The First Electroacoustic Pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen: Technologies and Aesthetics

Abstract

AbstractThis article aims to bring to light the links between technology and aesthetics in the first electroacoustic pieces written between 1953 and 1966 by Karlheinz Stockhausen. After reviewing the technological differences of the two aesthetics of musique concrète (France) and elektronische Musik (Germany), it is possible to see how Stockhausen transcended this distinction by gradually creating more diversified material, leading to a ‘world material’, independent from the tools used. This comes along with a more global approach to the sound. The composer, by an appropriate use of the equipment, does not seek an individual control of each element or each parameter, but has a larger-scale view, in which time units are longer and are considered as a whole. This conception, while remaining as precise as an analytical approach, involves a rethinking of the time development, proposed by Stockhausen as the Momentform, a new musical form in which each part is independent and does not constitute the continuation of the preceding one. This reflection on non-linearity in a work, and on relative perception of time, is a key to understanding Stockhausen's music.