Helicopter quartet by karlheinz stockhausen biography
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Helikopter-Streichquartett
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The Helikopter-Streichquartett (Helicopter String Quartet) is one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's best-known pieces, and one of the most complex to perform.
It involves a string quartet, four helicopters with pilots, as well as audio and video equipment and technicians.
Helicopter quartet by karlheinz stockhausen biography
It was first performed and recorded in 1995. Although performable as a self-sufficient piece, it also forms the third scene of the opera Mittwoch aus Licht ("Wednesday from Licht").
History
The Helicopter Quartet was originally commissioned by Professor Hans Landesmann of the Salzburger Festspiele in early 1991 (Stockhausen 1996, 214).
Stockhausen's initial reaction was that he was not interested in writing a string quartet, but then one night he dreamed he was flying above four helicopters, each carrying a member of a string quartet; he could see into and through the transparent helicopters