Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

MATHEMATICS AND MAGIC: THEIST AND ATHEIST IDENTIFICATION WITH THE SPIRITUAL MUSIC OF KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

2019; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL FLUMINENSE; Volume: 73; Issue: 288 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0040298218000979

1980-542X

Ian Parsons,

Diversity and Impact of Dance

Abstract Stockhausen's idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs, and the vigour with which he expressed them in his compositional processes, have sometimes been an obstacle to both musicians and audiences in engaging with his music. I explore the extent to which the ability to appreciate Stockhausen's music is predicated on a sympathy with his spiritual world view. I pose a broad view of Stockhausen's spirituality, not reliant on theism, through drawing on three key sources: the composer's own commentary on spirituality and its connections with his serialist compositional techniques; Rudolf Otto's notions of an intrinsically human awareness of ‘the holy’; and the connections of mathematics with human truth drawn by Alain Badiou. I argue that a broader understanding of Stockhausen's spirituality enables a pathway into his music that can be shared by both theists and atheists, and that this can produce a rich fodder for each in their curiosity about human place in the world.