Funk Upon a Time...

"The whole movement [in America] toward a so-called pop art, in the visual arts as well as in music, I see as a disaster, really shameful for mankind, once orientated toward the highest, whose only goal in art was to glorify the divine and the cosmic spirit, and for whom everything in the human world was related to these invisible worlds. That this is now replaced, generally speaking, by garbage art, which celebrates material impermanence and decay, is a disgrace. It needs a tremendous mysticism to adore God through garbage; it is possible, but when you reach a point where images of a lipstick or hot dog have the same significance as the crucifix or Madonna in earlier cultures, it shows where a country is heading." – Karlheinz Stockhausen

There are loads of people who'd say of Stockhausen's music after 1975 that he was adoring God through garbage. He just simply lost people and did precious few favors for himself. Every time he opened his mouth, there were more and more bizarre statements coming out. The showstopper was the claim that he was from Sirius, the binary star system that, at 9 light years distance, is one of our nearest interstellar neighbors.

Stockhausen was fond of saying that he could travel with his mind to distant places. He'd say that he could close his eyes and transport himself to the French Riviera by focusing his mind on the scene. If you pressed him on whether or not this was imagination or actual transportation, he would insist the trip was real not virtual. Certainly, a psychiatrist would have a field day with the issue of whether or not Stockhausen was projecting himself into a fantasy world when he claimed to be from Sirius.

But his fascination with the cosmos was genuinely profound. He clipped any newspaper article he came across that had to do with space, especially the discovery of new stars. One of the things he was fond of doing was pronouncing prerequisites for musical education ('Every composer must spend time in an electronic music studio'), and after that book of photos from the Hubble came out, he became dead certain that every musician should look at it, because it 'is the best dictionary for musicians to compose by'.

Pedagogical theories aside, what matters to us most in this brief survey of his music is how this extraterrestrial fascination actually manifested itself in his work.

There are clunkers, to be sure, in Stockhausen's catalogue, and a disproportionate number of them come in the late 70's, after the composition of Tierkreis (1975), the twelve melodies for each star sign.




These melodies would turn up everywhere in subsequent pieces. In Aries (1977, for trumpet and electronic music), the tape part is a mix of noise and various electronic versions of the Zodiac tunes. The trumpet meanders between fragments of the various songs until it arrives with the tape in a unified final statement of the title tune. This naked appearance of ordinary, tonal melodies in Stockhausen's music would have been noteworthy had anyone been paying attention.

But by then, Stockhausen had almost completely transformed himself into some sort of Germanic Sun Ra, churning out risible quasi-theatrical music like the epic Sirius (1976). In fact, it was in discussing this piece where Stockhausen would so often repeat his infamous claim:

"I think that the culture of this planet has been mainly formed by visitors from Sirius, especially in the time between 9000 and 6000 B.C...I think that our main sources of present-day culture, as decadent as it may be in most parts of the planet, stem from visitors from Sirius whose main representatives were Isis and Osiris. Through a series of revelations which were at first quite nebulous, but have become more clear during the past few years, I know (as little as I know about details) that I have come from Sirius, myself."

Was this a giant put-on? Stockhausen almost always spoke earnestly. There's no reason to not take him at his word.

However, there is no reason to let such words scuttle his musical achievements. Neither Schoenberg's inane terror of the number 13, nor Prince's absurd name change make a dent in their standing as musical geniuses of the first rank. If this is what Stockhausen truly believed, is it really a big deal? The more important question, it seems, is whether or not the music is still good.

And it was. Though the late 70's was by no means a peak for Stockhausen, it was far from the end. Amazingly, there were still 30 more years of unrelentingly creativity ahead of him. In turning to LICHT, it's helpful to look at Stockhausen's program notes for Sirius, as they illuminate part of the aesthetic principles underlying the massive opera cycle:

SIRIUS, the alpha star of Canis Major--8.7 light-years distant--is the sun of our local universe. Two hundred million suns with their planets and moons circle around it and live from its light.

For the inhabitants of Sirius, music is the highest form of vibration. For this reason, music has attained its highest development on Sirius. Every musical composition is linked to the rhythms of the stars, the time of year and day, the elements, and the existential differences of the living beings.

The music, which I have composed and named SIRIUS transfers some of these principles of musical form and creation onto our planet.

This aesthetic statement of purpose is a veritable thesis for LICHT, which we'll discuss in upcoming posts.

Though the soup of cosmic electro-jazz schlock that germinated from Tierkreis is one of the least interesting part of Stockhausen's output, the Zodiac melodies themselves are a phenomenal starting point for musicians who are interested in adding the composer to their rep list. The melodies can be played solo or with the simple accompaniments provided, and they can be played in any octave on any instrument. They are a fantastic way to begin your musical acquaintance with the wondrous musical mind of Stockhausen.