Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen (born in Mödrath, Germany in 1928)

German avant-garde composers of the mid-20th century. He has written orchestral, choral, and instrumental works, including some which combine electronic and normal sonorities, such as Kontakte (1960), and parts of a huge operatic cycle, "Licht" ("Light").

He studied at Cologne and Bonn, joined the musique concrète group in Paris, and experimented with compositions based on electronic sounds. In 1953 Stockhausen helped found Cologne's important Electronic Music Studio, and became director in 1963. His works include the wind quintet Time Measure (1956), Gruppen (1955-1957), written for three orchestras; Zyklus (1961), for solo percussionist; the multimedia work Beethausen von Stockhoven (1970); and the chamber works Ylem (1973) and Tierkreis (1977). Youthsong (1956) projects a singing boy's voice, mingled with electronic sounds, through five spatially separated loudspeakers. In 1971 he was appointed professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.

Stockhausen was a contemporary of Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Karel Goeyvaerts, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti and Luigi Nono.

Stockhausen is included in the list of names on the cover of Freak Out! (1966)

"There's a record by Karlheinz Stockhausen on the Deutsche Gramophon label called 'Gesang der Jünglinge', it's the 'Song Of The Youths'; 'Kontakte' ('Contact') is on the other side. Buy that (DGG 138811)."

— Frank Zappa, My Favorite Records, Hit Parader magazine, 1967.

"I bought my first Boulez album when I was in the twelfth grade: a Columbia recording of 'Le Marteau Sans Maître' (The Hammer Without a Master) conducted by Robert Craft, with 'Zeitmasse' (Time-mass) by Stockhausen on the other side."

— Frank Zappa, The Real Frank Zappa Book, 1989.

"Stockhausen isn't really an influence. That is, I have some of his records but I don't play them much. Cage is a big influence. We've done a thing with voices, with talking, that is very like one of his pieces, except that of course in our piece the guys are talking about working in an airplane factory, or their cars."

— Frank Zappa, Zappa and the Mothers: Ugly Can Be Beautiful by Sally Kempton in The Age Of Rock by Jonathan Eisen, 1968.

"I'm still quite fond of Boulez's music, but not so much so of Stockhausen's stuff. I like other things in contemporary music, too, particularly Takemitsu. He's one of my favorites."

— Frank Zappa, Modern Music Is a Sick Puppy by Steve Birchall, Digital Audio, 1984.