Avant-Garde & Karlheinz Stockhausen
What exactly does the term, “Avant-Garde” mean? This has been coming up a few times in my 20th-century music course and It seems to be a little convoluted. But just from a simple google search, I found a site that provided a definition that I like. Study.com says, “Avant-garde is French for ‘advance guard’ or ‘vanguard.’ Avant-garde music is on the cutting edge and challenges expectations. The term is typically used to describe the musical styles that evolved after 1945, sometimes referred to as post-World War II music. There are numerous branches of the avant-garde movement.”
In our class, we have been discussing the avant-garde composer Pauline Oliveros. Her electronic music is derived from life and “natural sound” that she synthesizes into an electronic medium. On the hunt for some different composers that use this same technique, I came across a man named Karlheinz Stockhausen. He is also considered an avant-garde composer who lived around the same time as Pauline. An interesting article was written about Stockhausen both in a negative and positive light by Albert Goldberg of The LA Times (to your left). A man named Mr. Stehmen criticized composers like Stockhausen for being too preoccupied with “newness.” He also questions whether they are actually composing “new” material when it can be so closely related to the old. My question is that isn’t all new music derived from something old? Something doesn’t ever come from nothing, whether it is inspiration from another composer or life, it’s just brought together differently than before.
Stockhausen liked to synthesize his sound, his instrumental music, which was most certainly a new sound during his time. I found it interesting that it is never mentioned in this article what Stockhausen’s inspiration for his sounds is. Wouldn’t a true critic compile all facts and data on the composer and his techniques before making judgments? To me, it sounds as if Goldberg is a bit biased, did no research, and listened to Stockhausen’s music once. Not a very open or objective article! Go ahead and read the whole article and I’ll continue with Stockhausen’s music below.
Stockhausen wrote a majority of his work in the aleatoric form, which is to say the performances and recording were never rehearsed or pre-planned, it was total classical improv. He is most famous for his piece called Klavierstück XI in which he plays piano music in an aleatoric form. I would have embedded a certain part for you to listen to but it all is much of the same. It sounds like he is pounding random notes on the keys to me. The beginning is a good example of how the aleatoric doesn’t really have many rules. It begins abruptly and sounds like a couple of cats stomping around on a piano. But then at around:15 seconds, he suddenly stops playing and lets the overtones ring out. This goes on for about 15 seconds and because we hear the ringing or overtones of the sudden stop, it’s almost like there is a drone note happening in that silence. Very interesting and almost pretty. Why the sudden stop? When the piano picks up again, he eases us into it, completely opposite of the opening. Could that be an attempt at form? It’s almost like he is teasing us with the idea of structure but never truly delivers it.
One more interesting piece that I want to share by Stockhausen is his Gesang der Jünglinge “Singing of the Youth” (or young people or young men). This piece is more in line with what Pauline Oliveros composed. He created a piece out of electronic sounds and real people, perhaps everyday people sounds. The title reflects what happens in this piece in the video I am sharing. You hear the voice of a young male with an electronic accompaniment of sorts. I liked how different this was and that I had a better understanding of it because the title makes sense with the song…I never understood Oliveros’ pieces quite like this. Stockhausen gives me a sense of cohesion and I feel I can better appreciate what he is trying to say in his music because of that.
Just for fun, I have added an interesting interview that Stockhausen gave to discuss his musical process. He apparently hardly gave interviews, so this is a rare find.
Here is where the actual interview begins but the first two minutes are also worth listening to should you have the time. TTFN!
