Editing Karlheinz Stockhausen (section)

==Reception==

===Musical influence===
Stockhausen has been described as "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music".{{sfn|Hewett|2007}} His two early ''Electronic Studies'' (especially the second) had a powerful influence on the subsequent development of electronic music in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the work of the Italian [[Franco Evangelisti (composer)|Franco Evangelisti]] and the Poles [[Andrzej Dobrowolski]] and [[Włodzimierz Kotoński]].{{sfn|Skowron|1981|loc=39}} The influence of his ''Kontra-Punkte'', ''Zeitmaße'' and ''Gruppen'' may be seen in the work of many composers, including [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Threni (Stravinsky)|Threni]]'' (1957–58) and ''[[Movements for Piano and Orchestra|Movements]]'' for piano and orchestra (1958–59) and other works up to the ''Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam'' (1963–64), whose rhythms "are likely to have been inspired, at least in part, by certain passages from Stockhausen's ''Gruppen''".{{sfn|Neidhöfer|2005|loc=340}} Though music of Stockhausen's generation may seem an unlikely influence, Stravinsky said in a 1957 conversation: <blockquote>I have all around me the spectacle of composers who, after their generation has had its decade of influence and fashion, seal themselves off from further development and from the next generation (as I say this, exceptions come to mind, Krenek, for instance). Of course, it requires greater effort to learn from one's juniors, and their manners are not invariably good. But when you are seventy-five and your generation has overlapped with four younger ones, it behooves you not to decide in advance "how far composers can go", but to try to discover whatever new thing it is makes the new generation new.{{sfn|Stravinsky and Craft|1980|loc=133}}</blockquote>

Amongst British composers, [[Harrison Birtwistle|Sir Harrison Birtwistle]] readily acknowledges the influence of Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße'' (especially on his two wind quintets, ''Refrains and Choruses'' and ''Five Distances'') and ''Gruppen'' on his work more generally.{{sfn|Cross|2000|loc=48}}{{sfn|Cross|2001}}{{sfn|Hall|1984|loc=3, 7–8}}{{sfn|Hall|1998|loc=99, 108}}{{sfn|Pace|1996|loc=27}} [[Brian Ferneyhough]] says that, although the "technical and speculative innovations" of ''Klavierstücke I–IV'', ''Kreuzspiel'' and ''Kontra-Punkte'' escaped him on first encounter, they nevertheless produced a "sharp emotion, the result of a beneficial shock engendered by their boldness" and provided "an important source of motivation (rather than of imitation) for my own investigations".{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}} While still in school, he became fascinated upon hearing the British première of ''Gruppen'', and <blockquote>listened many times to the recording of this performance, while trying to penetrate its secrets—how it always seemed to be about to explode, but managed nevertheless to escape unscathed in its core—but scarcely managed to grasp it. Retrospectively, it is clear that from this confusion was born my interest for the formal questions which remain until today.{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}}</blockquote> Although it eventually evolved in a direction of its own, Ferneyhough's 1967 wind sextet, ''Prometheus'', began as a wind quintet with cor anglais, stemming directly from an encounter with Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße''.{{sfn|Kohl|2017|loc=137}} With respect to Stockhausen's later work, he said, <blockquote>I have never subscribed (whatever the inevitable personal distance) to the thesis according to which the many transformations of vocabulary characterizing Stockhausen's development are the obvious sign of his inability to carry out the early vision of strict order that he had in his youth. On the contrary, it seems to me that the constant reconsideration of his premises has led to the maintenance of a remarkably tough thread of historical consciousness which will become clearer with time. ... I doubt that there has been a single composer of the intervening generation who, even if for a short time, did not see the world of music differently thanks to the work of Stockhausen.{{sfn|Ferneyhough|1988}}</blockquote> In a short essay describing Stockhausen's influence on his own work, [[Richard Barrett (composer)|Richard Barrett]] concludes that "Stockhausen remains the composer whose next work I look forward most to hearing, apart from myself of course" and names as works that have had particular impact on his musical thinking ''Mantra'', ''Gruppen'', ''Carré'', ''Klavierstück X'', ''Inori'', and ''Jubiläum''.{{sfn|Barrett|1998}}

