German composer (born Aug. 22, 1928, Mödrath, near Cologne, Ger.—died Dec. 5, 2007, Kürten, Ger.) was an important creator and theoretician of electronic and serial music who strongly influenced avant-garde composers from the 1950s through the '80s. Whereas composers such as Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg had confined the serial principle to pitch, Stockhausen, beginning with his composition Kreuzspiel (1951), extended serialism to other musical elements. He also began using tape recorders and other machines in the 1950s to analyze and investigate sounds through the electronic manipulation of their fundamental elements, sine waves. His Studie I (1953) was the first musical piece composed from sine-wave sounds, while Studie II (1954) was the first work of electronic music to be notated and published.
In general, Stockhausen's works were composed of a series of small, individually characterized units, either “points” (individual notes), “groups” of notes, or “moments” (discrete musical sections), which did not necessarily form part of a larger dramatic line or scheme of musical development. In some works, such as Klavierstück XI (1956; Piano Piece XI), he provided a choice of several possible sequences in which to play a given collection of individual moments (since they were equally interesting regardless of their order of occurrence). Virtually all of his compositions from 1977 through 2003 formed part of the grandiose seven-part operatic cycle LICHT, which he intended to be his masterpiece. In 2005 the first parts of another ambitious series, KLANG—in segments that correspond to the 24 hours in a day—were premiered. Stockhausen studied at the State Academy for Music in Cologne and the University of Cologne (1947–51); in Paris (1952–53), with the composers Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud; and at the University of Bonn (1954–56), where he expanded his knowledge of phonetics, acoustics, and information theory. From 1953 he was associated with Cologne's celebrated electronic music studio Westdeutscher Rundfunk, where from 1963 to 1977 he served as artistic director. Stockhausen lectured widely and returned to the State Academy for Music as professor of composition (1971–77).
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