While it’s hard for most people to say they like the music of Stockhausen, his influence on modern music is undeniable.
The wacked out German musician / composer is one of the architects of modern electronic music.
Rather than see music as an exploration of melody and composition, he had a radically different conception, seeing it more as the relation between the different sounds, freeing him to essentially use any audible sound (as well as silence) to create music. Working primarily with synthesizers long before the Beatles used the Mellotron, he explored the full gamut of sound as music.
If you’re unfamiliar with his work, think John Cage meets Brian Eno. In fact, the influence Stockhausen had on Eno is undeniable.But his ideas went far beyond that: Miles Davis went to him before expanding into free jazz, the Beatles saw him as important enough to include on the cover of Sgt. Pepper and even Bjork talks about his impact on her work.
His talent and vision also fueled a fairly large ego, which pushed him to compose a 29-hour opera that spans everything from his own genius to the cosmic collective of music. And this is way before that “Age of Aquarius” hippy bullshit, too.
A womanizer, he fathered six children with two wives but had many many more women in his life, having shacked up with two of his protegees towards the end of his life.He also got in hot water for calling 9/11 the “greatest work of art, ever.”
Love him or hate him, the guy definitely left his mark on music.
I was first introduced to his work by a percussionist friend, one of those nutty avant-garde guys who plays with Mr. Bungle and John Cage, who invariably knows the most obscure yet respected free-thinking musicians.
What I heard was reminiscent of those old modems that used to squawk and whine, only slowed down. Like you were on the receiving end of a fax call from a machine in it’s dying throes while tripping out on peyote (the fax machine, not me). Can’t say I was particularly fond of it, but in hindsight, and after many years of maturing, I certainly see what he meant, and given his context it’s pretty ground-breaking stuff.
0 responses so far ↓
Subscribe to our RSS Feed and leave a comment to enter the commentator of the week competition and win a $20 Amazon.com gift voucher.
Leave a Comment