After the opera heptalogy “LIGHT. The 7 days of the week” (1977-2003) Karlheinz Stockhausen began the cycle of the 24 hours of the day: KLANG (“Sound”). Nevertheless, before his death on 5th December 2007, he wasn’t able to finish it. Sketches for KLANG and other documents, which are published comprehensively here for the first time, show how the premonition of death has been crucial for the chosen compositional strategies. In this book, the cycle KLANG becomes the starting point for a philosophical examination of Stockhausen’s entire oeuvre and musical poetics. The “Case of Stockhausen” is considered phenomenologically as an “event” of Western cultural history
The book (in German language) has been written as a PhD thesis at a University of Cologne. It is a winner of the prestigious Offermann-Hergarten Award.
Published in Vienna, Der Apfel 2013.