Kuerten, Germany - An Italian orchestra has commissioned new music from Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the world's most controversial composers, to mark his 80th birthday next year, the German's office said Wednesday. The Mozart Orchestra of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna is to premiere the new piece, Zodiac, on September 16, 2008, three weeks after the great composer turns 80.
Best known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music and his work with 12-tone music, he has been rejected by some and acclaimed by others as the leading theorist of serious western music of the 20th century.
The composer's own recording company, Stockhausen Verlag, based in the Cologne suburb of Kuerten, said that after the Bologna premiere, the Mozart Orchestra would tour Italy with the piece.
The orchestra's artistic director Claudio Abbado.
Like Stockhausen's previous Zodiac composition, the new work will explore the "star signs" of people described by astrology. Stockhausen was born August 22, 1928 near Cologne.
