The Flying Fiddles of Fate (Helicopter String Quartet)

[gomro]

SO I see from this article:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2615760,00.html

that Stockhausen's infamous Helicopter String Quartet has seen a third performance, at the cost of a mere 173 thousand dollars. Here are some photos from the concert:

http://www.mediafaxfoto.ro/photos.php?search%5Btitle%5D=GERMANY-MUSIC-HELICOPTER-QUARTET&search%5Bmode%5D=list&search_section=lifestyle

I note that the helicopters are not the same model used in the 1995 premiere; give it a couple of centuries and the thing will be performed, if it's performed at all, not only with "period instruments," but with helicopters specially built for the concert from the original design plans. 

Of course, the cybernetically enhanced audience will be jacked into the concert stream from their homes in interstellar satellites and alternate universes. The whole shebang will be considered endearingly quaint and pleasantly melodic.

Doubt it? Consider that it took less than a century to elevate Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun from "...brayed on muted horns and whinnied on flutes...avoided all traces of soothing melody..." (Daily Advertiser, 2/25/1904) to "...from the languid flute solo at the start to the final fadeout, it deals in sleek lines and gentle sensual colors" (Orlando Sentinel, 1996). One day the Helicopter String Quartet may meet that ignominious end, too... "gentle mood music woven through a delicate filigree of rotor sounds." Yah. You bet.

[Kullervo]

Nah, don't think so.

[Brian]

There is a word which I feel describes effectively the sound-world of this particular composition, and sums up effectively the compositional innovations contained within.

The word is 'stupid'.

[bhodges]

I have the Arditti Quartet's recording of this piece, and I've listened to it twice, I believe.  To my ears the problem is: the constant helicopter whirring.  While it is a bit of a grin at the beginning, the constant clipping sound quickly becomes more annoying than fascinating, and the parts for the strings are often buried in the mix.  I find the concept on paper very interesting, but the results seem a bit anticlimactic, given the extravagant means needed to produce them.  Maybe some adjustments in the balance between the instruments and the helicopters might produce a different effect.

--Bruce

[Maciek]

But isn't the whole idea unmusical to start with? I mean isn't this supposed to be a sort of anti-quartet - the exact opposite of what a quartet (and chamber music in general) is supposed to be? The players are placed separately and can't even see each other. There's absolutely no chamber music intimacy, as the helicopters are loud and practically drown out the music. Etc. Etc. All of this is not an accident, it was Stockhausen's provocative intention. Very Cage-like, I'd say...

[bwv 1080]

The first 5 minutes or so is available on Stockhausen's website (http://www.stockhausen.org/heli_mp3.html).  Always though Stockhausen in the last few decades has become like John Cage absent a sense of humor - not too attractive a mix.  I like a fair amount of his work from the 50's (like Gesang der Junglinge and Gruppen)

[Lilas Pastia]

I find the whole thing insufferable. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for this...

[uffeviking]

I too have the Ardetti recording and have listened to it more than once, at least four times, and during each successive listening I have discovered more and more passages helping me to get closer to the solution to the composers intention. Don't ask me what they are, I am not there yet, - but I am working on it! 

[Maciek]

I should probably add that I've never actually heard the piece - just read a bit about it (about the general concept) - there's quite a lot to be found on the internet (main source would be the www.stockhausen.org page that bwv just mentioned).

[uffeviking]

I believe, anybody who has never heard a certain piece of composition, whether it's Bach or Stockhausen, can not possibly form and express a valid opinion on it.

The best advise I received for listening to the Helicopter work, came from our fellow member Mark Simon: "Concentrate on the strings! 

[Mark G. Simon]

Did I say that?

<chuckle> Of course that raises the question: why have the helicopters at all?

[uffeviking]

It was a few years ago, Mark! 

I understood it to mean the strings are the main part of the 'orchestra', the whirlybirds are the percussion section. Makes sense to you? 

[bwv 1080]

But Cage always did everything with grace and humor.  Stockhausen on the other hand suffers from near megalomania.

[Maciek]

I believe, anybody who has never heard a certain piece of composition, whether it's Bach or Stockhausen, can not possibly form and express a valid opinion on it.

The best advise I received for listening to the Helicopter work, came from our fellow member Mark Simon: "Concentrate on the strings! 

