George Crumb
Born: October 24, 1929; Charleston, WV
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George Crumb was one of the most distinctive compositional voices to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. A charter member of the "New Virtuosity" movement, Crumb developed an expansive musical palette noted for its emphasis on extended instrumental and vocal techniques, its rich and sophisticated musical allusions, an evocative theatricality, and a poet's sense of sonorous detail.
Crumb was born in West Virginia in 1929
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Works
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A Haunted Landscape (3)
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A Little Suite for Christmas, AD 1979 (7)
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American Songbook 2 - "A Journey Beyond Time" (1)
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American Songbook 4 - "The Winds of Destiny" (1)
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American Songbook 5 - "Voices from a Forgotten World" (1)
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An Idyll for the Misbegotten (2)
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Ancient Voices of Children (3)
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Apparition (3)
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Black Angels (4)
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Black Angels: God music (1)
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Celestial Mechanics "Makrokosmos no 4" (4)
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Dream Sequence "Images no 2" (3)
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Dream Sequence (Images II), for violin, cello, piano, percussion & and off-stage glass harmonica (tw (1)
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Early Songs (3) (5)
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Early Songs (3): no 1, Night (1)
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Early Songs (3): no 2, Let it Be Forgotten (1)
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Early Songs (3): no 3, Wind Elegy (1)
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Easter Dawning (1)
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Echoes of Autumn (11) "Echoes no 1" (4)
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Echoes of Time and the River "Echoes 2" (4)
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Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik (2)
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Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1)
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Federico's Little Songs for Children (3)
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Gnomic Variations for Piano (3)
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Lux aeterna (2)
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Madrigals, Book 1: no 1, Verte desmude es recordar la tierra (1)
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Madrigals, Book 1: no 2, No piensan en la lluvia (1)
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Madrigals, Book 1: no 3, Los muertos llevan alas de musgo (1)
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Madrigals, Book 2: no 1, Bebe el agua tranquila (1)
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Madrigals, Book 2: no 2, La muerte entra y sale de la taberna (1)
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Madrigals, Book 2: no 3, Caballito negro (1)
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Madrigals, Book 3: no 1, La noche canta desnuda sobra los puentes de marzo (1)
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Madrigals, Book 3: no 2, Quiero, dormir el sueño de las manzanas (1)
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Madrigals, Book 3: no 3, Nana, niño, nana del caballo grande que no quiso el agua (1)
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Madrigals, Book 4: no 1, Por que naci entre espejos? (1)
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Madrigals, Book 4: no 2, Tu cuerpo, con la sombra violeta de mis manos, era un arcángel de frio (1)
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Madrigals, Book 4: no 3, La muerte me está mirando desde las torres de Córdoba (1)
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Madrigals, Books (4) (2)
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Makrokosmos I for amplified Piano (9)
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Makrokosmos I for amplified Piano: The Phantom Gondolier (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Crucifixus. Capricorn (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Dream Images (Love-Death Music). Gemini (2)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Music of Shadows (for Aeolian harp). Libra (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Night-Spell 1. Sagittarius (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Pastorale (from: The Kingdom of Atlantis, ca. 10,000 B. C.). Tau (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Primeval Sounds (Genesis 1) Cancer (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Proteus. Pisces (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Spiral Galaxy. Aquarius (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: Spring-Fire. Aries (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: The Abyss of Time. Virgo (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: The Magic Circle of Infinity (moto peretuo). Leo (1)
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Makrokosmos I, for amplified piano: The Phantom Gondolier. Scorpio (1)
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Makrokosmos II for amplified Piano (9)
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Makrokosmos II for amplified Piano: Cosmic Wind (1)
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Makrokosmos II for amplified Piano: Morning Music (1)
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Makrokosmos Vol. 2: Dream Images (Love - Death Music) (1)
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Mundus Canis (2)
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Mundus Canis: Excerpt(s) (1)
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Music for a Summer Evening "Makrokosmos Vol 3" (4)
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Music for a Summer Evening: Excerpt(s) (1)
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Night Music no 1 (2)
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Night of the Four Moons (3)
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Night of the Four Moons: no 1, La luna está muerta, muerta (1)