French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez once declared, "Stockhausen is the greatest living composer, and the only one whom I recognize as my peer".{{sfn|Anon.|1967}}{{sfn|Anon.|1971}} Boulez also acknowledged the influence of performing Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße'' on his subsequent development as a conductor.{{sfn|Boulez|1976|loc=79–80}} Another French composer, [[Jean-Claude Éloy]], regards Stockhausen as the most important composer of the second half of the 20th century, and cites virtually "all his catalog of works" as "a powerful discoveration {{sic}}, and a true revelation".{{sfn|Éloy|2008}}

Dutch composer [[Louis Andriessen]] acknowledged the influence of Stockhausen's ''Momente'' in his pivotal work ''Contra tempus'' of 1968.{{sfn|Schönberger|2001}} German composer [[Wolfgang Rihm]], who studied with Stockhausen, was influenced by ''Momente'', ''Hymnen'', and ''Inori''.{{sfn|Williams|2006|loc=382}}

At the Cologne ISCM Festival in 1960, the Danish composer [[Per Nørgård]] heard Stockhausen's ''Kontakte'' as well as pieces by Kagel, Boulez, and Berio. He was profoundly affected by what he heard and his music suddenly changed into "a far more discontinuous and disjunct style, involving elements of strict organization in all parameters, some degree of aleatoricism and controlled improvisation, together with an interest in collage from other musics".{{sfn|Anderson|2001}}

Jazz musicians such as [[Miles Davis]],{{sfn|Bergstein|1992}} [[Charles Mingus]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Toole |first1=Fintan |title=How Stockhausen made pop weird |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/how-stockhausen-made-pop-weird-1.992067 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}</ref> [[Herbie Hancock]],{{sfn|Hancock|2014|loc=104–105}} [[Yusef Lateef]],{{sfn|Feather|1964}}{{sfn|Tsahar|2006}} and [[Anthony Braxton]]{{sfn|Radano|1993|loc=110}} cite Stockhausen as an influence.

Stockhausen was influential within pop and rock music as well. [[Frank Zappa]] acknowledges Stockhausen in the liner notes of ''[[Freak Out!]]'', his 1966 debut with [[The Mothers of Invention]]. On the back of [[The Who]]'s second LP released in the US, "[[Happy Jack (song)|Happy Jack]]", their primary composer and guitarist [[Pete Townshend]], is said to have "an interest in Stockhausen". [[Richard Wright (musician)|Rick Wright]] and [[Roger Waters]] of [[Pink Floyd]] also acknowledge Stockhausen as an influence.{{sfn|Macon|1997|loc=141}}{{sfn|Bayles|1996|loc=222}} San Francisco psychedelic groups [[Jefferson Airplane]] and the [[Grateful Dead]] are said to have done the same;{{sfn|Prendergast|2000|loc=54}} Stockhausen said that the Grateful Dead were "well orientated toward new music".{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=4:505}}{{Verify source|date=July 2018}}<!--Perhaps I made a mistake here, but I'm sure Stockhausen said it was members of Jefferson Airplane. Of course he could have been wrong, but the quotation is from him, not members of either band.--> Founding members of Cologne-based experimental band [[Can (band)|Can]], [[Irmin Schmidt]] and [[Holger Czukay]], both studied with Stockhausen at the Cologne Courses for New Music.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=3:196, 198, 200}} German electronic pioneers [[Kraftwerk]] also say they studied with Stockhausen,{{sfn|Flur|2003|loc=228}} and Icelandic vocalist [[Björk]] has acknowledged Stockhausen's influence.{{sfn|Heuger|1998|loc=15}}{{sfn|Björk|1996}}{{sfn|Ross|2004|loc=53 & 55}}

