One of the world's most important and controversial composers, who pioneered electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, passed away Wednesday, the Stockhausen Foundation said.

The 79-year-old avant-garde composer died on December 5 at his home near Cologne, Germany after a short illness, British newspaper Guardian reported.

The news of his death was broke by clarinetist Suzanne Stephens and flautist Kathinka Pasveer, two old "companions" of Stockhausen.

"In friendship and gratitude for everything that he has given to us personally and to humanity through his love and his music, we bid farewell to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who lived to bring celestial music to humans, and human music to the celestial beings, so that man may listen to God and God may hear His children," they said in a statement.

"On December 5, he ascended with joy through heaven's door in order to continue to compose in paradise with cosmic pulses in eternal harmony," the statement continued adding that the foundation would continue to protect Stockhausen's music.

Best known for experimenting with electronic music in the 1960s and 70s, Stockhausen, who composed more than 300 individual works, was an inspiration and a strong influence on musicians like David Bowie, Bjork, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis and the Beatles, who honored him by using an image of him on the cover of one of their albums.

At La Scala, the famed Milan opera house, conductor Daniel Barenboim said Stockhausen "will have an influence on music history."

"The force of his music will be very much missed," Barenboim was quoted by Associated Press as saying.

In addition to his classical compositions, Stockhausen’s electronic works were a radical departure from musical tradition and incorporated influences as varied as psychology, the visual arts and the acoustics of a particular concert hall.

"Any sound can become music if it is related to other sounds ... every sound is precious and can become beautiful if I put it at the right place, at the right moment," Stockhausen once said in an interview.

One of Stockhausen’s largest works, "Licht," a cycle of seven operas which try to capture all of the facets of the world with sound and noises in relation to the human spirit, speech, smells and colors, took 25 years to compose and lasts over 29 hours.

"With Karlheinz Stockhausen we have lost an extraordinary artist and avant-garde musician of international status," said Monika Piel, artistic director of WDR.

"Many composing principles which Stockhausen developed were ground-breaking and molded a style for future generations."

Aside from his work which brought him fame ever since his 1956 breakthrough, Stockhausen, who was born on August 22, 1928, drew attention to himself with his comments about the September 11 attacks on the United States. He was quoted as saying the strikes were "the greatest work of art imaginable."

"Minds achieving something in an act that we couldn't even dream of in music, people rehearsing like mad for 10 years, preparing fanatically for a concert and then dying, just imagine what happened there," he was quoted as saying, but he later explained that all he meant was that only the devil could have orchestrated the attacks.

A composer and a respected professor, Stockhausen is survived by six children from two marriages and will be buried in the forest cemetery in Kuerten.