe]]''.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:99–139}}

His work with electronic music and its utter fixity led him to explore modes of instrumental and vocal music in which performers' individual capabilities and the circumstances of a particular performance (e.g., hall acoustics) may determine certain aspects of a composition. He called this "variable form".{{sfn|Wörner|1973|loc=101–105}} In other cases, a work may be presented from a number of different perspectives. In ''[[Zyklus]]'' (1959), for example, he began using [[graphic notation (music)|graphic notation]] for instrumental music. The [[Sheet music|score]] is written so that the performance can start on any page, and it may be read upside down, or from right to left, as the performer chooses.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=2, 73–100}} Still other works permit different routes through the constituent parts. Stockhausen called both of these possibilities "polyvalent form",{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:241–251}} which may be either [[Aleatoric music#"Open form" chance music|open form]] (essentially incomplete, pointing beyond its frame), as with ''Klavierstück XI'' (1956), or "closed form" (complete and self-contained) as with ''Momente'' (1962–64/69).{{sfn|Kaletha|2004|loc=97–98}}

In many of his works, elements are played off against one another, simultaneously and successively: in ''Kontra-Punkte'' ("Against Points", 1952–53), which, in its revised form became his official "opus 1", a process leading from an initial "point" texture of isolated notes toward a florid, ornamental ending is opposed by a tendency from diversity (six timbres, dynamics, and durations) toward uniformity (timbre of solo piano, a nearly constant soft dynamic, and fairly even durations).{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=2, 20–21}} In ''Gruppen'' (1955–57), fanfares and passages of varying speed (superimposed durations based on the [[harmonic series (music)|harmonic series]]) are occasionally flung between three full orchestras, giving the impression of movement in space.{{sfn|Maconie|2005|loc=486}}

In his ''[[Kontakte]]'' for electronic sounds (optionally with piano and percussion) (1958–60), he achieved for the first time an [[isomorphism]] of the four parameters of pitch, duration, dynamics, and timbre.{{sfn|Stockhausen|1962|loc=40}}