It seems as if the identity of the mysterious man who gave Stockhausen the Urantia Book in New York is revealed. On Facebook, Gregg Wager writes:
When Stockhausen conducted the NY Phil in 1971, a homeless man followed him backstage and gave him a copy of the Urantia Book. In 1999, Stockhausen wrote me a letter that I never received but reprinted it in his TEXTE zur Musik, Vol. 16, along with a copy of a napkin (top right) that the homeless man had given him with an address. A few Google searches later, I found this address in a "Movieland Directory" for famous bandleader Billy Eckstine. I emailed Eckstine's son Guy who is a fellow CalArtsian, and he confirmed for me that his half-brother, Mathew Kenneth Eckstine (1943-2018) was a homeless man in NYC, an Army veteran, a UFO conspiracy theorist, and a dedicated student of the Urantia Book. Guy also told me that his half-brother (whom he called "Kenny") had lots of stories about mingling with celebrities, including Malcolm X and Miles Davis. Without knowing any of this, Stockhausen read and apparently memorized lengthy passages from the Urantia Book and used several proper names from it in his opera cycle LICHT and his final work KLANG. Stories about a Lucifer Rebellion and other symbols in LICHT also appear to have originated from the Urantia Book." Photos of the mentioned people can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gregg.wager
I travel to Stockhausen concerts since 1989. But since the Maestro's death and especially Corona I get the impression that the Stockhausen concerts are getting less and less. Is that a wrong impression or do you think the same?
Dear all, some days ago Florian Schneider-Esleben died. He was a member of the famous German band Kraftwerk. In articels about Kraftwerk you can often read that they were influnced by Stockhausen. But is this more than a myth? Did Stockhuase ever met one of the Kraftwerk members? Does somebody know something about this?
Note: I opened this thread for all topics/questions which don't fit in any other thread.
So here's a question I have: I remember that Stockhausen once spoke about the fact that some works start with a fading in and end with a fading out (e.g. MITTWOCHS-GRUSS). I also remember that he said he likes to makes it this way because he imagines the music being all the time in the universe and by fading in he brings it down to earth and by fading out he gives it back to the universe. Perhaps he also said this in an other way. Anyway, does anyone know where he said this? I find this remark so interesting... Thanks for all hints!
Though it was announced that Leopoldo Siano's book on KLANG is available now it seems to be impossible to order it via amazon or book stores. They cannot find the title. A call at the editor (Verlag Der Apfel) in Vienna is also without any success because no one is answering. Does anyone have an idea where/how to get it - or am I the only one who has these problems??? It's rather strange...
Stockhausen had countless students in the field of music. But how much was he also a spiritual teacher for them? Did he "suit" as a spiritual teacher or was the "private mythology", he was so often blamed for, too private to have missionary effects? Let's take the participants of the Kürten courses: How many of them (did) adapt their religious belief to the one of Stockhausen? Many? No one? I have no idea but just therefore I think that's an interesting question...
I opened this thread because I have great problems with Mary Bauermeister's book. These are: - It's problematic and even unfair to publish a book of the style "My life with...." when the person talked about is dead and can't react any more. - For that I think she wouldn't have dared to publish this book as long as Stockhausen lived. - But on the other side a problem is also what the book *doesn't* contain: not a single word about the friction between her kids Julika and Simon and their father or the 9/11 remarks, which made especially Simon react in a very fierce way. She pretends a "heile Welt" between her kids and their father, at least towards people who don't know more. - Bauermeister claims that she invented (!!!) the Michael sign with the three blue circles which is absolutely ridiculous for anyone who knows the Urantia Book. - Some parts of the book are nothing more than "Kitsch". What do other members of this forum think about the book?
