Conductor Claudio Abbado and the Bologna Philharmonic Academy's Mozart Orchestra will perform a composition for orchestra which German composer Karilheinz Stockhausen is preparing to mark his 80th birthday.
A spokesman at Stockhausen's publisher in Kuerten, near Cologne, said the piece will be entitled 'Tierkreis' (Zodiac) and will have its premiere performance in Bologna on September 16, 2008.
The composer was born in Cologne on August 22, 1928.
The city's Mozart Orchestra will perform the piece during a tour of several Italian cities.
In his composition, the spokesman explained, Stockhausen "takes into consideration the signs of the Zodiac and the human equivalent of each of these signs".
Stockhausen is considered one of the most important and controversial composers of the past century and was a pioneer in electronic music.
He has also been incorporated into popular culture and was mentioned in two books by science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick, in Thomas Pychon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Jerzy Kosinski's novel Pinball.
Stockhausen is also one of the figures on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album.
He sparked controversy in 2001 when he allegedly defined the terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York as a "work of art", but later said the press had "hideously misinterpreted" his meaning.
