George Crumb
(1929–2022)
Who Was
George Crumb?
A Brief Introduction
George Crumb’s music is remarkable for the graphic expressive effects it draws from the innovations of the 1950s and 1960s, especially the new sonorities possible on standard instruments. He was also a pioneer in his use of electronics and unusual groupings of instruments, exemplified in two works from 1970 that established his name internationally: Ancient Voices of Children, scored for soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, amplified piano, toy piano, and percussion; and Black Angels, scored for “electric string quartet.” The former sets words by the poet Federico García Lorca, whose nocturnal atmosphere and vivid imagery stayed with Crumb for several years. In the 1980s, he began to slow down as a composer, but returned to full activity in the 21st century and produced his last work, Kronos–Kryptos, for percussion quartet, when he was 90.
Early Years: Toward a Magic of Sound
Crumb’s parents were professional musicians who played in the Charleston Symphony in Charleston, West Virginia, where he was born. He composed as a teenager (evidently keen on Bartók, as he would remain for much of his career) and later studied composition in Berlin and at the Universities of Illinois and Michigan. Pieces from his later student years, notably Variazioni for orchestra (1959), already show a vivid use of the European new-music language, in parallel with, and perhaps even anticipating, such composers as Krzysztof Penderecki.
In Night Music I (1963), Crumb brought his ear for sonic uniqueness to bear on small instrumental formations and subjects torn from Lorca. The work is a sequence of short nocturnal movements for two percussionists, piano (doubling celesta), and soprano. Already characteristic is the magic of sound: high chimings and a voice suggestive of secret spells. Crumb’s major achievements, though, were still a few years ahead.
Middle Period: The Major Works
Between 1969 and 1972, Crumb composed the works that startled the world and remain prominent in concert halls and on radio programs. A recording of Ancient Voices of Children, made soon after the first performance, has sold over seventy thousand copies. The wild and scary Black Angels for amplified string quartet quickly established itself as a classic of 20th-century string quartet repertoire. Vox Balaenae (1971), also for electronically modulated instruments (flute, cello, and piano), imitates recordings of whale song from that period and creates a sound-drama of mystery, the musicians masked and playing under colored lighting. In 1972 Crumb published the piano collection Makrokosmos, Volume I—making clear his continuing adherence to Bartók (who wrote a collection of piano pieces entitled Mikrokosmos) as well as his fascination with nonstandard instrumental sounds that evoke the unearthly and surreal.
Crumb: Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for Three Masked Players
Vox Balaenae (1971), also for electronically modulated instruments (flute, cello, and piano), imitates recordings of whale song from that period and creates a sound-drama of mystery, the musicians masked and playing under colored lighting.
Makrokosmos, Volume I comprised 12 pieces that contemplate the signs of the zodiac. Three further volumes followed through the 1970s: another zodiac cycle (for amplified piano), a set of five atmospheric sound-pictures (for two amplified pianos and percussion), and a group of four images of distant stars (for two players on amplified piano). During this period, Crumb also created his biggest work, again cosmic in topic: Star-Child (1977), scored for solo soprano, choirs of men and children, and orchestra. The piece was premiered by the New York Philharmonic, with Pierre Boulez conducting.
Crumb was much less productive in the 1980s and 1990s, but from the end of this period came the charming Mundus canis (1998), a set of three dog portraits for guitar.
Late Period: Returns
After the age of 70, Crumb thoroughly resumed his compositional activities. He produced seven American Songbooks for singer, piano, and percussion quartet (2003–10)—each a collection of arrangements which altogether constitute a five-hour treasury of American traditional songs. Complementing this project, the three short Spanish Songbooks for singer, guitar, and solo percussionist (2008–12) echo his earlier Lorca settings. There were two more volumes for amplified piano, Metamorphoses (2015–19), with imagery from celebrated paintings. Finally, in the four movements of Kronos-Kryptos for percussion ensemble (2019–20), Crumb proved his continued ability to write atmospherically for bells, drums, and whispering voices.
Legacy
Undoubtedly, the works of George Crumb’s early 40s represent his major legacy. They are still performed today, and their influence is evident in the work of many younger composers, including those he taught during his long tenure at the University of Pennsylvania from 1965 to 1995 (among whom are Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Gerald Levinson, and Christopher Rouse). There is also a recorded legacy of his entire compositional output in performances he supervised.
Watching and Listening
Two of Crumb’s central works can be found in Chamber Music Society’s Digital Archive. Flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Gloria Chien give a musically and visually enthralling performance of Vox Balaenae, which takes place in deep blue light. Its range—from sweet melody to uncustomary uses of instruments and percussion—makes this piece one of Crumb’s most appealing.
In Ancient Voices of Children, recorded shortly after the composer’s death, the lead singer Tony Arnold is echoed by a boy soprano from offstage. James Austin Smith’s cultivated oboe performance mimics the raw character of a folk instrument; Bridget Kibbey finds the appropriate harp sounds, dry or resonant; and pianist Gilbert Kalish is thoroughly at home, having premiered the work more than half a century earlier. The percussionists Ayano Kataoka, Ian David Rosenbaum and Daniel Druckman are always on the alert.
Kalish beautifully delivers the resonating sonorities of Processional, which Crumb wrote for him in 1984. Four Nocturnes (Night Music II) (1963) for violin and piano—a much earlier piece from before Crumb’s great breakthrough—is finely played by Kristin Lee and Gloria Chien.
There are also recordings of Three Early Songs (1947)—one of Crumb’s first published works—and selections from the The 1947 songs feature the bright voice of Arnold, with sparkling piano accompaniment from Kalish, who also performs in the 50-minute succession of American favorite numbers with baritone Thomas Hampson in a recording that was featured on CMS’s 2022–23 national radio series. “The Ghost of Alhambra,” from the first Spanish Songbook, is sung by Randall Scarlata, with Oren Fader on guitar and Daniel Druckman on percussion.
