Great Composers: Karlheinz Stockhausen

A look at the man from Sirius.
This was a viewer request from KZbinr Mario Woj. See the current request queue at lentovivace.com....
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Classical Nerd is a weekly video series covering music history, theoretical concepts, and techniques, hosted by composer, pianist, and music history aficionado Thomas Little.
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Music:
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Cosmic Pulses [original upload: EqsDLMii8gk]
Thomas Little: Dance! #2 in E minor, Op. 1 No. 2, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
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Contact Information:
Questions and comments can be directed to:
nerdofclassical [at] gmail.com
Tumblr:
classical-nerd.tumblr.com
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All images and audio in this video are for educational purposes only and are not intended as copyright infringement. If you have a copyright concern, please contact me using the above information.

[@fordcottoniii8972]

Another interesting note about his influences on rock musicians: The German "avant-rock" group Can had 2 members that were actually students of Stockhausen: keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and bassist Holger Czukay. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_(band)

[@mononoaware1960]

Amazing band. All of those experimental German bands from then were awesome! Can, Faust, Neu, great stuff

[@axelazaryan]

Krautrock ❤

[@calebroger2596]

The only composer to make a 9/11 joke.

[@benaraujomusic]

Also the only composer to write a string quartet with HELICOPTERS in it.

[@EdwinDekker71]

He probably recognised the planning behind it

[@PabloGambaccini]

He felt surpased by the planes and the towers, that's what we didn't understand ​@@benaraujomusic

[@charlesdavis7087]

Wish I'd had you as a teacher in college. Love your posts. Thanks.

[@MrInterestingthings]

So glad I saw this . Very well done . Highlighting his contradictions in early complete seriality versus his openness with live performers and also his retouching and like Boulez his need to revise the "already published defined idea" is equally fascinating . I hope you do other recent or living composers. Messiaen was the first to open my ears and he has led to discovery and some appreciation for hundreds living now . Great composers as do all great thinkers in any field I think require immersion . Per Norgard ,Ustvolskaya,Saariaho(easy to listen to but much thinking behind her work) ,Maderna,Berio etc ,even the earlier Skryabin,Schumann &Beethoven and even going back to the early Rennaissance and Baroque requires this immersion; even though there styles may not seem foreign to us today . There is so much disingenuiness in classical music reviewing and the various reputations ;I fell your knowledgable , honest , absorbing discussion does much to correct this . In other words all of us , even non-contemporary art followers know of Stockhausen but few of his know his real importance . Much here I don't remember reading anywhere else . His mother's fate I did not know nor the fact that he was indebted to the war . Milhaud taught every important composer now living (interesting that Stock didn't care much for him ) , Frank Martin but he enjoyed Messiaen ! Klavierstucke as a score like Birtwistle and Ferneyhough are amazing to look at ; I actually have Epigramma on my musicroom wall . The music requires ears and real thinking . I'm very grateful for this short introduction to his work maybe now I can reread some of the various pdf dissertations I have copied over the years .I respect Stock I hope you have or make more of these Scelsi may not require it since he is so easy to listen to but I know knowing where he is coming from, his processing , his influences is another matter .

[@robmeehan1]

OK so he was crazy, not unlike a lot of other composers. Emphasizing the immersive/spatial elements of his music is on point...some of his works are long, but if you let yourself become engaged in his sound world, especially the later work, forget about it's complexity, there's a primitive ritual quality to enjoy. The tight hold on access to his catalogue of recordings can't help.

[@samuelgonzalez7039]

thank you for breaking down his history and composition techniques I'm getting more and more into classical music but your videos help me learn

[@jvl975]

Your channel is amazing!! Great work!!!

[@1994nejc]

Thank you Classical Nerd!

[@mariu996]

Excellent exposition

[@abdulf6017]

Great channel my man. There aren't nearly enough channels like yours on youtube.

[@eloralencoski8882]

I'm studying In Freundschaft in my theory class right now. Thank you for a fantastic lecture on Stockhausen!

[@NotRightMusic]

Well done video! Stockhausen is one of my favorite composers from the 20th century.

[@Karina-hn5jp]

Thank you, thank you very much for your great channel!! It will be very interesting to see a video about Anri Tomasi and Ernest Bloch.hope you like the idea

[@ClassicalNerd]

I've added them to the request pool, but given how many requests I'm trying to wade through, I'll only be able to get to them once I've exhausted the current queue.

