Hans G Helms: Vokale Konstruktionen

Hans G Helms (1932-2012) was a German composer, writer and journalist on music-critical, ideological, social and economic history topics. Between 1959 and 1968, he created three voice compositions that are among the most advanced of their genre: Fa:m' Ahniesgwow, Golem, and Konstruktionen expand the phonetic, semantic, and syntactic fields of language with varying degrees of intensity. They move in a "no man's land between the languages," forming polyphonic constructions from foreign languages and language alienation.

This volume documents and comments on Helms's vocal constructions in a comprehensive manner: Texts by Theodor W. Adorno, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Karl Heinz Roth and a conversation between Helms, Helmut Heißenbüttel and Klaus Schöning deal with Fa:m' Ahniesgwow and the context of Helms’ oeuvre. His works appear as part of the Cologne avant-garde scene with its fixed points Atelier Bauermeister, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Café Campi. 

The CDs accompanying this book reproduce Helms' voice compositions in partly historical recordings and make the scores and the rare book Fa:m' Ahniesgwow accessible in facsimiles.

Includes 2 CDs with audio documents of Helms' compositions (66 minutes) and download links to text documents, including facsimiles of Fa:hm Ahniesgwow and additional scores (280 pages).

Sound recordings

CD 1 :   Hans G Helms, Fa:m’Ahniesgwow (1959), original recording with Hans G Helms from 1959

CD 2 :   Hans G Helms, Golem (1962), original recording from 1964

              Hans G Helms, Konstruktionen (1968), world premiere, SWR Vokalensemble, 2011