Gottfried Michael König

Gottfried Michael König (1926–2021) was a German-Dutch composer, born in Magdeburg, and one of the pioneers of electronic music in Europe. From 1954 to 1964 he worked at the WDR electronic music studio in Cologne, producing his own works Klangfiguren, Essay, and Terminus 1 while assisting Stockhausen on Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte, and Ligeti on Artikulation.

In 1964 he moved to Utrecht, directing what became the Institute of Sonology until 1986. There he developed the computer composition programs Project 1 and Project 2, formalising algorithmic approaches to musical structure. He taught generations of composers and published six volumes of theory, Ästhetische Praxis.