[@MrHidan30]

Fantastic video! An Astor Piazzolla video would be awesome.

[@ClassicalNerd]

It's already in the queue (30th down, but still on the way).

[@brendaboykin3281]

Thanx, Thomas🌹🌹🌹

[@TockTockTock]

Thanks for the video. Would love to see a video on Morton Subotnick. His work with electronics is very much different than Stockhausen's-even down to the instruments.

[@ClassicalNerd]

Unfortunately, I've always been hesitant to do biographies on living composers, because artists' careers usually last the course of their lives and it would be impossible to do a proper, holistic retrospective.

[@BenjaminStaern]

Great program about Stockhausen! Personally I like his way of using rigor in his compositions rather than Boulez of whom I find his music too strict and controlled. His instrumentation however is glorious! Stockhausen presented original timbres and combinations of sounds that you never heard of, probably as a result working in the electronic studio throughout his life. One of my favorite works of his is Gruppen, Inori, Trans, some parts of his enormous Licht-cycle especially Donnerstag (Thursday), Samstag (Saturday), Mittwoch (Wednesday, the one with Helicopter Quartet included!) and Dienstag (Tuesday). The rest I am curious to find out more, still fascinating person. Controversial, aren't we all?

[@vaspers]

You give good lectures, lad! I'm devoted to your stories and insights. I study many books in this field, and you tend to be historically and aesthetically correct most of the time, a grand achievement in such a murky and mayhemy realm as music. Astonishing how many conflicts, fierce opposition, heckling and concert disrupting happened way back in the 1800s until today. Are there still riots at, say, the modern Arvo Part, Lt. Caramel, or Ferneyhough performances?

[@nmarks]

While he was a teenager my older brother became a classic nerd too. In his last year before he left home, he moved on from composers like Beethoven, Mahler, Vaughan Williams or Rimsky-Korsakov to composers like Stockhausen and it was the worst thing that could have happened to him. Stockhausen's madness rubbed off on my brother and destabilised him and, shortly after he left home and the love and support of his family, he had a nervous breakdown and was recruited into a religious cult. They took control of his life and not long after that he was dead. He died eight years ago, at the Marie Curie Hospice, Penarth, Wales, on 15th May 2014. Rest In Peace David.

[@Ace-dv5ce]

Did the cult worship Sirius?

[@nocternbemsi5619]

so stockhausen was a trigger (at least in your mind). A bit unfair to Stockhausen's genius music. Something obviously wrong with your brother, blaming Karlheinz is a reach (stating the obvious really)

[@vaspers]

Your brother had emotional problems long before Stockhausen came into his life. To blame psychoses on music composers is quite a stretch. You see connections from Stockhausen to Insanity, but why not see it as from Beethoven (or Music Itself) to Insanity? Your extreme bias against experimentation in music, religion, ethnomethodology, and philosophy is showing, Mr. No Name comment poster Fact Gasm.

[@marcossidoruk8033]

The ultimate madlad.

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Remember hearing Gesang der Junglinge and thought it was wild. Them later I heard “ To cure a weakling child” by Aphex Twin and thought “ This sounds a bit like something I heard when I was younger”. It took a while to make a connection.

[@earaearaearaearaearaeara]

It would be great to have subtitles for the video:)

[@summonersummoner9536]

He is the best and the one that changed music forever the prophetized composer he was not mad

[@mateuslguilherme]

Can you make a villa-lobos or Xenakis video?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Villa-Lobos and Xenakis are both already on the request queue: lentovivace.com/requestqueue.html

[@juane.montepagano5496]

bro had main character vibes

[@asclosetotedturnerasilleverbe]

thank you. good work

[@williamsmith5549]

The Licht Cycle is stupendous! I mean, the Dodecadigital Girl kicks Brunnhilde's You-Know-What anyday, lol! (I mean, that character is a virtuoso on the ALTO CLARINET, gotta worship that, right?). Seriously, however, this is a great overview, and I would love to discuss your deeper opinion of Stockhausen's oeuvre? Thanks for all your incredible work!

[@StockyScoresRaoraPantheraFC]

Who? Mondeva from Donnerstag?

