Klavierstück XVI, Nr. 63 (1/2)

Stockhausen has said the Klavierstücke "are my drawings" (Stockhausen 1971, 19). Originating as a set of four small pieces composed between February and June 1952 (Blumröder 1993, 109–10), Stockhausen later formulated a plan for a large cycle of 21 Klavierstücke, in sets of 4 + 6 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 2 pieces (Smalley 1969, 30; Toop 1983, 348). He composed the second set in 1954–55 (VI was subsequently revised several times and IX and X were finished only in 1961), and the single Klavierstück XI in 1956. Beginning in 1979, he resumed composing Klavierstücke and finished eight more, but appears to have abandoned the plan for a set of 21 pieces. The pieces from XV onward are for the synthesizer or similar electronic instruments, which Stockhausen had come to regard as the natural successor to the piano. The dimensions vary considerably, from a duration of less than half a minute for Klavierstück III to around half an hour for Klavierstücke VI, X, XIII, and XIX.