“Serial thinking is something that”
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics 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, having been called the "father of electronic music", for introducing controlled chance into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.
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culture · German composer (1928–2007) · composer · musicologist · music educator · music theorist · university teacher · musician · conductor · author · pianist · also Karlheinz Stockhausen, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Stockhausen
Born 22 August 1928 · Died 5 December 2007 · Q154556
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2026· 9 entries
“Every so often I would sit down by the piano and play a single note. I changed a lot during this time.”
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“and also by [the architects] Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, whose modular theory is very close to the thinking of serial music.”
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“That characters can bring about in one act what we in music cannot dream of, that people practice madly for 10 years, completely fanatically, for a concert and then die. That is the greatest work of art for the whole cosmos. Against that, we composers are nothing.”
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“Depending on the tasks I have set myself, and that have been set for me, the angel changes. They specialise in particular subjects, stages of life, and also particular kinds of creative activity. My angel is highly experienced in questions of music.”
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“In the beginning of the 60s, I thought of living in Sicily, and at one stage I bought an island in Finland. I”
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“No, but I once trod in some.”
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“I was educated at Sirius and want to return to there, although I am still living in Kürten near Cologne.”
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Karlheinz Stockhausen
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2021· 1 entry
The Guardian: Jon Hassell: radical musician who studied with Stockhausen and worked with Eno
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2019· 2 entries
The Guardian: Donnerstag aus Licht review – ambitious Stockhausen staging realigns cosmic order
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The Guardian: Stockhausen: the composer who makes Wagner look anaemic
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2017· 1 entry
An anonymous patron purchased the house and opened it in April 2017 as an exhibition space for modern art, with the first floor to be used as the permanent home of the museum of the WDR Electronic Music Studio, where Sto
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2007· 4 entries
Died 2007-12-05.
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“Stockhausen pragnął wytyczać nowe szlaki w muzyce XX wieku.”
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“And when they encounter works of art which show that using new media can lead to new experiences and to new consciousness, and expand our senses, our perception, our intelligence, our sensibility, then they will become interested in this music.”
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“Karlheinz Stockhausen był bardzo autorytarny i marzył o utworzeniu wielkiej rodzinnej firmy muzycznej, zorganizowanej na wzór kupieckiej rodziny Buddenbrooków.”
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1999· 5 entries
Released album “Pupils of Messiaen: A Cappella Works by Messiaen, Stockhausen and Xenakis”.
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Released album “Helikopter-StreichQuartett”.
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Released album “Piano Music”.
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Was invited by Walter Fink to be the ninth composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival
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BBC producer Rodney Wilson asked Stockhausen to collaborate with Stephen and Timothy Quay on a film for the fourth series of Sound on Film International
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1998· 1 entry
Founded the Stockhausen Courses, which are held annually in Kürten
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1997· 4 entries
Released album “Musik für Posaune und Euphonium”.
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Released album “HYMNEN (Dritte Region): Elektronische Musik mit Orchester”.
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Released album “Orchester-Finalisten (vom Mittwoch aus LICHT)”.
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Released album “Kontakte”.
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1996· 7 entries
Released album “Klavierstücke I-XI”.
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Released album “ELEKTRONISCHE MUSIK mit TONSZENEN, vom FREITAG aus LICHT”.
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Released album “WELT‐PARLAMENT (1995) für Chor a cappella”.
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Released album “Kurtág: Grabstein für Stephan, Op. 15c / Stele, Op. 33 / Stockhausen: Gruppen”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 14: Aus den Sieben Tagen”.
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Released album “Aus Den Sieben Tagen”.
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Released album “DIENSTAG aus LICHT”.
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1995· 8 entries
Awarded Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (1995).
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Released album “Prozession / Ceylon”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 10: Hymnen”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 11: Prozession / Ceylon”.
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Released album “Mantra (Andreas Grau, Gotz Schumacher)”.
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Released album “Solo (Flöte) / Solo (Synthesizer) / Spiral”.
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BBC Radio 3 sent Stockhausen a package of recordings from contemporary techno and ambient music artists Aphex Twin, Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), Scanner and Daniel Pemberton, and asked him for his opinion on the music
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 9: Mikrophonie I / Mikrophonie II / Telemusik”.
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1994· 10 entries
Released album “Klavierstuecke”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 15: Spiral (2 Versionen) & Pole”.
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Released album “20th Century Music for Unaccompanied Clarinet”.
