Customer Rating: 
Summary: So glad to have started so much debate.
Comment: Just to clarify- I'm not a ms., I'm a mr. Second, I was about 15 when I wrote that review (you must forgive a little childhood ignorance). Finally, what's the use in getting so personal in matters like this? It's weird stuff and not for the average listener, no one can deny that. I'm not the average listener, having studied music (and, particularly European avant-garde music) for the past 10 years or so. It interests me that previous reviewers seem to think so highly of Stockhausen and so badly of Cage. Stockhausen believes that he is a superior being from a planet near Alpha Centauri who believes that he was sent to Earth to better mankind. He also has a harem of wives in Germany. Cage had no such bizarre inflations of his own importance. Eccentricities aside, Stockhausen is a fascinating composer, works such as Gruppen, Carré, Gesange der Junglinge, and Kontakte being fine examples of a more accessible (though slightly) and intellectually interesting style. Perhaps my naive comparisons to late Coltrane were not appropriate or accurate but they certainly don't warrant personal attacks. Let's keep the discussion to the music, eh folks?
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Imperfect Realization
Comment: I must admit, the idea of "intuitive music" really intrigues me. I've read parts of the score to this piece and am interested in it's general attitude toward controlling improvisation, but am not sure how controlled the results truly are, (nor how truly interested Stockhausen is in that control). As such it would be most instructive to have multiple versions of this work available for comparison, because this one leaves me a little cold. Arguments below have centered on the nature of the improvisation in this work. I would have to agree that on the whole, I'd rather hear a seasoned group of avant-gard jazz musicians play this piece, rather than the ensemble recorded hear. They don't seems to have the ears needed to play this piece well. There are alot of interesting sounds on the album, but it adds up to less than the sumof it's parts. On the other hand, this in no way resembles late Coltrane or other out jazz players, and it is wrong to confuse them. Stockhausen was certainly influenced by those players, and by the acid rock movement. And those movements were influenced by Stockhausen. But the fundemental interests are different. Avant-garde jazz is at it's core interested in recovering an almost shamanist spirituality...and as such has much more in common with traditional musics of Africa. This work is much more static, more Eastern in a way. And yet definately part of the composer's Darmstadt outlook.
So, in conclusion, it's an interesting release, and I'd certainly like to hear more of the piece. But I don't return to it very much. Seems to lack focus.
Customer Rating:
Summary: response...
Comment: Stockhausen can write as many lectures as he likes, but that isn't going to alter the music. And, believe it or not, it's the music that matters not the words.Quite simply, when it comes to improvisation a group of classical musicians used to reading scores are just not going to compare to cutting-edge jazz musicians who have lived improvisation practically every day of their lives. That isn't going to change, regardless of spiritualist trappings, or how many days you stick them in a room without food and water! To say otherwise is tantamount to racism. It's certainly cultural prejudice.
Besides, Stockhausen is at his best when exercising total control as in Kontakte or Hymnen.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Intuitive music vs. improvisation
Comment: Concerning the distinction between Stockhausen's "intuitive music" and what in Western music is called "improvisation" the reader can check out Stockhausen's lecture "Questions and answers on intuitive music"on [the stockhausen web site] (see the section "Interviews - Lectures - Articles"). Nevertheless this is a great recording, no matter what you call the music!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well hey
Comment: Another couple of arses giving Stockhausen a bad name.Put simply: Musique intuitive = improvisation. So now please explain to me the GULF of difference between Aus den Sieben Tagen and something like John Coltrane's 'Ascension'. Labelling Coltrane a 'pop musician' is not an answer!
