Karel Goeyvaerts

Karel Goeyvaerts (Antwerp 8 June 1923Ô[][]February 3, 1993, Antwerp) was a Belgian composer. After studies at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, Goeyvaerts studied composition in Paris with Darius Milhaud and analysis with Olivier Messiaen. He also studied ondes martenot with Maurice Martenot, who invented the instrument (Delaere 2001). In 1951, Goeyvaerts attended the famous Darmstadt New Music Summer School where he met Karlheinz Stockhausen who was five years younger. Both were devout Catholics and found ways of integrating religious numerology into their serial compositions. They found themselves deep in conversation, and performed a movement from Goeyvaerts''s "Nummer 1", Sonata for Two Pianos, in the composition course by Theodor Adorno there. They were both astonished upon hearing for the first time Messiaen''s "Mode de valeurs et d''intensit├®s" (from Quatre ├[]tudes de rhythme), in a recording by the composer which Antoine Gol├®a played at a lecture. These experiences together convinced Stockhausen he should study with Messiaen.