(in my most endearing self-defensive tone): But Lis, I wasn't commenting on the music, I was commenting on the ideas behind it.

[uffeviking]

and in My most endearing and self-defensive tone: But Maciek, I was not addressing my post to you personally! It is meant for everybody, including myself. I too have put down compositions and composers without having heard the music! 

[Maciek]

Anything you say, Lis! As long as there's a kiss behind it.

[gomro]

But isn't the whole idea unmusical to start with? I mean isn't this supposed to be a sort of anti-quartet - the exact opposite of what a quartet (and chamber music in general) is supposed to be? The players are placed separately and can't even see each other. There's absolutely no chamber music intimacy, as the helicopters are loud and practically drown out the music. Etc. Etc. All of this is not an accident, it was Stockhausen's provocative intention. Very Cage-like, I'd say...

Actually I don't think it's supposed to be Cageian, or anti-anything. It has a very meticulously written-out score with the LICHT melodies throughout, the players are synchronised through a click-track piped to them through headphones, the copters are supposed to fly high enough that their sound does not overwhelm the broadcast to the audience, and the mixer operator is supposed to control the level of copter-to-string volume to avoid drowning out the string music with the helicopters. Ideally there would be a harmonious (so to speak) blending of the copters and string music.

It is the transcription of a dream Stockhausen had, like Trans, Himmels-Tur and a few other pieces.  The one thing I have learned from these strange works that I can apply to my own art is simply this: if a piece comes from a dream, use the dream as it was, don't try to make it "make sense in the real world" through some sort of invented rationale. Some will accept it as it is, some won't; it's art, not a popularity contest, so acceptance doesn't really matter. Evidently KS feels that way, because he has certainly made the Helicopter String Quartet difficult, dangerous and expensive enough that only the most dedicated performers would dare mount a performance. Most composers write string quartets because they know they will get a performance...

[uffeviking]

I like this interpretation: A Dream realisation! Composing music to 'illustrate' a dream, the one dreamt by the composer and only he knows what it was all about. Listening to it, we can make up our own dream, or story. I remember playing the Quartet to a couple. She was dumbfounded, knew not what to make of it, but then her husband 'wrote' a story, told it to her while the music played, and yes, all of a sudden she could 'see' what it could be about.

A dream; a story; our own personal imagination. I like it! 

[Maciek]

Actually I don't think it's supposed to be Cageian, or anti-anything. It has a very meticulously written-out score with the LICHT melodies throughout, the players are synchronised through a click-track piped to them through headphones, the copters are supposed to fly high enough that their sound does not overwhelm the broadcast to the audience, and the mixer operator is supposed to control the level of copter-to-string volume to avoid drowning out the string music with the helicopters. Ideally there would be a harmonious (so to speak) blending of the copters and string music.

All this is very interesting but still does not explain why the musicians have to be on board... What are the musical considerations? Musically speaking, this is one of the most self-indulgent pieces ever written - there are other, much simpler ways of reaching an identical musical effect. Stockhausen may be an interesting and very provocative "artist" but he's definitely not very efficient as a composer.

(Why, here's an idea: I could write a piece for piano requiring the musician to make his own instrument for every performance - it would certainly be monstrously difficult, and would require great dedication; but would the music profit from it? At all?)

[gomro]

All this is very interesting but still does not explain why the musicians have to be on board... What are the musical considerations? Musically speaking, this is one of the most self-indulgent pieces ever written - there are other, much simpler ways of reaching an identical musical effect. Stockhausen may be an interesting and very provocative "artist" but he's definitely not very efficient as a composer.

(Why, here's an idea: I could write a piece for piano requiring the musician to make his own instrument for every performance - it would certainly be monstrously difficult, and would require great dedication; but would the music profit from it? At all?)

According to Irvine Arditti, Stockhausen insists on the helicopters and all the electronic paraphernalia necessary as a result of the helicopters because that was what he dreamed. Arditti wanted to play the thing with helicopter tapes, making it essentially as portable as any other string quartet, and the composer forbade it.  Here is Stockhausen's tale of the dream he had, and how he came to make it happen:
http://www.stockhausen.org/helicopter_intro.html
Therefore, the answer to "Does the music profit from it" is "no." It is an extra-musical consideration; an effort to make a bizarre dream into a reality. And that dream has been a reality three times now.