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George Crumb & Black Angels

KLEIN Crumb Lecture

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Page 1: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb

& Black Angels

Page 2: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Biographical Information

! Born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1929.

! Studies at the Mason School of Fine Arts in Charleston (BM 1950), University

of Illinois (MMus 1953), and University of Michigan (DMA 1959), where his

principle teacher was Ross Lee Finney.

! Professor Emeritus of Composition at the University of Pennsylvania (where

he has taught since 1965).

! Recipient of numerous awards, including Fromm, Guggenheim, Kousevitsky,

Rockefeller, Ford, and Coolidge Foundations; National Institute of Arts and

Letters; Pulitzer Prize.

! Commissions from New York Philharmonic,

Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and many

soloists and chamber ensembles.

! After a prodigious output during the 1960s and !70s,

has composed relatively little music since the early

1980s.

Page 3: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Philosophy and Aesthetics

! Personal sound world: "natural acoustic"

! Numerology: magical qualities, mysticism, formal cohesion

! Theatre: ritualistic elements achieved through stage placement, costumes,

lighting, movement, etc.

! External references:

! Temporality: "the timelessness of time"

! Musical: J.S. Bach, Gustav Mahler, Frederic Chopin, Franz Schubert

! Literary : Federico Garcia-Lorca, Nostradamus, Marie Rainier Rilke

! Cultural/social: harmony of mankind, environmentalism, Vietnam War

! Natural: whale songs, cicada drones,

constellations

Page 4: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Musical Attributes

! Notation:

! Influenced by "mannerism" of the ars nova composers (late 14th-century)

! Meticulous, detailed, elegant graphic sensibility.

! References:

! Evocative, highly poetic titles and score indications.

! Quotations and borrowed material: presented in a distorted, surrealistic, often

veiled manner; treated as a "foreign object” within the sonic environment.

! Mechanics:

! Use of non-Western instruments, toy instruments, and unorthodox

performance methods on conventional instruments.

! Forms based upon numerology, or the result of graphic layout; often

symmetrical or cyclical structures.

! Use of small pitch, rhythmic, and timbral cells that grow organically.

! Style:

! Synthesis of a variety of 20th-century techniques.

! Crumb's music may be labeled in a variety of ways, yet it defies and

transcends categorization.

Page 5: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Musical Quotations

! Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (1895-96)

! George Crumb: Vox Balanae—”Vocalise (…for the beginning of time)” (1970)

! J.S. Bach: “Bist du Bei Mir,” from Notenbuch vor Anna Magdalena Bachin (1725)

! George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children—”Todas las tardes en Grenada, todas

las tardes se muere un niño” (1970)

! Franz Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D Minor “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (1824)

! George Crumb: Black Angels—”Pavana lachrymae” (1970)

Page 6: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Black Angels

! Program:

! Subtitle: "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land: a parable on our troubled

contemporary world."

! Religious connotations: "fallen angel" (falling from grace, spiritual

annihilation, redemption); polarity of 7/13 (God/Devil) within three sections

(Holy Trinity).

! Viet Nam references (departure - absence - return).

! Universality: musical allusions to various cultures.

! Inscription: "finished on Friday the Thirteenth of

March, 1970 (in tempore belli)."

Page 7: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Black Angels

! Performance Issues:

! Amplification and reverb used to create a

surrealistic effect.

! Extended instrumental techniques: coll legno,

knocking on instruments, glass rods, bowing over

fingerboard, scratch tone, “pedal tones.”

! Use of voice: speaking, shouting, whispering,

chanting, tongue clicks.

! Percussion instruments: Tam-tams, maracas,

goblets.

! Musical Elements:

! Palindromic structure.

! Numerology: expressed in phrase lengths, note groups, durations,

repetition patterns, etc.; D#-A-E represents numbers 7 and 13 harmonically.

! Use of borrowed materials and tonality (Schubert's Der Tod und dasMädchen), Tartini's "trillo di diavolo", tritones ("diabolus in musica"), the Latin

Sequence "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath"), and a stylistically synthetic

Renaissance saraband.

Page 8: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

Baude Cordier: Belle, Bonne, Sage (c. 1400)

Page 9: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: “Spiral Galaxy” from Makrokosmos I (1972)

Page 10: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: “Crucifixus” from Makrokosmos I (1972)

Page 11: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: “Agnus Dei” from Makrokosmos II (1974)

Page 12: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)—Program

Page 13: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)— “Devil Music”

Page 14: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)—“Threnody II”

Page 15: KLEIN Crumb Lecture

George Crumb (b. 1929)