The german music avant-gardist and electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen (August 22, 1928 – December 5, 2007) died last Wednesday in his house in Kürten, Germany.

Born 1928, Stockhausen influenced many composers and musicians of different origin and effected different styles. Stockhausen was not only a great composer, he also was a researcher, a "tech-maniac" in a positiv sense, open and devoted to his work.

Long time before sampling he edited analoge tapes with a cut & glue technique. "I worked about six weeks on single sounds, which last just 6 or 7 seconds in "GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE". I created sounds which consist of hundreds of cuts, that short, some of them just 2cm in tape length. Thousends of them" (Karlheinz Stockhausen). In the late 50ies of the last century Stockhausen extended his composition techniques using ring-modulators and reverb, but also mechanical devices.
For the composition KONTAKTE [1958-1960] he developed a "Rotationstisch" (a rotating table) which was built in the WDR studios. On a round rotating table different moveable speakers had been mounted on bars. The sound was enhanced with a kind of horn in front of the speakers. In the height of the speakers four microphones had been placed in the same distance around the table. The created sounds had been recorded on a four-track reel to reel machine.
The rotating table could be moved by hand inside out or clockwise.
Four speakers had been placed circular round the audience, so that the sound played from the four-track machine started to rotate around the listeners.
In the work-process Stockhausen realised that the Rotationstisch created also other psycho-acoustic effects like amplitude- and frequency-modulation which opened up new possibilities for the composer Stockhausen.

This are only two examples showing the creative mind of the composer and researcher Karlheinz Stockhausen. If you go deeper you will be astonished by his tremendous output and influence.

Thanks Mr. Stockhausen!

Link to Wikipedia english / german.

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