[@StockyScoresRaoraPantheraFC]

She's a virtuoso on the BASSETT HORN

[@hopelittwin]

Very well done thank you for this. Recommendations on where to find some of the scores you talked about in this video?

[@danieltrevino8855]

They are avaliable for purchase on the composer's score shop which is online. Search for stockhausen verlag and it should be the first result.

[@Vishnu-xn4vx]

George Crumb :) ?

[@ClassicalNerd]

My policy is not to do _Great Composers_ videos on living composers, because you can't have a career retrospective on what is ongoing. However, I wouldn't be opposed to doing a _Great Pieces_ on _Vox Balaenae_ or _Black Angels._

[@Vishnu-xn4vx]

Classical Nerd thanks a lot 🙇

[@Bimagragaireacht]

Could you do one on Turlough O Carolan, our music always gets left out :/

[@ClassicalNerd]

It might be a while because I have a ton of requests, but I've not covered any Irish composers yet and he seems like the logical place to start! I'll add him to the request pool.

[@Bimagragaireacht]

Classical Nerd thanks man can't wait, he's the one we kinda show off, he was blind and kinda homeless and poor but damn the music he wrote

[@MrHidan30]

Or Xenakis or Harry Partch.

[@ClassicalNerd]

Xenakis is currently 18th in the queue and Partch will be added to the request pool.

[@beatrixcalleja4152]

Would you know if Stockhausen ever had any interactions with Reginald Smith Brindle please? I'm trying to do some research about this :)

[@ClassicalNerd]

The best I can find is a journal article entitled "The Music of Reginald Smith Brindle" written by Gerald Larner for _The Musical Times'_ Vol. 112, No. 1540 (June 1971). Smith Brindle's works for percussion in the late 60s and early 70s were-according to Larner-"no doubt [written] under the influence of Stockhausen," but differ from Stockhausen's works in many respects, such as their closed rather than open forms and the nature of their melodic content. The article is largely a discussion of Smith Brindle's musical style up through its publication, and makes no mention of whether or not Stockhausen had any personal interactions with Smith Brindle. So although it's unclear if they ever met, if I had to venture a guess, I would say that they _probably_ did ... if nothing else but because they were both involved in the serial avant-garde and both worked heavily in electronic music. Those worlds, in those days, were pretty small, so the chances of their paths crossing at least once was fairly high purely from a statistical perspective.

[@beatrixcalleja4152]

@@ClassicalNerd Thank you very much Classical Nerd! Have a good weekend!

[@trevorpsy]

Missing is a video on Arne Nordheim. Has he been forgotten? I hope not.

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@trevorpsy]

@@ClassicalNerd Thanks. I loved his music for decades. Extremely modern, yet accessible. I'm interested in who influenced him, and whom he influenced. ETC

[@bassoonistfromhell]

have you seen Samuel Andreyev's channel?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Yes! One of my favorites. I love how deeply he goes into _Gesang der Jünglinge._

[@bassoonistfromhell]

Indeed, his channel and yours are two of my favorites on KZbin

[@ClassicalNerd]

That's quite exalted company-thank you!

[@Elisa-sn4gt]

The video is nice, but I need to learn specifically about Helikopter-Streichquartett, I have an exam about this performance in some weeks. Could anyone indicate what minute of the video he talks about this performance? I would be so grateful!

[@markk6151]

i got what he was saying with the 9/11 thing , ppl trying to hard to be mad

[@joshuaallgood7030]

Maybe I'm just as mad as Stockhausen, but he's un-ironically my favorite classical composer. Great video, although I happen to like Klavierstucke IX quite a lot. There's something cool about having absurdly long time signatures based on Fibonacci numbers.

[@rainyday6430]

Im curious, so when you think, "ah, what should i listen to today?" You put stockhausen on and jam to it? Do you honestly enjoy listening to it? For me, stockhausen's work is much closer to 'thought experiments' rather than 'music'

[@pikachuchujelly7628]

The only real artistic value is in the sheet music. The sound that it produces is rubbish.

