R.I.P., Karlheinz Stockhausen

Visionary composer Karlheinz Stockhausen has died at the age of 79. Stockhausen was one of my musical heroes; I discovered him as an undergrad in Millikan Library's 4th-floor collection of LPs, and I approached his music working backward to discover the origins of electronic music. In works like Mikrophonie and Gesang der Jünglinge, Stockhausen seemed to be operating completely outside of the norms of music, whether classical or popular, but at the same time, his music had an extraordinary power, like it was coming from an alien society. Read more about him here.