Importance of Stockhausen?s works in terms of percussion technique and usage

ABSTRACTKarlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most influential composers in the second half of the 20th century, pioneered important innovations in most of his compositions which had not been achieved up to that day. In most of these revolutionary works, percussion instruments played a central role and these works contributed a great deal to percussion technique and usage. Stockhausen?s three compositions, Kreuzspiel, Zyklus and Mikrophonie I, are considered to be extremely significant for this reason.In Kreuzspiel, Stockhausen combined integral-serialism with a meticulously planned mathematical approach and utilized percussion instruments with this aim without using them for solely rhythmic purposes. In other words, percussion instruments undertook the same task, as the other instruments (oboe, bass-clarinet, piano) did, creating the integral-serial components of the piece.Zyklus, is regarded as the most important solo percussion work in music literature. This work, which contains indeterminacy (aleatory), graphic notation and improvisation, is realized by the percussionist standing in the middle of 13 different instruments and performing it through clockwise or anti-clockwise motion. As far as the realization of the piece is concerned, the way that the percussionist interprets the graphic notation and his/her choices determines the resulting performance directly.Mikrophonie I retains so many revolutionary traits: tamtam is used, as the only sound-source, by multiple-players performing together; the microphone, normally used for amplification, becomes an ?instrument,? and the sounds obtained via non-traditional means are manipulated simultaneously with electronic equipment. The genre known as live-electronics today owes its existence largely to this work composed about fifty years ago.