=== Wider cultural renown ===
Stockhausen, along with [[John Cage]], is one of the few avant-garde composers to have succeeded in penetrating the popular consciousness.{{sfn|Anon.|2007b}}{{sfn|Broyles|2004}}{{sfn|Hewett|2007}} [[The Beatles]] included his face on the cover of ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''.{{sfn|Guy and Llewelyn-Jones|2004|loc=111}} In particular, "[[A Day in the Life]]" (1967) and "[[Revolution 9]]" (1968) were influenced by Stockhausen's electronic music.{{sfn|Aldgate, Chapman, and Marwick|2000|loc=146}}{{sfn|MacDonald|1995|loc=233–234}} Stockhausen's name, and the perceived strangeness and supposed unlistenability of his music, was even a punchline in cartoons, as documented on a page on the official Stockhausen website ([http://www.stockhausen.org/cartoons.html Stockhausen Cartoons]). Perhaps the most caustic remark about Stockhausen was attributed to Sir [[Thomas Beecham]]. Asked "Have you heard any Stockhausen?", he is alleged to have replied, "No, but I believe I have trodden in some".{{sfn|Lebrecht|1985|loc=334, annotated on 366: "Apocryphal; source unknown"}}

Stockhausen's fame is also reflected in works of literature. For example, he is mentioned in [[Philip K. Dick]]'s 1974 novel ''[[Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said]]'',{{sfn|Dick|1993|loc=101}} and in [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s 1966 novel ''[[The Crying of Lot 49]]''. The Pynchon novel features "The Scope", a bar with "a strict electronic music policy". Protagonist Oedipa Maas asks "a hip graybeard" about a "sudden chorus of whoops and yibbles" coming out of "a kind of jukebox." He replies, "That's by Stockhausen ... the early crowd tends to dig your Radio Cologne sound. Later on we really swing".{{sfn|Pynchon|1999|loc=34}}

The French writer [[Michel Butor]] acknowledges that Stockhausen's music "taught me a lot", mentioning in particular the electronic works ''Gesang der Jünglinge'' and ''Hymnen''.{{sfn|Santschi|1982|loc=204}}

Later in his life, Stockhausen was portrayed by at least one journalist, John O'Mahony of the ''Guardian'' newspaper, as an eccentric, for example being alleged to live an effectively [[Polygamy|polygamous]] lifestyle with two women, to whom O'Mahony referred as his "wives", while at the same time stating he was not married to either of them.{{sfn|O'Mahony|2001}} In the same article, O'Mahony says Stockhausen said he was born on a planet orbiting the star Sirius. In the German newspaper ''[[Die Zeit]]'', Stockhausen stated that he was educated at Sirius (see [[#Sirius star system|Sirius star system]] below).

In 1995, [[BBC Radio 3]] sent Stockhausen a package of recordings from contemporary [[techno]] and [[ambient music]] artists [[Aphex Twin]], [[Richie Hawtin]] (Plastikman), [[Robin Rimbaud|Scanner]] and [[Daniel Pemberton]], and asked him for his opinion on the music. In August of that year, Radio 3 reporter [[Richard Witts|Dick Witts]] interviewed Stockhausen about these pieces for a broadcast in October, called "The Technocrats" and asked what advice he would give these young musicians. Stockhausen made suggestions to each and they were then invited to respond. All but Plastikman obliged.{{sfn|Witts|1995a}}{{sfn|Witts|1995b}}

===Critical reception===
[[Robin Maconie]] finds that, "Compared to the work of his contemporaries, Stockhausen's music has a depth and rational integrity that is quite outstanding... His researches, initially guided by Meyer-Eppler, have a coherence unlike any other composer then or since".{{sfn|Maconie|1989|loc=177–178}} Maconie also compares Stockhausen to [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]: "If a genius is someone whose ideas survive all attempts at explanation, then by that definition Stockhausen is the nearest thing to Beethoven this century has produced. Reason? His music lasts",{{sfn|Maconie|1988}} and "As Stravinsky said, one never thinks of Beethoven as a superb orchestrator because the quality of invention transcends mere craftsmanship. It is the same with Stockhausen: the intensity of imagination gives rise to musical impressions of an elemental and seemingly unfathomable beauty, arising from necessity rather than conscious design".{{sfn|Maconie|1989|loc=178}}

