Crumb experimented with color fingerings which are alternative fingerings used in succession with each other to alter the timbre and color of a pitch slightly (Cope 51). Crumb was “influenced by Ive’s fascination with sounds for their own sake” (Sitsky 218). Crumb is also a developer of extended instrumental and vocal technique. Crumb can be considered part of the timbralists and the timbralism movement his music usually fit in with the school of timbralists who modified existing acoustic instruments (if you’ll remember, there were two schools of timbralists: those who created new sounds electronically, and those who produced sounds by experimenting with existing acoustic instruments Crumb belongs in the latter camp)(Cope 50). Some of his most successful students include the composers Christopher Rouse, Jennifer Higdon and Osvaldo Golijov, one of my personal favorite composers of all time.Īs a composer, Crumb was influenced by Webern and his pointilistic serialism, which can be clearly seen in Crumb’s music. After graduating, Crumb landed a gig and taught composition at the University of Colorado and then later the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained for over 30 years retiring in the last decade. It was written in June, 1971 in Media, Pennsylvania. His very next piece was Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) (Cohen 12). In 1971, Crumb won an International Rostrum of Composers Award from UNESCO for Ancient Voices of Children. Black Angels for Electric Sting Quartet is probably Crumb’s most famous piece. Crumb is one of the most decorated composers of our times he won a Pulitzer Prize for Echoes of Time and the River: Four Processionals for Orchestra in 1968. For his doctorate, Crumb studied at the University of Michigan with Ross Lee Finney, and earned his DMA in 1959. He obtained a masters degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Bachelors from the Mason College of Music in Charleston in 1950. George Crumb was Born in Charleston, West Virginia on October 24, 1929. The cello is tuned scordatura, and the piece requires the use of a grand piano as the techniques required would not be possible on an upright model.George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae or, Voice of the Whale (translated from Latin) It is highly suggested that whenever possible the performance be done under blue lighting. In addition to instrumentation techniques, performers are asked to wear half black masks. Movements and instrumentation techniques Although the piece has eight movements, these are grouped into three structurally similar parts: the first two movements "(.for the beginning of time)", five variations named after geologic time periods, and the last movement "(.for the end of time)". In 1971, Crumb drew on these sounds as the inspiration.". "Late in the 1960s, George Crumb heard a tape recording prepared by a marine scientist of the sounds emitted by the humpback whale. Background Īs the name of the piece indicates, Vox Balaenae was inspired by whale songs. It was composed for performance by the New York Camerata in 1971. Vox Balaenae ( Voice of the Whale), is a work for electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano by the American avant-garde composer George Crumb.
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