Why do so many of Stockhausens former collaborators no longer work with him?
He’s a tough person to work for. People suffer burnout. He deals with concepts they have never thought about in a musical context. It’s a shame, but it happens. He can be like a movie director who has a definite idea of what he wants, but not how to achieve it. He puts pressure on the performer or the studio technician to understand and achieve that goal, and it’s up to them to do it. And sometimes they get exhausted and they quit. What’s wrong with that? Of course it can lead to an impression of Saturn devouring his children, which is a pity. The fact that the operas in the LICHT cycle seem to be dealing with fewer and fewer characters and smaller and smaller instrumental forces as time goes on should not be taken as meaning that the music itself could not be revised at some future time for larger forces. Stockhausen’s troubles with orchestras and musician’s unions are well known and have even been written into the actions of Donnerstag for example. When the world is a better place an
