1, Departure
2, Absence
3, Return
And read the following articles online:
- "Following a Straight Line" by Dave Smith, in JEMS; an overview of La Monte Young's work with musical examples
- "Downtown Music" by Kyle Gann, a well-known composer, writer and critic
- George Crumb's program notes for Black Angels, from his official website
- An early review of Black Angels, via JSTOR (which compares this work favorably to Crumb's piano piece Makrokosmos III) - sorry, this link isn't working for some people; here's the complete reference, which you can search from JSTOR: Justin Connolly, untitled review. Tempo, New Ser., No. 116 (Mar., 1976), pp. 29-31
- Finally, here is the Stockhausen review (Christopher Fox, "Star-gazing." Musical Times v. 147, Spring 2006, pp. 89-94; pdf) I mentioned in class today, written by a disillusioned former fan; but still quite a sympathetic viewpoint, especially regarding the earlier music.
10 comments:
George Crumb had a brilliance for instrumentation and extended techniques in his piece "Black Angels." The combinations of sounds he created are at times eerie and other moments serene. The violin uses extended techniques that create evil sounds portraying Satan and essentially creating a good vs. evil theme. The ancillary instruments provide unique sound qualities that contribute to the overall effectiveness.
I REALLY enjoyed the Crumb, and have actually listened to it a few times...
Interesting note on the quotations, you can hear quite a bit of Bartok and Stravinsky, but the most notable for me was the almost direct quotation of the Dies Irae. I found this to be quite a beautiful piece especially within the context of the Vietnam War. There are a few hints of "eastern" modality as well as a brief area where it sounds like rain, which of course was a steady subject during much of the year in Vietnam..I have not yet read the program notes but am eager to do so now..
Crumb's Black Angels has some arresting moments, but I am skeptical of the composition's impact as a whole. The individual parts just don't seem to flow. Perhaps this has something to do with the "numerological basis of the entire work." The piece made more sense to me after reading the program notes, but I feel like a successful programmatic piece should be able to communicate its content without extensive notes. Compositionally, I think it is extremely challenging to incorporate quotations and such stylistic diversity into one piece. It was a valiant effort on Crumb's part, but I think that this piece just hasn't aged well.
Watching the performance of Crumb's work was so helpful when listening again. I found this to be true with John Cage's work as well (when we watched the performance of his pieces last week). I'm finding more and more that much of the music we have been listening to has a direct relationship to many performance aspects (how, when, where, with what instruments and/or techniques). I find watching a performance gives me better insight into the piece itself.
I am also fond of the Crumb. It delivers a certain suppleness and sophistication I have been searching for in the other composers ad haven't quite been able to find. For example in the the bones movement of Black Angels, I think Crumb magnificently painted a scene of clattering bones. It seems to be a quite challenging piece both for the performers (especially), as well as the listeners, since the untrained ear may not understand entirely the quotations and meaning embedded in the music.
I absolutly loved Crumb's Black Angels, I found it to be very significant and meaningful. I think amplification of instruments opens up so many more possibilities in terms of sound palletes and dynamic range. I have always found playing with amplification very rewarding and liberating. I LOVED that he quoted one of my favorite melodies of all time, the theme from the 2nd mvt of Schubert's death and the maiden quartet, and layered even more sinister music on top of it, it brought a whole new meaning to the passage, removing what I have always heard as something subtly erotic, and turning it into something far more sinister and bleak, as if the maiden really doesn't have a chance over death at all. A very dark piece, but a very appropriate response to the Vietnam war.
George Crumb's "Black Angels" piece has always been one of my favorite 29th century pieces. During undergrad I remember listening to the piece the first time, and the professor labeling the piece as a little "disturbing." I however, thought the piece was extremely dynamic and artistic. The imagery I get from "Black Angels" is more than an any other piece for me. The orchestration and timbres used by the instruments is incredible and extremely realistic.
Whoops....I made an error in the last post. It should say 20th century, not the 29th century. :)
I really like the Crumb piece, but I do admit that I like it more listening to it AND watching it than just listening to it. There's something about the power of live performance and (to an extent) theatrics that, for me, has a positive effect on a piece of music. In terms of drama and effect, Crumb is a master of creating these moments, especially in "Black Angels." Very accessible for someone who is having a hard time with 20th century music!
It's very interesting to read from several of you that the visual aspect of performance is so important, in Black Angels. I think so too, especially when it's difficult to tell how the sound is being produced (one problem with electronic music is the lack of visuals - when we see a movie, we're experiencing a pre-recorded artwork, but it doesn't bother us to sit in a dark room with it).
Crumb is a real innovator, but he is sometimes criticized for being too... facile? obvious? lacking in depth? It's as if he's using extended techniques, atonality, all the apparatus of modernism, but for baldly expressive ends. Modernism disapproves of emotional outbursts. (Think of Stravinsky's famous quote that music is incapable of expressing anything but itself.) Incidentally, I think one of Messiaen's strengths is his ability to remain firmly in the modernist vanguard, with works like Chronochromie, while still writing intensely emotional, spiritual music.
I'm not totally convinced by the numerology of Black Angels - which I should have commented on more in class - but it seems to function in this piece as a way to get notes on the page - everybody needs something, whether it's iambic pentameter or serialism. In other words, Crumb had to make sure a violin phrase, for example, lasted 7 bars, to fit a numerical formula. This requirement forces one to fill up the musical time, to draw out more implications of one's material.
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