Incredibly, experimental composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet was the subject–perhaps due to his death in December 2007– of a recent YouTube “featured video”.

From Wikipedia:

“Stockhausen had dreams of flying throughout his life, and these dreams are reflected in the Helikopter-Streichquartett (the third scene of Mittwoch aus Licht), completed in 1993. In it, the four members of a string quartet perform in four helicopters flying independent flight-paths over the countryside near the concert hall. The sounds they play are mixed together with the sounds of the helicopters and played through speakers to the audience in the hall. Videos of the performers are also transmitted back to the concert hall. The performers are synchronized with the aid of a click-track.”

So, does this challenging piece of music qualify as art? Maybe, maybe not. Seriously, it’s a bit hard to listen to, but as an idea for a concert event, I think it was genius. It reminds me, in that sense, of the Harbour Symphony, a piece of music written for (and performed entirely on) ship’s horns in St. John’s Harbour, Newfoundland.
For me, the real art in this Stockhausen/YouTube “event” lies in the hilarious, yet disturbingly narrow-minded, even inappropriately angry comments by YouTube members and would-be art critics. Most of whom, I’m guessing, take their cues for artistic merit from record sales and American Idol.
So, if that’s where the art is, in the funny/sad parade of banal comments, then who is the artist? Maybe the guy who decided it should be a YouTube featured video… brilliant!!
(thanks Joshua for the heads-up on this video)