A Functional Use of Electronic and Serial Music?

Abstract

It is well known that Karlheinz Stockhausen and Karel Goeyvaerts were imbued with the Catholic faith. For both composers, the development of serial music primarily arose from musical considerations, but beyond that, the invention of new compositional techniques also constituted an act of faith. Although their relationship to religion was at first essentially a private affair, limited to idealistic conceptions of music as representation of the Divine, both composers began to develop an interest in the functional use of serial and electronic music in the Catholic liturgy around 1955. The present article reconstructs this turn on the basis of recently published mutual correspondence and other archival materials. Included are also analyses of planned (Stockhausen) and realized (Goeyvaerts) mass compositions.