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Regular Non obscure music
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Re: Regular Non obscure music
Oct 02, 2013, 15:16
Charlie2300 wrote:
Where would I start with Stockhausen?


There are many Stockhausens. Sin Agog mentioned "Kontakte"... you can get a compilation of his early pieces that includes that (along with "Zyklus" and "Refrain") and that's really the best of his early stuff. But if you want my personal opinion, he moves from "interesting" to "amazing" somewhere around the mid/late 60s. Check out "Hymnen" and "Stimmung" for stuff that manages to be experimental and intellectually stimulating, while also being emotionally resonant. Beautiful and weird all at once.

"Tierkreis" from the mid-70s is probably the last of that Golden Period... you can't go wrong with anything between Stimmung and Tierkreis in my view.

There's still some amazing stuff after that of course - lots of it - but it's mixed in with some stuff that I didn't find all that interesting. Stuff like "Mikrophonie" and "Klavierstücke" which is plenty experimental enough, but random noises and piano notes just don't touch me, emotionally speaking.

So yeah, kick off with "Hymnen" and "Stimmung"; if you like them then check out other stuff from that period. After that, venture forwards or backwards expecting to be occasionally disappointed, occasionally amazed, but always surprised.

Note: I should point out that you need to be looking at the "Composition" date with Stockhausen, rather than the release date on record - some of his work didn't get an official release for many years after they were composed.
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