Stockausen is Dead

Stephen Jablonsky

Quite a number of years ago I made a visit to the opening of the new Tower Records store at Lincoln Center and was delightfully surprised at how large the classical music CD section was. I figured this was the place to add special recordings of contemporary works to my already sizable collection. I walked around to the places devoted to some of my favorites. Much to my dismay I discovered that the space devoted to Stockhausen had only three CDs in it and it caused me to think that times had certainly changed.

Back in the fifties and sixties Karlheinz was one of the giants of the avant garde. Every time he gave a concert in NYC it was a major event attended by all 200 lovers of contemporary music, mostly university types like myself (200 out of a total population of 7 million!). Well, here it was twenty years later and this giant had been relegated to a footnote of history by the paucity of commercial square footage. I was always in awe of his prodigious output and the fertility of his unique mind. How could it be possible that there were only 3 CDs representing his total output? It caused me to think about what success in the classical composition field really means.

If you are a mediocre talent with a great sense of self-promotion like Philip Glass you make a name and a career for yourself. If you are a genius like Stockhausen, Berio, Carter, or Crumb you live, and eventually die, in almost total obscurity. Somehow that seems unfair, but, then, life is not necessarily fair. Which reminds me of Briggs Fair and how little the music of Delius is played. I will stop here because the list could get very long of composers far more talented than I who got little or no recognition during or after their lifetimes. It has been a fact of nature for a very long time and will, undoubtedly, continue until the End of Time...oh, yes, and Messiaen.....