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Night of the Four Moons: no 2, Cunado sale la luna (1)
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Night of the Four Moons: no 3, Otro Adán oscuro esta soñando (1)
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Night of the Four Moons: no 4, Huye luna, luna, luna! (1)
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Nocturnes (4) for Violin and Piano "Night Music no 2" (4)
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Otherworldly Resonances for 2 Amplified Pianos (2)
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Otherworldly Resonances: Celebration and Ritual (1)
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Otherworldly Resonances: Double Helix (1)
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Otherworldly Resonances: Palimpsest (1)
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Pastoral Drone (1)
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Pastoral Drone: Excerpt(s) (1)
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Pieces (5) for Piano (5)
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Processional for Piano (5)
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Put My Little Shoes Away, for voice, toy piano & toy percussion quartet (2)
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Quest (3)
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Quest: Excerpt(s) (1)
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River of Life (1)
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Sit Down Sister: Excerpt(s) (1)
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Sonata for Cello solo (7)
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Sonata for Cello solo: 3rd movement, Toccata (1)
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Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (3)
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Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death: Death-Drone 2 (1)
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Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death: Death-Drone II (2)
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Spanish Songbook 1 "The Ghosts of Alhambra" (1)
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Star Child (2)
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Star Child: Excerpt(s) (1)
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Tableau (6) for 2 amplified Pianos, Book 1 "Zeitgeist" (1)
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The Ghosts of Alhambra (1)
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The Sleeper (4)
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Unto the Hills (2)
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Variazioni (2)
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Variazioni: Fantasia 1, Notturno (1)
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Variazioni: Fantasia 2, Cadenza (1)
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Variazioni: Fantasia 3, Elegy and Coda - Theme (1)
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Variazioni: Introduction and Theme (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 1, Pezzo Antifonale (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 2, Toccata (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 3, Scherzo (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 4, Tio Estatico - Canone Inversio (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 5, Da Capo - Burlesca (1)
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Variazioni: Variation no 6, Ostinato (1)
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Vox balaenae (6)
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Work(s) (1)
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| More Featured George Crumb CDs & DVDs: |
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Biography |
by Jeremy Grimshaw
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George Crumb was one of the most distinctive compositional voices to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. A charter member of the "New Virtuosity" movement, Crumb developed an expansive musical palette noted for its emphasis on extended instrumental and vocal techniques, its rich and sophisticated musical allusions, an evocative theatricality, and a poet's sense of sonorous detail.
Crumb was born in West Virginia in 1929 into a musical family, and studied at various schools in the Midwest as well as at the Berlin Hochschule as a Fulbright Scholar. He eventually joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he composed and taught for three decades. His highly intuitive approach to composition, with its emphasis on texture, timbre, and line, bore substantial fruit during the 1960s, including the Madrigals (1966-1969), Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1965), and, inspired by the Apollo 11 lunar landing, Night of the Four Moons (1969). Echoes of Time and the River, one of Crumb's rare orchestral works, earned the composer the Pulitzer Prize.
Crumb's style remained remarkably consistent during the subsequent decades. Black Angels (1970) used a dizzying arsenal of extended techniques to evoke a surreal soundscape of the Vietnam War. Star Child (1977) applied Crumb's acute ear for nuance to an impressive vocal/orchestral ensemble. Ancient Voices of Children (1970), with its unimaginable timbral variety and taxingly dramatic vocal lines, became a near-instant classic of the postwar period. It also demonstrated the resonance between his compositional style and the writing style of Garcia Lorca, whose poems would repeatedly serve as the inspiration for and/or words to a number of Crumb's pieces.
Crumb's works became known also for their almost choreographic visual elegance in performance -- and, in fact, numerous dance companies have composed dance pieces to be performed with his work. Crumb's poignant use of musical borrowing and stylistic allusion also add a sense of reflective history and introspection to his compositions. In some cases, this visual approach to design spills over into the very notation: some of the pieces in the two-volume keyboard collection Makrokosmos (1972-1973) appear engraved on staves that turn and twist into a variety of curious Zodiac symbols. Having eschewed process-oriented compositional techniques, his output slowed in later years as greater demands were placed on his creative faculties to find continually new sounds and inspirations -- though by the turn of the century, his historical importance was already firmly established. |
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