[@NickBatinaComposer]

Lolol, have you read the Urantia Book? To be clear, it’s way too long to justify deep diving that thing, but apparently it was a profound read for our boi 😂😂 I found a pdf of it online, but it’s a huge 2000+ page doc lmao, if ya want it

[@ClassicalNerd]

I wouldn't mind having it if Stocky pops up in a future doc and I wanna make a fun lower third for the True Nerds™

[@shmi1964]

Yo Nick

[@classicalmusic3334]

Some time back I came across this blog: stockhausenspace.blogspot.com/ There you can find among other things analyses and listening guides to lots of Stockhausen's pieces. Very fascinating!

[@mirandac8712]

I really don't get why you have to say that Stockhausen said that 9/11 was "a work of art" -- why are Americans so obtuse? What he actually said has been reported over and over -- he said it was the worst thing that's ever been done by mankind, and that no work of art can redeem it.

[@ClassicalNerd]

It's certainly poorly worded on his part, and while-in reading the full quote-I _think_ I understand the point he was trying to make, that doesn't mean that a) he didn't say it or b) that it didn't have a profound effect on the rest of his career (not to mention his postmortem reputation). The fact that he qualified his statement later in the same quote [ www.jstor.org/stable/25614408?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents ] didn't help matters in a hyper-sensitive immediately-post-9/11 environment. It made a big enough impact on his life (and his reputation even today) that I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention it.

[@artistwintersong7343]

This is great. The content as history is really, really nice. I want to be in awe and am, but there is one thing that needs improvement. Hear ye, hear ye. This should be neither justified nor dismissed. Become a camera whisperer. I am serious. Your camera is on auto focus which is just dumb (sorry). You have the sharp-edged text of the books such that the lens is going back and forth. All this is important. It's fantastic other than that. Switch the lens to manual focus: put something as a focus object--maybe just a small anything for a focus. Use the back screen's zoom focus in back: the (+) button and "focus the derned lens" Only then should proceed to make the film pLEeEaAssSe :) Oh, maybe pull back a teensy bit. It's so close, yeah, just a teensy bit back. Become a camera whisperer.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I no longer have this problem, as all videos I've filmed since last summer (beginning with the Aaron Copland video) are with a significantly larger set.

[@artistwintersong7343]

@@ClassicalNerd :))))))))) I REALLY enjoyed this story biography Karl S.. I actually want to read more on his birth story, about being born to a different star. I plan to look through your other videos. There is one on John Cage I assume.

[@ClassicalNerd]

Yes, but be warned-a lot of the older videos are of poorer production quality. I've learned quite a bit since starting the channel; I feel like I really "hit my stride" in my Schnittke video (in terms of the right depth of research) and then the aforementioned Copland video (in terms of not being so close to the camera). I want to eventually redo some of the older videos-on Cage, Bach, Scriabin, and Beethoven specifically-but that's not the top priority given that I currently have 307 (!) unique requests at lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html.

[@georgealderson4424]

Perhaps people who do not understand should not express an opinion (though it does not prohibit people who think they understand from expressing one!) I know nothing about serialism in music but cannot help wondering if there is an element of The Emperor's New Clothes in this kind of "music" and rather than "taking us on a journey to Sirius" KS has tsken many of us for a ride and he ought not to have been taken "Siriusly!"

[@saraondo2698]

Great video. "Threnody for Frank Zappa by Tony villodas composer

[@AstroelElfyBardik]

What about Ukranian composers like Mykola Lysenko?)

[@ClassicalNerd]

Lysenko is now in the request pool.

[@djmotise]

Good lord. He was NOT a "great composer." Bach was a great composer.

[@ClassicalNerd]

... that's the name of the _series_ of composer biographies I do on this channel.

[@alex9920ro]

"Great composer" and "Karlheinz Stockhausen" put together is an oxymoron. Never use these in the same sentence. That guy is horrible!

[@ClassicalNerd]

"Great Composers" happens to be the name of the series; I try to keep personal opinions largely out of my musicology videos.

[@alex9920ro]

@@benaraujomusic wow...you are weird. What more exactly enjoy at that “music”?

[@benaraujomusic]

I actually think that Stockhausen is a wonderful composer. He happens to be one of my favorite composers of all time.

[@alex9920ro]

@@benaraujomusic are you an alien?

[@benaraujomusic]

@@alex9920ro No, but Stockhausen himself believed that he was born and educated not on Earth, but on the star Sirius. That's basically how eccentric of a person he was. He literally wrote a piece on this subject, called "Sirius."