Program notes for 2 Crumbs

January 20 & 21, 2005
7:30 p.m. The Old Church
Portland OR

Third Angle presents “2 Crumbs: The music of George and David Crumb”
Program
September Elegy (2002) by David Crumb
Ron Blessinger, violin
Susan Smith, piano

Four Nocturnes (1963) by George Crumb
Notturno I: Serenamente
Notturno II: Scorrevole; allegro possible
Notturno III: Contemplativo
Notturno IV: Con un sentimento di nostalgia

Ron Blessinger, violin
Susan Smith, piano

Improvisations on an English Folk Tune (2004) by David Crumb - World Premiere
Georgeanne Ries, flute
Todd Kuhns, clarinet
Ron Blessinger, violin
Hamilton Cheifetz, cello
Susan Smith, piano

Intermission

Unto the Hills (Appalachian Songs of Sadness, Yearning and Innocence) (2002) by George Crumb
I. Poor Wayfaring Stranger
II. All the Pretty Little Horses
III. Ten Thousand Miles
IV. Appalachian Epiphany: A Psalm for Sunset and Dusk
(Instrumental Interlude)
V. Ev’ry Night When the Sun Goes In
VI. Black, Black, Black is the Color
VII. The Riddle
VIII. Poor Wayfaring Stranger (Echo)

Diane Reich, soprano
Dr. Jeffrey Meyer, piano
Mark Goodenberger, conductor
CWU Percussion Ensemble
Allison Calhoun
Taylor Kragness
Michael Lewis
Jeff Lund


Program notes
George Crumb's reputation as a composer of hauntingly beautiful scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers in today's musical world. From Los Angeles to Moscow, and from Scandinavia to South America, festivals devoted to the music of George Crumb have sprung up like wildflowers. Now approaching his 75th birthday year, Crumb, the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, continues to compose new scores that enrich the musical lives of those who come in contact with his profoundly humanistic art.

George Henry Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia on 24 October 1929. He studied at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and received the Bachelor’s degree in 1950. Thereafter he studied for the Master's degree at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana under Eugene Weigel. He continued his studies under Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Berlin from 1954-1955. He received the D.M.A. in 1959 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after studying with Ross Lee Finney.

George Crumb's early compositions include Three Early Songs (1947), for voice and piano; Sonata (1955) for solo violoncello; and Variazioni (1959) for orchestra–the composer's doctoral thesis. In the 1960s and 1970s, George Crumb produced a series of highly influential pieces that were immediately taken up by soloists and ensembles throughout the world. Many of these were vocal works based on the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, including Ancient Voices of Children (1970); Madrigals, Books 1-4 (1965,69); Night of the Four Moons (1969); and Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968). Other major works from this period include: Black Angels (1970), for electric string quartet; Vox Balaenae (1971), for electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano; Makrokosmos, Volumes 1 and 2 (1972, 73) for amplified piano; Music for a Summer Evening (1974) for two amplified pianos and percussion; and Crumb's largest score–Star-Child (1977), for soprano, solo trombone, antiphonal children's voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers and large orchestra. George Crumb’s most recent works include Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik for solo piano (2001), Otherworldly Resonances for two pianos (2002) and a four-part song cycle, American Songbook (The River of Life, A Journey Beyond Time, Unto the Hills, The Winds of Destiny) (2001-2004).

George Crumb's music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles. The references range from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-Western musics. Many of Crumb's works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service. Awarded honorary doctorates by numerous universities and the recipient of dozens of awards and prizes, Crumb makes his home in Pennsylvania, in the same house where he and his wife of more than 50 years raised their three children. George Crumb's music is published by C.F. Peters and the ongoing series of "Complete Crumb" recordings, supervised by the composer, is being issued on Bridge Records.

Many of Crumb's works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service..

Four Nocturnes
Four Nocturnes is a further essay in the quiet nocturnal mood of my Night Music I for soprano, keyboard, and percussion (composed in 1963); hence the subtitle "Night Music II". The four pieces constituting the work are prefaced with the following indications:

Notturno I: Serenamente
Notturno II: Scorrevole; allegro possible
Notturno III: Contemplativo
Notturno IV: Con un sentimento di nostalgia

The music is of the utmost delicacy and the prevailing sense of "suspension in time" is only briefly interrupted by the animated and rhythmically more forceful second piece. The sustained lyric idea presented at the beginning of the work, the nervous tremolo effects, and the stylized bird songs are all recurrent elements.

