Helicopter String Quartet

One morning, the late Karlheinz Stockhausen awoke from a dream that told him to take to the sky. Stockhausen envisioned four helicopters swirling in the clouds, with each of a quartet’s members tucked inside his own chopper, communicating through headsets, stringing away in sync to the rotor-blade motors. He immediately set forth to make that dream a reality. In 1995, Dutch film director Scheffer followed Stockhausen in the days leading up to the premiere performance of his Helicopter String Quartet in Amsterdam. The resulting film offers a rare glimpse of Stockhausen as he patiently dictates every agonizingly detailed measure to the Arditti Quartet.

Genre:

Documentary, Music

Duration:

81 min

Actor:

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Irvine Arditti, Graeme Jennings

Quality:

HD

Director:

Frank Scheffer

Release:

1996

Country:

Netherlands

IMDb:

6.0