The interview took place in October 1984 in Budapest where Stockhausen was a guest of the new-music festival. Twenty-six years on, I can vividly remember the intensity of the composer’s presence as well as my delight that my questions met with such a ready response. I sensed a thrill at hearing Stockhausen relate his encounter with Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensités (1949), for it brought me, I thought, in direct contact with music history.

There also came an unexpected meeting some twenty years later in a hotel restaurant near Donaueschingen where I was a guest of Wolfgang Rihm. Stockhausen, dressed in white, went past our table and stopped to greet his former pupil. I also stood up to shake his hand and mentioned my name. He did not seem to be able to place me and appeared to be convinced that I was someone else. It is a measure of the intensity of his personality and the quiet strength of his conviction that I found myself almost embarrassed not to be the one he took me for. It was but a brief duel— he left and I returned to my chair, rather dizzy.

A couple of years later, the festival Musica in Strasbourg featured an extract from Stockhausen’s monumental music theater work Licht (1977–2002), the complete performance of which takes a whole week. I heard and saw a rather odd ceremony based on a concept I could not quite grasp. It was perplexing more than anything else and a sense of boredom enveloped the hall. Nevertheless, Stockhausen was heartily applauded when it ended and he, once again dressed in what looked like a costume specially designed for him, looked pleased.

I wanted to make sure my translation of the German interview was faithful to the original, so I sent the script to Suzanne Stephens, the American clarinetist who worked with the composer for several decades and is now chair of the Board of Directors of the Stockhausen Foundation for Music. I am grateful to Ms. Stephens for revising the manuscript. (The titles of Stockhausen’s compositions are rendered in block capitals, in accordance with the style adhered to in his books published by DuMont.)