Helicopter String Quartet

Helicopter String Quartet — Plot

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.

• Release date
• October 17, 1996
• Runtime
• 81 min
• Genres
• Documentary, Music
• Director
• Frank Scheffer

Helicopter String Quartet — Cast

Karlheinz Stockhausen Himself

I

Irvine Arditti Self

G

Graeme Jennings Self

G

Garth Knox Self

R

Rohan de Saram Self