Helicopter String Quartet (1996)

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.

Genres: Documentary, Music

Stars: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Irvine Arditti, Graeme Jennings, Garth Knox, Rohan de Saram

Release Date: 1996-10-17

Country: Netherlands

Ratings: 5.7 / 10 (3 votes)

Runtime: 81 mins