Enlightening, amusing, perplexing, sometimes haunting memories of Karlheinz Stockhausen, collected by Tom Service for the Guardian. I never met the composer, though I did experience his presence at the premiere of the Helicopter Quartet in 1995 and at a Berlin concert in 2002. The orange sweater, which Service mentions, to some degree dissipated his intimidating reputation. The last line of the piece is absolutely right: the twentieth century, the epoch of vastly ambitious, at times megalomaniac musical conceptions, which really began with the late works of Wagner, is indeed over. But its echoes reverberate all around us. What next?
Update: Steve Hicken asks an excellent question: "If Stockhausen's death signals the end of 20th century music, when did (or when will) the 21st century start?"