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Released album “Solo‐SYNTHI‐FOU: Synthesizer‐Solo zum Studium (nicht für Aufführungen) – SYNTHI‐FOU (oder KLAVIERSTÜCK ⅩⅤ) für einen Synthesizer‐Spieler und Elektronische Musik – DIENSTAGS‐ABSCHIED (JENSEITS – SYNTHI‐FOU – ABSCHIED) vom DIENSTAG aus LICHT für Chor, einen Synthesizer‐Spieler und Elektronische Musik – Klangfarben von JENSEITS – SYNTHI‐FOU – ABSCHIED mit gesprochen Erläuterungen von Simon Stockhausen”.
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Released album “Geburts-Arien / Mädchenprozession”.
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Released album “ARIES für Trompete und Elektronische Musik – KLAVIERSTÜCK ⅩⅢ (LUZIFERs TRAUM aus Klaviersolo)”.
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Released album “Musik für Trompete, Piccolo‐Trompete, Flügelhorn, gespielt von Markus Stockhausen”.
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Released album “Oktophonie”.
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Released album “Musik für Klarinette, Baßklarinette, Bassetthorn mit Suzanne Stepehns”.
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Released album “GEBURTSFEST (1987): Chormusik mit Tonszenen, vom MONTAG aus LICHT (Version von EVAs ERSTGEBURT für Chor a cappella und Tonband)”.
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1993· 11 entries
Released album “Stimmung: Pariser Version 1968 in zwei Aufnahmen von 1969 und 1982”.
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Released album “Stockhausen 29 - Der Jahreslauf”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 12: Stimmung”.
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Released album “Oberlippentanz / Ave / Tierkreis”.
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Released album “Spiral”.
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Released album “In Freundschaft / Traum-Formel / Amour”.
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Released album “Atmen gibt das Leben”.
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Released album “Mixtur (1967)”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 6: Zyklus, Refrain & Kontakte”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 8: Mixtur”.
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Released album “Stockhausen dirigiert KLASSIK: 3 Konzerte: HAYDN (Trompete), MOZART (Flöte – Klarinette)”.
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1992· 20 entries
Released album “Michaels Reise (Solisten-Version)”.
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Awarded Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia (1992).
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Released album “Sirius (1975-77) Elektronische Musik und Trompete, Sopran, Baßklarinette, Baß”.
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Released album “Momente”.
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Released album “HARLEKIN / DER KLEINE HARLEKIN”.
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Released album “Tierkreis für 12 Spieluhren / Musik im Bauch”.
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Released album “Sternklang (1969-71) Parkmusik für 5 Gruppen”.
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Released album “Inori”.
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Released album “MONTAG aus LICHT”.
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Released album “Musik für Flöte, Piccolo, Altflöte mit Kathinka Pasveer”.
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Released album “Trans”.
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Released album “„Am Himmel wandre ich…“”.
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Released album “Kontra-Punkte / Zeitmasze / Stop / Adieu”.
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Released album “Ligeti / Villa-Lobos / Barber / Hindemith / Stockhausen”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 13: Kurzwellen”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 5: Gruppen & Carré”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 7: Momente”.
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Released album “YLEM”.
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Released album “Zyklus - Refrain - Kontakte”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 4: Kontra-Punkte / Zeitmasze / Stop / Adieu”.
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1991· 5 entries
Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 16: Mantra”.
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Released album “Mantra”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 2: Formel / Schlagtrio / Spiel / Punkte”.
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Released album “Formel / Schlagtrio / Spiel / Punkte”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition, no. 3: Elektronische Musik 1952–1960”.
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1990· 3 entries
Released album “Mantra (pianos: Yvar Mikhashoff, Rosalind Bevan, electronics: Ole Ørsted)”.
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Released album “Béla Bartók: Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion / Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontakte für elektronische Klänge, Klavier & Schlagzeug”.
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Released album “Stockhausen Edition no. 1: Chöre für Doris, Kreuzspiel, etc.”.
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1989· 1 entry
Released album “Klavierstücke vol. II”.
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1988· 6 entries
Released album “Piano Pieces I-VIII (Bernhard Wambach)”.
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Released album “Kontakte / Refrain / Zyklus”.
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Released album “SAMSTAG aus LICHT”.
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Released album “DONNERSTAG aus LICHT”.
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Released album “Klavierstücke Vol. III”.
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Released album “Stravinsky / Boulez / Denisov / Stockhausen / Berio”.
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1987· 2 entries
Released album “Stimmung”.
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Released album “Tierkreis / Oberlippentanz”.
