He was one of the first major composers to grow up in the world of radio and sound recordings, and that meant his world included pop and American vernacular, along with classical.Īs he told an interviewer in the late 1980s, “I think composers are everything they’ve ever experienced, everything they’ve ever read, all the music they’ve ever heard. Both his parents were musicians, and Crumb’s clarinetist father taught him the instrument. ![]() George Crumb was born in West Virginia in 1929. The Kronos Quartet has made it a staple of their repertoire. The opening “Night of the Electric Insects” was used in the soundtrack to The Exorcist, bringing Crumb to a mesmerized mass audience. Not the least of these was an uncanny, gripping beauty that both unsettled the ear and drew it further into the experience. Written in response to the Vietnam War (it is dedicated “Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 (in tempore belli)”), it is full of outrage and abrading emotions, yet is always free-flowing and musical.Įarly responses to this and other works at times accused Crumb of merely reaching for effect, but there was a musical purpose (not only expressive but structural) behind every means. ![]() It is by far Crumb’s most famous work, and one of the most important and striking compositions of the 20th century. Black Angels (1971) is composed for an amplified string quartet, and the musicians not only use their bows in unconventional ways but also play percussion instruments and water glasses at various stations on the stage. Those works also included important timbral features- Vox Balaenae was inspired by hearing recordings of whale song-especially amplification. For the audience, works like Vox Balaenae and Black Angels called for specific stage design and lighting, and even masks, adding a ceremonial and ritualistic expression to the music itself. ![]() From the inside, that drama comes from the visual appeal of his scores, which might have staves hand-drawn into curves, spirals, and peace signs, giving the musicians an evocative flow of his notation through time. Written with meticulous care and exacting clarity, his works often have an extra-musical drama that enhances their depth and broadens their appeal. The sound of his most prominent masterpieces, Ancient Voices of Children, Makrokosmos, and Black Angels remains unique. The constant adaptation of new means to long-standing ideas was a main reason for Crumb’s music emerging as grounded in tradition yet refreshing beguiling, and wholly original. ![]() Bridge Records, which has produced a 20-volume recorded edition of his works, under the composer’s supervision, made the announcement.Ĭrumb was part of a unique generation of American composers who rejected the mid-20th century atonal orthodoxy and built a new compositional language on often ancient traditions but expressed via a contemporary aesthetic-often using amplification and recording technology as equal parts in the instrumentation. George Crumb, a composer whose music connected the long tradition of classical music to the post-WWII avant-garde and to global culture, drawing in listeners outside the classical world, died on Sunday at the age of 92.
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