George Crumb

& Black Angels

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.

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:
! 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
! Temporality: "the timelessness of time"

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.

George Crumb: Musical Quotations

! Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (1895-96)
! George Crumb: Vox BalanaeVocalise (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 ChildrenTodas las tardes en Grenada, todas
las tardes se muere un nio (1970)

! Franz Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D Minor Der Tod und das Mdchen (1824)
! George Crumb: Black AngelsPavana lachrymae (1970)

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)."

George Crumb: Black Angels

! 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 das
Mdchen), Tartini's "trillo di diavolo", tritones ("diabolus in musica"), the Latin
Sequence "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath"), and a stylistically synthetic
Renaissance saraband.
! 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.

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

George Crumb: Spiral Galaxy from Makrokosmos I (1972)

George Crumb: Crucifixus from Makrokosmos I (1972)

George Crumb: Agnus Dei from Makrokosmos II (1974)

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)Program

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970) Devil Music

George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)Threnody II