In composing the Four Nocturnes I had attempted a modification of the traditional treatment of the violin-piano combination by exploiting various timbral resources of the instruments. Thus a certain integration in sound is achieved by requiring both instruments to produce harmonics, pizzicato effects, rapping sounds (on the wood of the violin; on the metal beams of the piano). The gentle rustling sounds which conclude the work are produced by the application of a percussionist's wire brush to the strings of the piano.

Unto the Hills
The original impulse to do a cycle of Appalachian folk song settings came about through a suggestion of my daughter Ann, who had long been interested in American folk music and in particular those haunting tunes associated with Appalachia. She hoped I might find inspiration for an extended work suitable for concert performance. In undertaking the task I was, in a sense, returning to my own Appalachian roots. Indeed, these beautiful and haunting melodies were always a part of my musical psyche, and in many of my earlier compositions I had quoted fragments of the tunes as a sort of symbolic and very personal musical “signature.” This present work represents a selection of my very favorite pieces of the genre – pieces as varied as the darkly brooding “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” the heart-breaking intonations of an emerging blues style in the Southern Appalachian “Ev’ry Night When The Sun Goes In,” and the light-hearted and playful little song entitled “The Riddle.” In confronting these songs head-on, so to speak, I determined to leave the beautiful melodies intact (only occasionally “spreading” the metrics for a more spacious effect or compressing the bar for greater momentum), since one could not hope to “improve” on their pristine perfection. In the matter of the folk song texts, I found a huge variety of alternate versions and my daughter and I simply chose our favorites. I have attempted to heighten the expressiveness of this music by scoring the work for a rather unusual “orchestra” consisting of a quartet of percussionists (who play a number of rather unconventional instruments in addition to the more common ones) and amplified piano. By means of a wide range of timbres and textures together with the use of an extended chromaticism and occasionally unusual rhythmic patterns, I have attempted to bring out the psychological depth and mysticism and also the humor (both whimsical and ironic) inherent in Appalachian folklore. If my settings of these wonderful songs will enhance the listener’s enjoyment, I would feel that my creative efforts were truly rewarded. The title of my work is drawn from the famous psalm of David: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my strength.”
George Crumb

David Crumb
David Crumb was born in 1962 into a musical family, and studied cello and piano from an early age. He received his training in composition from the Eastman School and the University of Pennsylvania. Among numerous awards, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship, and grants from Meet The Composer and the A.S.C.A.P. Foundation. Crumb has accepted commissions from the Fromm and Barlow Foundations, the National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors, the Los Angeles Symphony New Music Group, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra/A.S.C.A.P. Foundation. In 2001, his Piano Quartet was selected as a winning entry in the “Discover America V Competition for New American Chamber Works.”

Crumb’s music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad. His imaginative and dramatic compositions are richly tonal, and intensely coloristic. His orchestral music has been performed by the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Chamber works have been performed by the Parnassus Ensemble, Voices of Change, The Chicago Ensemble, Network for New Music, and Quattro Mani. In 2000, a compact disc recording of Crumb’s Variations for Cello and Chamber Ensemble, performed by cellist Ulrich Boeckheler, with Orchestra 2001, conducted by James Freeman, was released on the CRI label.

Crumb joined the music faculty at the University of Oregon in 1997, where he continues to serve as a member of the composition department.


September Elegy
September Elegy, a funereal “song,” was composed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York, and is dedicated to the victims. It reflects the underlying feelings of sadness and uncertainty that I experienced following that tragic event.

I tend to experience the conceptualization and ultimate realization of my music as a nonlinear and rather mysterious process. So for me, composing serves as a continual journey toward self-expression and discovery. I find myself increasingly preoccupied with the exploration of an intuitive “sound world,” and less interested in a purely cerebral approach that may ignore or obscure the emotional impulses that, in my view, are the genesis of successful art. In all of my music, I strive for a definite sense of comprehensibility, something that I feel is lacking in much contemporary music.

September Elegy was originally composed for the Gearhart-Owings Duo. Fritz Gearhart is a colleague of mine at the University of Oregon.