Christopher Ballantine, comparing the categories of [[Experimental music|experimental]] and [[avant-garde music]], concludes that <blockquote>Perhaps more than any other contemporary composer, Stockhausen exists at the point where the dialectic between experimental and avant-garde music becomes manifest; it is in him, more obviously than anywhere else, that these diverse approaches converge. This alone would seem to suggest his remarkable significance.{{sfn|Ballantine|1977|loc=244}}</blockquote>

[[Igor Stravinsky]] expressed great, but not uncritical, enthusiasm for Stockhausen's music in the conversation books with [[Robert Craft]],<ref>E.g., {{harvnb|Craft and Stravinsky|1960|loc=118}}.</ref> and for years organised private listening sessions with friends in his home where he played tapes of Stockhausen's latest works.{{sfn|Stravinsky|1984|loc=356}}{{sfn|Craft|2002|loc=141}} In an interview published in March 1968, however, he says of an unidentified person, <blockquote>I have been listening all week to the piano music of a composer now greatly esteemed for his ability to stay an hour or so ahead of his time, but I find the alternation of note-clumps and silences of which it consists more monotonous than the foursquares of the dullest eighteenth-century music.{{sfn|[Craft]|1968|loc=4}}</blockquote> The following October, a report in ''Sovetskaia Muzyka''{{sfn|Anon.|1968}} translated this sentence (and a few others from the same article) into Russian, substituting for the conjunction "but" the phrase "Ia imeiu v vidu Karlkheintsa Shtokkhauzena" ("I am referring to Karlheinz Stockhausen"). When this translation was quoted in Druskin's Stravinsky biography, the field was widened to ''all'' of Stockhausen's compositions and Druskin adds for good measure, "indeed, works he calls unnecessary, useless and uninteresting", again quoting from the same ''Sovetskaia Muzyka'' article, even though it had made plain that the characterization was of American "university composers".{{sfn|Druskin|1974|loc=207}}

===Controversy===
Throughout his career, Stockhausen excited controversy. One reason for this is that his music displays high expectations about "shaping and transforming the world, about the truth of life and of reality, about the creative departure into a future determined by spirit", so that Stockhausen's work "like no other in the history of new music, has a polarizing effect, arouses passion, and provokes drastic opposition, even hatred".{{sfn|Ulrich|2001|loc=25}} Another reason was acknowledged by Stockhausen himself in a reply to a question during an interview on the [[Bayerischer Rundfunk|Bavarian Radio]] on 4 September 1960, reprinted as a foreword to his first collection of writings: {{blockquote|I have often been reproached—especially recently—for being too candid, and through this making not a few enemies for myself—being undiplomatic. ... It must be admitted: I am not gifted as an esotericist, not as a mystic or a hermit, and not as a diplomat; it corresponds that my love of my fellow humans expresses itself in candour ... I hope my enemies will not on this account destroy me; I also hope my enemies find forms of retort that I can find richly fanciful, witty, pertinent, instructive—that grant me respect through a noble and truly humane form of enmity.{{sfn|Stockhausen ''Texte''|loc=1:12–13}}}}
After the [[Protests of 1968|student revolts in 1968]], musical life in Germany became highly politicized, and Stockhausen found himself a target for criticism, especially from the leftist camp who wanted music "in the service of the class struggle". [[Cornelius Cardew]] and [[Konrad Boehmer]] denounced their former teacher as a "servant of capitalism". In a climate where music mattered less than political ideology, some critics held that Stockhausen was too élitist, while others complained he was too mystical.{{sfn|Kurtz|1992|loc=188–189}}

