Hans G Helms (8 June 1932 – 11 March 2012) was a German experimental writer, composer, and social and economic analyst and critic.[1]
Helms was born inTeterow into a Jewish family, who were able to escape theHolocaust by using falsified papers.[citation needed] He spent his childhood and youth in Teterow and Berlin. He received his first musical education whilst young, learning the piano and theory from an immigrant from Byelorussia. During theNazi era he became acquainted withSwing andjazz from secretly listening to "enemy transmitters".
In the years immediately afterWorld War II, Helms studiedtenor saxophone with a member of the US army and appeared from 1950 until 1952 in Sweden as a jazz musician. He played with, amongst others,Charlie Parker andGene Krupa, and also in 1953 in Vienna withHans Koller. As well as being preoccupied withnew music (Charles Ives,Henry Cowell,Alban Berg and theSecond Viennese School) Helms, working at the Viennese radio stationRot-Weiß-Rot [de] (RWR), created with, amongst others,Ingeborg Bachmann, the radio genreJazz & Lyrik.
InGöttingen, where he lived from 1953 onwards, Helms first made the acquaintance of the philosopher and sociologistHelmuth Plessner, then later withTheodor W. Adorno. His social and cultural critiques were significantly influenced by theFrankfurt School andcritical theory. He also studiedcomparative linguistics withRoman Jakobson and philosophy and social theory withMax Horkheimer andSiegfried Kracauer; however, Helms describes theMarxist economistJürgen Kuczynski as his most important teacher.
In 1955, the self-taught Helms began to compose. From 1957 onwards he made his base in Cologne, where he worked together with the composerGottfried Michael Koenig at the buildings of theStudio for Electronic Music atWestdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). He directed phonetic experiments together with the physicist and communications researcherWerner Meyer-Eppler, who also advisedHerbert Eimert andKarlheinz Stockhausen at the same time. This work consisted of speech and sound analyses as well as linguistic and cybernetic studies.
Helms made contacts with Stockhausen,Pierre Boulez andJohn Cage through theDonaueschingen Festival and theDarmstädter Ferienkurse (where Helms visited and sometimes lectured from 1957–1970); he was especially drawn to Cage's music using radio broadcasts and writings. In Helms' abode a circle was formed, which included, as well as Koenig, alsoMauricio Kagel and the musicicologistHeinz-Klaus Metzger; a central preoccupation wasJames Joyce'sFinnegans Wake. From this influence, Helms developed two 'language-music compositions' (Sprach-Musik-Kompositionen),Fa:m Ahniesgwow anddaidalos; later, in collaboration withHans Otte, cameGOLEM andKONSTRUKTIONEN. HisText forBruno Maderna (1959), a work consisting entirely of phonemes, was used by Maderna in his stageworkHyperion (1964). Helms would apply principles to language which derived from musical techniques ofserialism, organising phonemes and morphemes to create new linguistic constructions in such a manner. This work paralleled that of other contemporaries of the time, in particularDieter Schnebel.
During the 1960s, when Helms became a private pupil ofAdorno, he studied the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and its roots inMarxism. Thereby he discoveredMax Stirner, whose workDer Einzige und sein Eigentum (The Ego and Its Own) had provoked a violent critique fromMarx, which led in consequence to his basic concept ofhistorical materialism. Helms worked for many years upon this work of Stirner and its reception, producing his literarymagnum opus, the 600-pageDie Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft in 1966.
Helms saw himself, with his critique of Stirner, in the tradition from both Marx and some contemporary Marxists, who had already recognised 'the suppurative focus' and Stirner's 'current danger'.[2] In his work, Helms presented the view that Stirner created 'the first consistent formulation ... of the ideology of the middle class' and further thatHitler articulated a specifically middle-class ideology and that Stirner-ism andNational Socialism are both variations upon the same fascist demons. "Because this demon lives on inWest Germany, controlled by the middle classes, he has written this book to fight it."[3]
Afterwards he stopped composing in order to concentrate on producing music broadcasts and films (including works on Ives, Boulez and Stockhausen), believing radio and television as the more effective media for presenting social critique. He concluded his studies in sociology with a doctorate at theUniversity of Bremen in 1974; as well as travelling to European and North African countries, he held a Guest Professorship between 1976 and 1978 at theUniversity of Illinois. In 1978, he moved to the United States, and from 1982 lived in New York City.
Here Helms investigated the effects of the computer and telecommunications development on the field of employment, engaging in critiques of capitalism and globalization, as well as the social consequences of modern town planning. He predominantly made use of field research and interviews. He published his findings in political and scientific, music and literary magazines, trade union journals, and daily papers; and compiled radio and television productions for severalARD broadcasting corporations.
In 1988, Helms returned to Germany, first living in Cologne; in 2003 he moved to Berlin. He adds to his studies work on the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe, as well as, separately, looking critically at the conditions of work of contemporary composers who use electronics and computers.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
