A composer friend I phoned as soon as I saw Richard's post said that he thought Stockhausen had invented a greater range of new things to do with sound than anyone else he could think of in the entire history of music, and not only that, but produced wonderful pieces with them.

The announcement from Kürten which Bryn has posted elsewhere is very beautiful and I'll second its sentiments. I'll listen to Inori before I go to sleep tonight.

I think Al's right: this is what I said to a friend on the phone earlier, that Stockhausen is a rare instance of a composer not only finishing a major, decades-long project but coming out the other side with still more to say, and continuing to produce good work. I can't think of many other composers nearing 80 whose future works I would have been so sorry to miss.

This is going to take time to digest.
Even though I believe that his best work dates from the pre-Licht period, I had been pleasantly surprised by an awful lot of his recent music.
No matter how you look at it, his death is an invitation to take stock.

I haven't really been that interested in what Stockhausen has been doing recently, the works which I'll remember are the Klavierstücke, Mikrophonie I & II, Stimmung, Gruppen, a work the name of which I can't remember but which is to be performed in a city park on midsummer's day (anyone help me?) - I attended a  realisation of it by BCMG in Cannon Hill Park a few years ago. But other things have left me cold including another work which I can't remember the name of and which I would definitely have left at half time, if there'd been an interval - as it was I had to endure the whole thing. I should find out what it's called in case I accidentally go to a performance again!  I heard Irvine Arditti talking about how they asked him to write a string quartet for them and he said he didn't write string quartets - unless the musicians are in 4 helicopters presumably!

Btw we seem to have 3 Stockhausen threads (at least) - wasn't quite sure where to post.

Sternklang doesn't have to be performed on a midsummer's day, although obviously it's better if it doesn't rain. I listened to the CDs all through earlier on today, actually, though I've had the LPs of the same recording since they came out in 1978. It's really an expansion on the basic idea of Stimmung.

My own Stockhausen nadir was Orchester-Finalisten of which I saw the first performance. But actually there are a number of more recent KS pieces which have appalled me on first hearing but which subsequently I've come to appreciate, like Montag aus LICHT which I saw at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and even wrote a highly disappointed review of for Tempo, but which subsequently (through the medium of the CD recording) I came to regard as something quite special. I don't think this is likely to happen with Orchester-Finalisten though (it was played twice in the concert, and the second version was made worse by my knowing what was going to happen). There are a few elements of LICHT I don't much care for, others which I wouldn't be without.

Well I seem to have erased most of my memories of the piece but there were (possibly) 4 groups of vocalists, dressed in different coloured shirts plus an instrumental ensemble. I can't remember much more I'm afraid, as I was just so bored.

What about Carré, Richard. Four vocal groups in that, IIRC.

But there are four orchestras as well (it's been a while - how big are the orchestras?)
I was thinking something along the lines of Engel-Prozessionen from Sonntag since I seemed to remember something about the significance of the coloured shirts, but it's for a cappella choir.
Momente sounds like the most plausible from a quick scan of his worklist.