George Crumb | |
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 Crumb in 2019 attending a performance atAlice Tully Hall in honor of his 90th birthday | |
| Born | George Henry Crumb Jr. (1929-10-24)24 October 1929 |
| Died | 6 February 2022(2022-02-06) (aged 92) Media, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation |
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| Notable work | List of compositions |
| Awards | |
| Website | georgecrumb |
George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-gardecontemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespreadmodernist usage ofserialism, developing a highly personal musical language which "range[s] in mood from peaceful to nightmarish".[1] Crumb's compositions are known for pushing the limits of technical prowess by way of frequent use ofextended techniques. The unusualtimbres he employs evoke asurrealist atmosphere which portray emotions of considerable intensity with vast and sometimes hauntingsoundscapes.[2] His few large-scale works includeEchoes of Time and the River (1967), which won the 1968Pulitzer Prize for Music, andStar-Child (1977), which won the 2001Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition; however, his output consists of mostly music forchamber ensembles or solo instrumentalists. Among his best known compositions areBlack Angels (1970), a striking commentary on theVietnam War for electricstring quartet;Ancient Voices of Children (1970) for a mixed chamber ensemble; andVox Balaenae (1971), a musical evocation of thehumpback whale, for electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano.
Born to a musical family, Crumb was acquainted withclassical music at an early age and his affinity forClassical andRomantic composers in particular would stay throughout his life.[3] He was especially influenced by composers such asMahler,Debussy andBartók; Crumb wrote his four-volume piano setMakrokosmos (1972–1979) in response to Bartók's earlier piano setMikrokosmos.[1] His compositions often containmusical quotations from wide range of composers includingBach,[4]Chopin,[5]Schubert,[1]Strauss, and thejazz pianist and composerThelonious Monk.[6] The use ofpastiche is also found in his music,[7] as is text byFederico García Lorca, whose poetry Crumb set eleven times.[2] Elements of theatricality appear in numerous compositions, inspiringchoreographies fromcontemporary dance groups.[8] To convey his unorthodox and complex musical style, Crumb's musicalscores arefacsimilemanuscripts, using specialnotation "distinguished by astonishing clarity, precision and elegance, and by arresting graphic symbols in which staves are bent into arches, circles and other pictorial devices."[9] Among his students were the composersOsvaldo Golijov,Jennifer Higdon,Christopher Rouse andMelinda Wagner.
George Henry Crumb Jr. was born inCharleston, West Virginia on 24 October 1929 to a musical family and he grew up playing chamber music with them.[10][11] Both of Crumb's parents played in theCharleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO);[n 1] his father George Henry Crumb Sr. was aclarinetist while his mother Vivian (née Reed) was acellist.[12] The elder Crumb was a multifaceted musician, with activities that included conductingtheatre orchestra for the music ofsilent film, teaching clarinet privately and at the Mason College, and working as both a music copyist and arranger.[10] George, Jr. began to compose at an early age and had two of his orchestral works performed by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra while he was still in his teens.[11] In 1947 he studied at theNational Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan.[13] He majored in music at the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts (subsequently subsumed into theUniversity of Charleston), where he received hisbachelor's degree in 1950. He obtained hisM.Mus. at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1952 and then briefly studied as aFulbright fellow at theHochschule für Musik in Berlin before returning to the United States to study at theUniversity of Michigan, from which he received aD.M.A. in 1959.[14]
He earned his living primarily from teaching. His first teaching job was at a college inVirginia, before he became professor of piano and composition at theUniversity of Colorado in 1958.[15] It was here that he met the pianist David Burge, who asked Crumb to compose a piece for him. While creating this, Crumb woke up in a cold sweat one night, realising that thus far he had simply been rewriting the works of other composers. From here on he began experimenting with new, avant-garde techniques.[11]
In 1965 he began a long association with theUniversity of Pennsylvania,[14] becoming Annenberg Professor of the Humanities in 1983.[16]
From the 1960s on, Crumb's music filled a niche for sophisticated—though still conservative—concertgoers. His music fell betweenneoclassicism, which was perceived as outmoded, and the more radical music of theavant garde. Although his music from this period exhibits some novel features, it owes more to traditional techniques than to the more experimental areas of the avant-garde.[17]
In this period, Crumb shared with a number of other young composers regarded as being under the umbrella of "new accessibility" a desire to reach out to alienated audiences. In works likeAncient Voices of Children (1970), Crumb employed theatrical ritual, using evocative masks, costumes, and sonorities.[18] In other pieces he asks players to leave and enter the stage during the piece, and has also used unusual layouts ofmusical notation in a number of hisscores. In several pieces, the music is symbolically laid out in a circular or spiral fashion.[19]
Several of Crumb's works, including the four books ofmadrigals he wrote in the late 1960s andAncient Voices of Children, asong cycle for two singers and smallinstrumental ensemble—including atoy piano (1970), are settings of texts byFederico García Lorca.[20] Many of his vocal works were written for the virtuoso mezzo-soprano singerJan DeGaetani.[21]
Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Darkland) was written in 1970, and published in 1971, in protest against theVietnam War, using spoken word, bowed water glasses and electronics.[14] It also explores a wide range of timbres, such as an electric string quartet, with its players required to play variouspercussion instruments and to bow small goblets as well as to play their instruments in both conventional and unconventional ways. It is one of Crumb's best known pieces, and has been recorded by several groups, including theKronos Quartet,[22] whose formation was inspired when violinist David Harrington first heardBlack Angels.[14]
Crumb's most ambitious work, and among his more famous, is the 24-piece collectionMakrokosmos, published in four books.[23][24] The first two books (1972, 1973), for solo piano, make extensive use ofstring piano techniques and require amplification, as dynamics range frompppp toffff. The third book, known asMusic for a Summer Evening (1974), is for two pianos andpercussion.[25] The fourth book,Celestial Mechanics (1979), is forpiano four-hands.[20]
The titleMakrokosmos alludes toMikrokosmos, the six books of piano pieces byBéla Bartók. Like Bartók's work,Makrokosmos is a series of shortcharacter pieces. Apart from Bartók,Claude Debussy is another composer Crumb acknowledged as an influence here: Debussy'sPréludes comprise two books of 12 character pieces. Crumb's first two books ofMakrokosmos for solo piano contain 12 pieces, each bearing a dedication (a friend's initials, however he also wittily dedicates a piece to himself) at the end. On several occasions, the pianist is required to sing, shout, whistle, whisper, and moan, as well as play the instrument unconventionally.Makrokosmos was premiered byDavid Burge, who later recorded the work.[26]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Crumb's musical output was less prolific.[27] Beginning in 2000 Crumb wrote a number of works subtitledAmerican Songbook.[20] Each of these works is a set of arrangements of Americanhymns,spirituals, and popular tunes: Crumb originally planned to produce four such volumes,[28] but in fact he continued to produce additional sets after the fourth (The Winds of Destiny) was written, with the seventh volume of the series (Voices from the Heartland) completed in 2010.[14] Typically these settings preserve the familiar tunes more-or-less intact,[29] but the accompaniments for amplified piano and percussionists use a very wide range of musical techniques and exotic sounds. As of 2017,American Songbook totalled 65 movements, 62 texts, 150 percussion instruments, more than five hours of music.[30]
Crumb retired from teaching in 1995,[14] though in early 2002 he was appointed withDavid Burge to a joint residency atArizona State University.[31] He continued to compose.[32]
Crumb's son,David Crumb is also a composer and, since 1997, assistant professor at the University of Oregon.[33] George Crumb's daughter,Ann Crumb, was an actress and singer. She recorded hisThree Early Songs for the CDGeorge Crumb 70th Birthday Album (1999), and had also performed hisUnto the Hills (2001). She died at her parents' home on 31 October 2019.[34]
In his later compositions, which have the subtitleSpanish Songbook, Crumb returned to settings of Lorca.[20][14] Crumb died in his home inMedia, Pennsylvania, on 6 February 2022, at the age of 92.[1][14]
After initially being influenced byAnton Webern, Crumb became interested in exploring unusualtimbres, something he considered as important as rhythm, harmony, and counterpoint.[30] He often asks for instruments to be played in unusual ways and several of his pieces, although written for standard chamber music ensembles, such asBlack Angels (string quartet) orAncient Voices of Children (mixed ensemble), call for electronic amplification.[35] Crumb defines music as "a system of proportions in the service of spiritual impulse."[36] MusicologistRichard Taruskin said of Crumb's music: "The ingredients in Crumb’s collages were chosen not as representatives of styles but as expressive symbols of timeless content."[30]
In 1980, Crumb wrote an essay forThe Kenyon Review titled, "Music: Does It Have a Future?"[37] In it, he codified his worldview of unified culture and music, arguing that, "the total musical culture of Planet Earth is ‘coming together,’ as it were. An American or European composer, for example, now has access to the music of various Asian, African, and South American cultures. […] This awareness of music in its largest sense—as a worldwide phenomenon—will inevitably have enormous consequences for the music of the future.” Of this worldview, which Crumb noted he still followed 37 years later in a 2017 interview forVAN Magazine, William Dougherty wrote: "Wherever one stands on the ethics of appropriation, it’s undeniable that Crumb, by incorporating in his work sounds from other cultures, succeeded in finding a timbrally rich sound world unlike any of his contemporaries."[30] Of his legacy, Michael Schell said "on the morning of his death Crumb was arguably the most important living composer of piano music, and the last giant in a distinctively American line of innovative percussion writers.".[38] Mark Swed said "Crumb may not have been well known outside of new-music circles, but he mattered beyond those perimeters."[39]
Crumb's works were published by theEdition Peters.[40] Recordings of Crumb's music have appeared on many labels, including several LPs issued byNonesuch Records in the 1970s.[41] More recently,Bridge Records has issued a series of CDs, the Complete Crumb Edition.[42][43]
Crumb's works were published by Edition Peters, including:[40][45]
Crumb was the recipient of a number of awards, including a 1968Pulitzer Prize for Music for his orchestral workEchoes of Time and the River[47][14] and a 2001Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his workStar-Child.[14][48] In 1995, Crumb was awarded theEdward MacDowell Medal.[49]
Among Crumb's students are the composersOfer Ben-Amots,[50]Margaret Brouwer,[51]Uri Caine,[52]Robert Carl,[53]Osvaldo Golijov,Jennifer Higdon,[14]Cynthia Cozette Lee,[54]Gerald Levinson,[55]Christopher Rouse,Melinda Wagner[14] andRicardo Zohn-Muldoon.[56]
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