Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. He is best known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music and controlled chance in serial composition.

Between 1977 and 2003 he composed a cycle of seven operas called Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche ("Light: The Seven Days of the Week"). The Licht cycle deals with the traits historically associated with each weekday (Monday = birth and fertility, Tuesday = conflict, Wednesday = reconciliation and cooperation, Thursday = learning, etc.), and with the relationships between and among three archetypal characters; Lucifer, Michael, and Eve. Stockhausen's conception of opera is based significantly on ceremony and ritual, with influence from the Japanese Noh theatre (Stockhausen, Conen, and Hennlich 1989, 282), as well as Judeo-Christian and Vedic traditions (Bruno 1999, 134). Similarly, his approach to voice and text somethimes departs from traditional usage: characters are as likely to be portrayed by instrumentalists or dancers as by singers, and a few parts of Licht (e.g., Luzifers Traum from Samstag, and Michaelion from Mittwoch) use texts written or improvised in simulated languages.[1]