====Scandal at the ''Fresco'' premiere====
{{Main|Fresco (Stockhausen)}}
As reported in the German magazine ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', the [[première]] (and only performance to date) on 15 November 1969 of Stockhausen's work ''[[Fresco (Stockhausen)|Fresco]]'' for four orchestral groups (playing in four different locations) was the scene of a scandal. The rehearsals were already marked by objections from the orchestral musicians questioning such directions as "glissandos no faster than one octave per minute" and others phoning the artists' union to clarify whether they really had to perform the Stockhausen work as part of the orchestra. In the backstage warm-up room at the premiere a hand-lettered sign could be seen saying: "We're playing, otherwise we would be fired". During the première the parts on some music stands suddenly were replaced by placards reading things like "Stockhausen-Zoo. Please don't feed", that someone had planted. Some musicians, fed up with the monkeyshines, left after an hour, though the performance was planned for four to five hours. Stockhausen fans protested, while Stockhausen foes were needling the musicians asking: "How can you possibly participate in such crap?" ("Wie könnt ihr bloß so eine Scheiße machen!"). At one point someone managed to switch off the stand lights, leaving the musicians in the dark. After 260 minutes the performance ended with no-one participating any longer.{{sfn|Anon.|1969}}

====Sirius star system====
In an obituary in the German newspaper ''[[Die Zeit]]'', Karlheinz Stockhausen was quoted as having said: "I was educated at [[Sirius]] and want to return to there, although I am still living in Kürten near Cologne."{{sfn|Reier|2007}} On hearing about this, conductor [[Michael Gielen]] stated: "When he said he knew what was happening at Sirius, I turned away from him in horror. I haven't listened to a note since." He called Stockhausen's statements "hubris" and "nonsense", while at the same time defending his own belief in [[astrology]]: "Why should these large celestial bodies exist if they do not stand for something? I cannot imagine that there is anything senseless in the universe. There is much we do not understand".{{sfn|Hagedorn|2010}}

====11 September attacks====
In a press conference in [[Hamburg]] on 16 September 2001, Stockhausen was asked by a journalist whether the characters in ''Licht'' were for him "merely some figures out of a common cultural history" or rather "material appearances". Stockhausen replied, "I pray daily to Michael, but not to Lucifer. I have renounced him. But he is very much present, like in New York recently."{{sfn|Stockhausen|2002|loc=76}} The same journalist then asked how the [[September 11 attacks|events of 11 September]] had affected him, and how he viewed reports of the attack in connection with the harmony of humanity represented in ''[[Hymnen]]''. He answered:<blockquote>Well, what happened there is, of course—now all of you must adjust your brains—the biggest work of art there has ever been. The fact that spirits achieve with one act something which we in music could never dream of, that people practise ten years madly, fanatically for a concert. And then die. [Hesitantly.] And that is the greatest work of art that exists for the whole Cosmos. Just imagine what happened there. There are people who are so concentrated on this single performance, and then five thousand people are driven to Resurrection. In one moment. I couldn't do that. Compared to that, we are nothing, as composers. [...] It is a crime, you know of course, because the people did not agree to it. They did not come to the "concert". That is obvious. And nobody had told them: "You could be killed in the process."{{sfn|Stockhausen|2002|loc=76–77}}</blockquote>

As a result of the reaction to the press report of Stockhausen's comments, a four-day festival of his work in Hamburg was cancelled. In addition, his pianist daughter announced to the press that she would no longer appear under the name "Stockhausen".{{sfn|Lentricchia and McAuliffe|2003|loc=7}} In a subsequent message, he stated that the press had published "false, defamatory reports" about his comments, and said:

<blockquote>At the press conference in Hamburg, I was asked if Michael, Eve and Lucifer were historical figures of the past and I answered that they exist now, for example Lucifer in New York. In my work, I have defined Lucifer as the cosmic spirit of rebellion, of anarchy. He uses his high degree of intelligence to destroy creation. He does not know love. After further questions about the events in America, I said that such a plan appeared to be Lucifer's greatest work of art. Of course I used the designation "work of art" to mean the work of destruction personified in Lucifer. In the context of my other comments this was unequivocal.{{sfn|Stockhausen|2001a}}</blockquote>