Helicopter string quartet

The helicopter string quartet is one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's best-known pieces and one of the most difficult to perform: it requires a string quartet , four helicopters with pilots and sound engineers, four television transmission devices, four times three sound transmission devices, an auditorium with four television sets and loudspeakers, and a sound engineer with a mixer and a moderator.

The composition is based on the simple idea of ​​a string quartet, in which the rotor blades act as second instruments, the sound of which fits into the sound of the main instruments, but which are always louder than the rotor blades. It was first performed and recorded in 1996. Although the work can also be performed as a stand-alone piece, it is part of the third scene from the opera Wednesday from Light .

History of origin

The helicopter quartet was commissioned by Hans Landesmann and Gerard Mortier for the Salzburg Festival in spring 1991 . The first draft was made in 1992; however, the premiere scheduled for 1994 had to be canceled after negotiations with Austria's armed forces (for the helicopters) and various television companies (for the broadcast) failed. The world premiere took place on June 26, 1996 at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. The Arditti Quartet played in helicopters of the Dutch Air Force . The project was documented by the Dutch music film writer Frank Scheffer.

The Austrian premiere was on August 22, 2003 in Salzburg ; the German premiere took place on June 17, 2007 in Braunschweig , the Swiss premiere on July 3, 2011 in Boswil .

procedure

The play proceeds as follows: A moderator, e.g. B. a sound engineer, introduces the work and explains its technical aspects. The players are shown on the monitors walking or being driven to and boarding the helicopters. With their instruments, they always remain in the picture of the camera, which in the helicopter shows the player, instrument, floor and target in a fixed setting.

This is where the music begins. The original version lasted approximately 18½ minutes, but was expanded to 21½ minutes in the 1994 revision. The helicopters circle the concert hall within a radius of about 6 km; they constantly change altitude in order to create a modulating effect in terms of sound and appearance. All twelve incoming signals are mixed live by the sound engineer. The descent and landing take five minutes, with the sound of the rotor blades becoming quieter as the background for the string quartet to return to the lecture hall. The moderator starts the applause and then answers questions from the audience.

literature

• Konrad Boehmer : Off to the clouds with rattling… . In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , 1998, 159 (4) July – August, pp. 43–47.
• Minoru Shimizu: Potentials of multimedia performance and “scenic music” - a few remarks on the “helicopter string quartet” . In: Imke Misch, Christoph von Blumröder (Hrsg.): International Stockhausen Symposion 2000: LIGHT. Musicological Institute of the University of Cologne, October 19-22, 2000. Conference report . LIT-Verlag, Münster / Berlin / London 2004, pp. 61–73.

Web links

• Description of the piece with excerpt from the score (English)
• Original recording with the Arditti Quartet on Youtube
• Documentary for the world premiere at the Holland Festival 1995 (Arditti Quartet) on Youtube
• Karlheinz Stockhausen at the world premiere at the 1995 Holland Festival on Youtube
• Documentation for the performance at the Salzburg Festival 2003 (OENM) on Youtube
• Documentation for the performance at the Biennale Musica Venezia 2013 (Arditti Quartet) on Youtube
• Documentation for the performance at the Festival for New Music Forum Wallis 2015 (Arditti Quartet) on Youtube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stockhausen on the helicopter string quartet ( Memento from November 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Website of the theater channel on ZDF ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Helicopter string quartet listed - Netzzeitung ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
4. ↑ Braunschweig press kit
5. ^ Helicopter string quartet in Boswil. (No longer available online.) Tagesschau (SF) , July 3, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 3, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.