German avant-garde composer and electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen managed to find time to write articles on music theory and lecture on music in Europe and the U.S. when he wasn’t performing and composing. He gave a series of seven lectures in England in 1972 and 1973, which were filmed by Allied Artists. The audio for these lectures (in English) can be found here.
Stockhausen influenced a variety of rock and jazz musicians in the 1960s and 1970s, including Miles Davis, George Russell, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, Pete Townshend, and The Beatles. Paul McCartney claims to be the first Beatle to discover Stockhausen and the one who introduced John Lennon to his music in 1966. As a bachelor in London when the others were married and living out in suburbia, Paul had more time and freedom than the other three to go to art galleries and performances such as Stockhausen’s. McCartney’s favorite Stockhausen piece is “Gesang Der Jünglinge” and Lennon credited Stockhausen’s “Hymnen” with inspiring The White Album’s “Revolution 9.” Stockhausen’s music also influenced the writing of “Tomorrow Never Knows” You can see a young Stockhausen on the cover of Sgt. Pepper in the very back row, fifth from the left, next to W.C. Fields. John Lennon and Yoko Ono sent him a Christmas card in 1969, which was found in his archives after his death in 2007.
McCartney told Wired.com in 2011:
What’s often said of me is that I’m the guy who wrote ‘Yesterday‘ or I’m the guy who was the bass player for the Beatles That stuff floats to the top of the water, you know? But I’m also a guy who was really interested in tape loops, electronics and avant-garde music. That just doesn’t get out there on a wide level, but it’s true. I’ve really been fascinated by this stuff.
The first video of Stockhausen’s series of lectures, London, 1972, below:
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The WIlliam S. Burroughs/Beatles connection