The performers were: first violinist Irvine Arditti and pilot Marco Oliver; second violinist Graeme Jennings and pilot Lieutenant Denis Jans; violist Garth Knox and pilot Lieutenant Robert de Lange; cellist Rohan de Saram and pilot Captain Erik Boekelman (Stockhausen 1996, 216).
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The piece focuses on Stockhausen's dreamed idea of a string quartet playing tremolos which blend so well with the timbres and the rhythms of the rotor blades that the helicopters sound like musical instruments (Stockhausen 1996, 214).
Notable world premieres included the definitive version of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem and Karlheinz Stockhausen's Helikopter-Streichquartett.
In 1971, the newly formed Helikopter Technik München (HTM) took over the manufacture and marketing of the Skytrac, announcing in mid-1972 that a production line was being established at Jesenwang with the intention of producing 35 machines by the end of 1973, all of which had found buyers.