Karlheinz Stockhausen Melody Maker March 1972 ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ

 

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Melody Maker March 1972

ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ

 

 

 

(φωτο: από το δημοσίευμα του Melody Maker ) 

   COMPOSER, mystic, visionary, a prophet for the Age of Aquarius. There he sits in the portrait gallery on the front sleeve of the "Sgt. Pepper" album, right next to Lennie Bruce and close to Aleister Crowley, both prophets and visionaries in their own way.

   One thing about the Beatles: they generally had an instinct for the right people. In choosing for their pictorial dedication Karlheinz Stockhausen they were paying homage to a radical, innovative spirit who has not only inspired experimentally-inclined musicians in rock and other forms, but who symbolises the belief in the supra-rational, the intuitive and the spiritual- that appeals so strongly to many of this generation.

   I doubt that this mysticism would be acceptable now to the politically-committed John Lennon, but I’d wager that George Harrison would find common ground. The lact is that Stockhausen still has tremendous relevance for the young - and young musicians especially - that no other so-called straight composer possesses.

   Discussing him within a rock context, it’s apparent that in the past probably the majority of pop musicians have drawn their inspiration from his electronic music ideas although how many have fully understood his achievements is highly doubtful, But as rock becomes more conscious, his ideas beeome more applicable.

   The German group “Can”, for example, includes, two former pupils of Stockhausen in Irmin Schmidt  and Holger Czukay who have used the background of their experience with him as a platform for their own musical innovations.

 

 

 

 

         Cosmic forces

   At the same time, although he is 43 years old, he exerts a highly-charged charisma on those around him, particularly the young, drawing them to him as a leader does his  followers.

   There’s a Messianic air to him, almost; one’s even tempted to say he’s the Dylan of the avant garde world. He’s preoccupied with the religious and the mystical. He regards himself as a transformer and transmitter of spiritual vibrations. It’s not actually his music that he’s making; rather he’s acting as a radio receiver for cosmic forces.  

   This is not exactly a new idea in music. Beethoven had a similar conception of himself, but Stockhausen is truly a universal composer, not content to work solely within the Western tradition of music but exposing himself to the religions and the musics of people of the far east, south America, and Africa, particularly the Japanese, who have influenced his whole concept of musical time – although he himself would most likely say that by experiencing life in Japan he has discovered the Japanese within himself.

 

   There’s no question that he’s a revolutionary artist of the highest magnitude and has shaken the foundations of Western music, moving on from the composer Anton Von Webern’s position [Anton Webern, Austrian composer (1883-1945)] in challenging the view that music should be based on themes, to a creed, expressed in 1956, that it should “no neo- …., no repetition, no variation, and no development.”

 

   

 

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    Possibly his greatest achievement is that he has introduced the concept of spatial motion in music, of music moving in space., like the sound of a bird as it flies through the air or a car driven along a road. And while rock music is now just getting round to the idea of quadraphonic sound, Stockhausen has been recording music for four speakers for years.

 

 

 

 

 

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   He is, therefore, a sort of musical and spiritual guide of the age, a man whith whom the young have a special affinity.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    This is the paradox about Stockhausen. Although his music is extraordinary difficult from a conceptual viewpoint, he attracts a large and wide following that most avant gardists only dream about.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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   He was born near Cologne in August 1928.

    

  

[ απόσπασμα από το άρθρο του Michael Watts για τον συνθέτη ηλεκτρονικής-πειραματικής μουσικής Karlheinz Stockhausen ]

 

 

Melody Maker, March 4, 1972, p. 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Karlheinz Stockhausen

Melody Maker March 1972

ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ ]