Maconie Explains Stockhausen on War

Composer and musicologist New Zealand-born Robin Maconie writes about celebrated German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s controversial statement after September 9/11, in which he called the terrorist attacks “the greatest work of art” ever. Maconie writes: “Stockhausen’s opinion deserves respect as the view of one who knows what war is about, has suffered and forgiven, and does not shrink from confronting the moral ambiguities of international conflict nor from recognizing that actions undertaken for a morally defensible cause can still inflict enormous cruelty on the innocent.” Maconie joins American composer Morton Subotnick and Bjˆrk, in ultimately discussing Stockhausen’s fame as an avant-garde composer of startlingly original and uncompromising music. The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross calls Maconie “Stockhausen’s chief chronicler” and this article a “passionate defence”. Robin Maconie is the author of Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.