There are no boundaries to the sounds he searches for – from ancient eastern instruments and medieval ghost-like melodies, to impressionistic colour (think Debussy) and swarming insects (think flying helicopters). He explores sound in a very imaginative way and takes us into realms that you wouldn’t expect from traditional instruments. What’s so special about his music?ĭescribed as atmospheric, mysterious and evocative, Crumb’s music seems more influenced by mystical poetry rather than science. By all accounts, he is a shy, modest and warmly eloquent person.
George Crumb is an avant-garde composer from West Virginia, now in his 90s. Ahead of our Voice of the Whale tour featuring the experimental composer’s titular masterpiece, we asked music director Rakhi Singh to let us in on his highly imaginative musical world… Who is George Crumb?
#Black angels crumb recordings series#
Peters and the ongoing series of “Complete Crumb” recordings, supervised by the composer, is being issued on Bridge Records.Mysterious, poetic, haunting – once heard, the music of George Crumb is impossible to forget. George Crumb’s music is published by C.F. Awarded honorary doctorates by numerous universities and the recipient of dozens of awards and prizes, Crumb makes his home in Pennsylvania, in the same house where he and his wife of more than 50 years raised their three children. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service. Many of Crumb’s works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores. The references range from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-Western musics. George Crumb’s music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles. George Crumb’s most recent works include Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik for solo piano (2001), Otherworldly Resonances for two pianos (2002) and a four-part song cycle, American Songbook (The River of Life, A Journey Beyond Time, Unto the Hills, The Winds of Destiny) (2001-2004). Other major works from this period include : Black Angels (1970), for electric string quartet Vox Balaenae (1971), for electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano Makrokosmos, Volumes 1 and 2 (1972, 73) for amplified piano Music for a Summer Evening (1974) for two amplified pianos and percussion and Crumb’s largest score - Star-Child (1977), for soprano, solo trombone, antiphonal children’s voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers and large orchestra. Many of these were vocal works based on the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, including Ancient Voices of Children (1970) Madrigals, Books 1-4 (1965,69) Night of the Four Moons (1969) and Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968). In the 1960s and 1970s, George Crumb produced a series of highly influential pieces that were immediately taken up by soloists and ensembles throughout the world. George Crumb’s early compositions include Three Early Songs (1947), for voice and piano Sonata (1955) for solo violoncello and Variazioni (1959) for orchestra - the composer’s doctoral thesis. He received the DMA in 1959 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after studying with Ross Lee Finney. He continued his studies under Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Berlin from 1954to ’55.
Thereafter he studied for the Master’s degree at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana under Eugene Weigel. He studied at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and received the Bachelor’s degree in 1950. George Henry Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia on October 24, 1929. Crumb, the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, continues to compose new scores that enrich the musical lives of those who come in contact with his profoundly humanistic art. From Los Angeles to Moscow, and from Scandinavia to South America, festivals devoted to the music of George Crumb have sprung up like wildflowers. George Crumb’s reputation as a composer of hauntingly beautiful scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers in today’s musical world.
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