Author Description

Karlheinz Stockhausen, the most controversial composer to have emerged from postwar Germany, has had a powerful influence on contemporary music. This intriguing series of interviews between Stockhausen and Mya Tannenbaum, a reporter for the noted Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, reveals the human personality behind the music, touching upon his working methods, his family, his attitudes toward the various arts, and his outspoken views on religion, mysticism, astrology, humanity, and the universe. We hear polemics against many members of the music profession, from the great conductors and performers to the anonymous electricians and technicians, and yet, despite Stockhausen's intolerant and opinionated criticism of others, one cannot put the book down without having acquired a greater interest in, and sympathy for, his music.