LICHT-Formel

Even a grave can be designed as a work of art in public space, a fact demonstrated by this site devised by composer Karlheinz Stockhausen for himself. It consists of a simple gravel bed and a white marble headstone inscribed with his name, profession and dates of birth and death. A stainless-steel disc is embedded in the circular recess on top. It is engraved with the composer’s signature and an excerpt from the score of “Licht-Formel” taken from Wednesday, which is part of the “Light” opera cycle Stockhausen composed between 1977 and 2003. From 1965 until his death in 2007, Karlheinz Stockhausen lived in Kürten, where he was made an honorary citizen in 1988. Stockhausen had already chosen this plot in the 1990s and designed his grave in detailed sketches in 1997, down to the ornamental plants. Since 1998, annual Stockhausen concerts and classes have taken place in Kürten for nine days each year. Many of the more than one thousand performers, music students, professors, composers, musicologists, music teachers, concert organisers and music lovers from all over the world who have already attended have taken the occasion to visit Karlheinz Stockhausen’s grave at the Waldfriedhof.