Two weeks ago, Christel Stockhausen was in a German tv quiz show which is called "Ich trage einen grossen Namen" (I have a famous name) and spoke with a lot of love and respect about her Dad. What a difference to the tv statements of Simon and Julika Stockhausen who spoke, on other occasions, very critical about her father. Or Majella Stockhausen Riegelbauer who claimed to give up the name Stockhausen after her Dad's reamrks about 9/11. It seems to me that only the two elder daughters Christel and Suja have remained in a friedly relationship to her father. And I wonder whether this comes from the fact that they weren't involved or - as Julika - weren't planned to be involved in Stockhausen's music projects (as far as I know).
Adorján suggested to open this thread. Et voilà... Perhaps the new volumes of TEXTE will give some answers to the question about the relationship between Stockhausen and other composers. One thing one can certainly say: Some composers (Riehm, Ligeti) took a big distance after Stockhausen's remarks about 9/11. So perhaps we should discuss here not only how Stockhausen saw other composers but also how they saw him.
The discussion about Stockhausen's libretti brought me to the idea to create a thread about Stockhausen and the media. One of the worst journalists was without any doubt Klaus Umbach of "Der Spiegel". Some of his LICHT reviews are online: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13510003.html (SAMSTAG) http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13527558.html (MONTAG) http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9093286.html (FREITAG) I can remember these reviews quite well - and also that I wondered from where this mockery at the border of hate. Ok, it is "Der Spiegel" but even for this often aggressive Hamburg based magazine that was rather evil. So perhaps we find answers why especially the German press was so hostile against him.
Note: This is a thread for people with fantasy and humour, kind of playground... :-)
In the tv film about KLANG Suzanne Stephens says that she is sure that Stockhausen keeps on composing, "it would be too much a pity if he wouldn't", she says. I often wonder what Stockhausen is doing now. Some time ago I dreamt that he is a member of a commission of architects to give Jerusem a new achitectural structure. The commisson created a very dense, complex grate structure which was not only consisting of the famous Morontia material the Urantia Book describes but also of sound (!) - and it was one of the most wonderful sounds I ever listened to... it's a pity that we can't make records of dreams...
But perhaps other forum members have other ideas/dreams what he is doing now...
In other threads it was already talked about the "Urantia" hours 14 to 21 of KLANG. I must say that I have my difficulties with these hours, though I like COSMIC PULSES very much. And the strange thing is that I cannot explain why I'm not "getting warm with" them (as we Germans say). So I'm curious what other Forum members think of these compositions...
I went to the first performance of MOMENTE in Monaco yesterday. More performances are in Cologne tomorrow and Paris next week. My impression: It did not have quite the level of the 98's MOMENTE I saw in Zürich. The WDR choir was too much "well behaving", I missed the joy and crazyness, especially in the first part. But I also must say that the whole ensemble became much stronger and convincing in the later parts. The concert audience was rather small so I hope it will be bigger in Cologne and Paris. The Paris concert seems to be sold out.
Stockhausen's remarks about 9/11 are mentioned over and over again - also in this forum. At http://youtu.be/mGk_8cr1TPA you find an audio version of his statement. Having heard it two things are clear for me: the immediate reaction was quite positive and the statement itself is so complex that a misunderstanding laid near.
I still wonder how the missing hours 22-24 of KLANG would have been titled. As Kathinka Pasveer says in the tv film about KLANG there were no sketches about it to find and she guesses that Stockhausen "knew" about his death to come and that he wouldn't finish KLANG. In the same film, Suzanne Stephens says: "We wonder what could have come after PARADIES"? I have, however, my own theory about the hours 22 to 24. As Paradise is - following the Urantia Book (UB) - the location of God perhaps the titles would have been The Universal Father - The Eternal Son - The Infinite Spirit, the so called "Paradise Trinity" (see the UB papers 1 to 10).
What do you think the titles would be if Stockhausen could have finished KLANG?
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I feel that it could be useful to have a discussion-forum on the music of Stockhausen.
There are so many people from all over the world, young and old, learned and eager to get into contact with this musical world:
musicologists, composers, musicians, music lovers; people who plan concerts, who write books or have to give lectures and so on.
So there should be much stuff, many ideas that we can share. And when we have open questions, there may be people who studied just that and could give a hint or a stimulus. Thomas Ulrich