As mid-twentieth century musicians sought total creative freedom, rather than control, the rejection of conventional composition favored “deep listening”–an appreciation for the raw profoundness of sound.
Leaving the interpretation of his music up to chance, Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck XI consists of nineteen separate musical fragments that can be played in any order by the decision of the performer. In effect, this piece is new each time it is performed, demonstrated below in the difference of the way these two performances begin, below:
Considering Rowell’s “Clothos and Atropos”, and its discussion of various, ever-shifting roles in musical performance, I think the raw experience of candid sound is most deeply impressed upon the performer rather than the audience. I fear the common listener will not hear a difference between this and any other abstract, atonal piece without extensive personal practice or study of Klavierstuck XI. Rather, this piece is most valuable to the performer, who is assertive and creative in choosing the sequence of musical fragments, effectively composing their own unique creation in the moment.
Stockhausen’s model is comparable to jazz improvisation, since both create a unique, spur-of-the-moment musical experience under the performer’s authority. The difference, however, is that jazz music features a rhythm section that upholds the base of the song throughout any break. Jazz relies on a repeating sequence of chords and a returning melody or refrain, which the audience can follow; thus, when the musicians break away from the written music, the audience knows and can appreciate this spontaneity.
