It is the only composed example of a larger project of "scenes from daily life", itself part of an even more general Prinzip des Ganzen (holistic principle) formulated for a grand but unrealised project provisionally titled Oper (Opera), sketched in 1968–69 (Toop 1998, 100–102). At the same time, it is an attempt to preserve endangered sounds and customs of the harvest season in Stockhausen's country homeland, the Bergisches Land east of Cologne (Maconie 2005, 366). Stockhausen explained that, when composing this work,
| Date of composition | 1974 (March 1974) |
| Premiered | 1974, May 4th (Großer Glockensaal) in Bremen, Germany |
| Dedicated to | Péter Eötvös, Joachim Krist, and Suzanne Stephens. |
| Type | Incidental music |
| Catalogue | Nr. 4 |
| Approx. duration | 50 minutes |
| Instruments | 4x Other - Performers |
| Autotranslations beta |
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Herbstmusik, Nr. 4 Karlheinz Stockhausen: Herbstmusik, Nr. 4 Karlheinz Stockhausen: Herbstmusik, Nr. 4 |