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1986· 3 entries
Awarded Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (1986).
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Released album “Contemporary Piano Music”.
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Released album “Unsichtbare Chöre - Choeurs invisibles”.
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1984· 1 entry
Released album “Braxton & Stockhausen”.
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1978· 1 entry
Released album “Harlekin”.
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1977· 1 entry
Which became the first act of Dienstag) with the "solo" operas and working toward the more complex ones: Donnerstag (1978–80), Samstag (1981–83), Montag (1984–88), Dienstag (1977/1987–91), Freitag (1991–94), Mittwoch (19
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1976· 1 entry
Released album “Ceylon / Bird of Passage”.
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1974· 1 entry
Awarded Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1974).
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1972· 1 entry
Released album “Ensemble”.
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1971· 1 entry
Published Chöre für Doris, Drei Lieder for alto voice and chamber orchestra, Choral for a cappella choir (all three from 1950), and a Sonatine for violin and piano (1951)
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1970· 5 entries
Released album “Opus 1970”.
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Released album “Kurzwellen”.
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Released album “Illimité”.
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Released album “Stockhausen: Klavierstücke IX & XI / Berio: Cinque Variazioni / Berio: Sequenza IV”.
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Did he again begin publishing theoretical articles, with "Kriterien", the abstract for his six seminar lectures for the Darmstädter Ferienkurse
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1969· 2 entries
Released album “Telemusik / Mixtur”.
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Released album “Hymnen”.
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1968· 6 entries
Released album “Gruppen / Carré”.
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Released album “Prozession”.
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The West German government invited Stockhausen to collaborate on the German Pavilion at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka and to create a joint multimedia project for it with artist Otto Piene
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At the time of the composition of Aus den sieben Tagen, Stockhausen had read a biography by Satprem about the Bengali guru Sri Aurobindo, and subsequently he also read many of the published writings by Aurobindo himself
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Stockhausen composed the vocal sextet Stimmung, for the Collegium Vocale Köln, an hour-long work based entirely on the overtones of a low B-flat
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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"
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1967· 3 entries
And 1968: Ensemble and Musik für ein Haus, and would have successors in the "park music" composition for five spatially separated groups, Sternklang ("Star Sounds") of 1971, the orchestral work Trans, composed in the sam
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Released album “The New Music”.
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Released album “Momente (1965 Version)”.
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1965· 1 entry
And at the University of California, Davis in 1966–67
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1963· 2 entries
Succeeded Eimert as director of the studio
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Stockhausen created Plus-Minus, "2 × 7 pages for realisation" containing basic note materials and a complex system of transformations to which those materials are to be subjected in order to produce an unlimited number o
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1962· 1 entry
Released album “Gesang der Jünglinge / Kontakte”.
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1961· 2 entries
Released album “Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zyklus – Refrain / Mauricio Kagel: Transición II”.
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Stockhausen acquired a parcel of land in the vicinity of Kürten, a village east of Cologne, near Bergisch Gladbach in the Bergisches Land
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1960· 2 entries
Stockhausen returned to the composition of vocal music (for the first time since Gesang der Jünglinge) with Carré for four orchestras and four choirs
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The Danish composer Per Nørgård heard Stockhausen's Kontakte as well as pieces by Kagel, Boulez, and Berio
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1956· 1 entry
To make way for lignite strip mining, but the castle itself still stands
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1955· 1 entry
Stockhausen formulated new "statistical" criteria for composition, focussing attention on the aleatoric, directional tendencies of sound movement, "the change from one state to another, with or without returning motion,
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1952· 2 entries
“For the first time in the history of music, a piece was made up of individual notes. There were no melodies.”
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“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 all concrete and abstract (synthetic) sound possibilities (also all noises), and the controlled projection of sound in space”
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1951· 2 entries
Stockhausen met Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts, who had just completed studies with Olivier Messiaen (analysis) and Darius Milhaud (composition) in Paris, and Stockhausen resolved to do likewise
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Studied at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (1947–1951).
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- #education
1950· 1 entry
The owners, the Düsseldorf chapter of the Knights of Malta, turned it into an orphanage, but it was subsequently returned to private ownership and became a private residence again
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1945· 1 entry
“The last time I saw him, he said:”
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1941· 1 entry
Learned that his mother had died, ostensibly from leukemia, although everyone at the same hospital had supposedly died of the same disease
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1928· 1 entry
Born 1928-08-22.
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- #birth
1830· 1 entry
By a local businessman named Arend, it was called by locals Burg Mödrath
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