Stockhausen world trade

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI SEPT. WE all sometimes say things that come out in ways we did not intend. This is how defenders of the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen are trying to explain away the grotesque remarks he made during a press conference in Hamburg on Sept. Stockhausen, who emerged in the 's as one of a reigning trio of avant-garde composers that included Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono, was taking questions before a four-day festival of his works in Hamburg.

In disjointed comments that were taped by a German radio station and reported internationally, Mr. Stockhausen, 73, called the attack on the World Trade Center ''the greatest work of art that is possible in the whole cosmos.

I couldn't do that. In comparison with that, we're nothing as composers.

When he realized how the reporters were reacting, he backtracked and asked that his words not be quoted. It was too late. The Hamburg concerts were abruptly canceled. Stockhausen left town, refusing further comment. On his Web site www. German media and cultural figures continued to condemn him. Stockhausen's many admirers, the easiest recourse would be to dismiss his comments as the outpourings of an egomaniac who, sadly, has long been losing touch with reality.

During the 's, he blended elements of serialism, an uncanny ear for sonority, a visionary conception of the parameters of pitch and sound, and a mastery of electronic resources in works that reached beyond modern music circles into pop culture. You can find him among the eclectic gathering on the cover of the Beatles album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the 's, as he was increasingly enthralled with spirituality and visions of extraterrestrial life, his works grew larger, longer and stranger.

Instructions like ''Play a vibration in the rhythm of the universe'' were common. Soon whole stadiums were needed to accommodate his ''pieces,'' like the string quartet from with four helicopters. Outdoing Wagner's ''Ring,'' Mr. Stockhausen has been engaged since in year project to complete ''Licht'' ''Light'' , a series of seven operas, each based on a day of the week.

In one, the performers engage in quasi-military operations, racing through the audience, wearing transmitters to coordinate their actions.

Even if you concede that Mr. Stockhausen meant to say that Lucifer was the creator behind the terrorist ''work of art,'' his words are still an affront. Art may be hard to define, but whatever art is, it's a step removed from reality.

Documentation of Stockhausen's comments re: 9/11

A theatrical depiction of suffering may be art; real suffering is not. Because the art of photography often blurs this distinction, it can make us uncomfortable. Real people, sometimes suffering people, have been photography's unwitting subjects.

That's why we have photojournalism, to keep things clearer. The image of a naked, fleeing, napalm-burned Vietnamese girl is truth, not art. Images of the blazing twin towers, however horrifically compelling, are not art. Perhaps the most disturbing element of Mr. Stockhausen's muddled comments is the touch of envy that comes through in his awe over this crazed satanic attack. Stockhausen has long been fired by the idea that art should transform us ''out of life'' itself, as he said at the press conference; otherwise ''it's nothing.

View all New York Times newsletters. Obviously, any artwork, from a short Schubert song to a long Dostoyevsky novel, can have a transforming effect. Stockhausen has dangerously overblown ambitions for art. Even Wagner, another egomaniac who controlled every aspect of his opera productions, was mostly trying to provide audiences with an absorbing evening in the theater. He did not necessarily expect you to walk out a better person.

Writing the operas certainly didn't make him a better person. Messiaen, an early mentor to Mr. Stockhausen who also dealt with themes of eternity and faith, had nothing like Mr. Once, asked by a music student during a preconcert talk in Boston whether it was essential to have had a spiritual experience to appreciate his music, Messiaen answered, ''No, not at all. Stockhausen is a raving has-been, whose words are best ignored.

Still, it is important for artists to reclaim art from such reckless commentary, as Gyorgy Ligeti did recently in suggesting that Mr. Stockhausen be confined to a psychiatric clinic. His career may be unsalvageable. He had better not count on the final ''Licht'' opera's being produced on schedule in Stockhausen's daughter Mariella, a pianist who has had no contact with her father for more than two years, told a Berlin newspaper that she would no longer appear under the name Stockhausen.

Music; The Devil Made Him Do It - The New York Times

Yet assuming that the Cooper Arts series goes ahead with its Nov. Stockhausen's trance-inducing vocal work, I will be there, if only to remind myself that he has written some extraordinary music. After the section had gone to press, the concert was canceled. Tell us what you think. Please upgrade your browser. Sections Home Search Skip to content Skip to navigation View mobile version.

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Correction Appended WE all sometimes say things that come out in ways we did not intend. Continue reading the main story. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

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