{"id":8503,"date":"2019-05-25T20:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T19:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=8503"},"modified":"2019-06-04T11:43:28","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T10:43:28","slug":"stockhausen-rains-bullshit-from-the-sky-even-in-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2019\/05\/25\/stockhausen-rains-bullshit-from-the-sky-even-in-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Stockhausen rains bullshit from the sky even in death"},"content":{"rendered":"

For background, see this recent article<\/a> from the New York Times<\/p>\n

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No Helicopter sign illustration.<\/p><\/div>\n

At the risk of being labelled a grumpy old square, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter Quartet has to be the biggest pile of steaming bullshit ever to emanate from the tradition of Western art music. It is nothing more than an expensive and juvenile joke in terribly bad taste. But, any time some bunch of turkeys manage to con a bunch of suckers out of enough money to put on this atonal publicity stunt, you can count on the major papers of the world to fall for it. It happened in Birmingham a few years ago. In this case the organisers write: “To fund one of the most iconic parts of aus LICHT, the HELIKOPTER STREICHQUARTETT, we need \u20ac 30.000….Thanks to 149 donations, worth \u20ac 30.600, we were able to rehearse the entire composition including the four helicopters on May 7th”<\/span><\/p>\n

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That’s 30k to REHEARSE a stunt where the only thing one needs to be sure of is that the four helicopters don’t kill anyone.<\/p>\n

I seem to spend a huge chunk of my life trying to raise money to put on first performances of new pieces where the notes matter and can be heard, and where listening offers some reward, and it’s bloody difficult. Getting audiences to take a leap of faith to come hear a new work lasting 30 minutes or more is also tough. Stockhausen was a significant figure in his early career and wrote some really cool music (and was much loved by many of his students and colleagues), but his delusionary and megalomaniacal self- indulgence helped convince millions of potential listeners that all modern music was an expensive and hugely irritating con job. It turns out that description applies best to the Helicopter Quartet, but the joke is on every sincere composer and performer trying to bring worthwhile musical ideas to life. Stockhausen gets free publicity for an un-performable piece (and there’s nothing cool in writing music that can’t be played) while the rest of the world get’s reduced funding and empty halls. It’s time to call bullshit on the lie that there is something to this piece and that only the cool kids get it. There’s nothing to get. It isn’t cool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I’d rather hear the helicopters without the music.<\/p>\n

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