George Crumb

George Crumb - George Crumb

Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death for baritone, electric guitar, electric contrabass, electric piano (electric harpsichord), percussion (2 players)

performers:

Speculum Musicae: Sanford Sylvan - baritone; David Starobin - electric guitar; Donald Palma - electric contrabass; Aleck Karis - electric piano and electric harpsichord; Daniel Druckman and Eric Charlston - percussion

producer: Michael Calvert
engineer: Paul Zinman

recorded at the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, June 17, 1990

In 1962, George Crumb (b. 1929, Charleston, West Virginia) began a cycle of chamber music settings of the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca (b. 1892, near Granada, Spain; died by firing squad 1936, Granada). The first completed composition of the series was the Night Music I (1963). Then followed, (in order of completion): Madrigals, Book I (1965); Madrigals, Book II (1965); Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968); Madrigals, Book III (1969); Madrigals, Book IV (1969); Night of the Four Moons (1969); and Ancient Voices of Children (1970). A postscript to this cycle was added in 1986 with Federico's Little Songs for Children. Additionally two other compositions from the time period of the cycle utilize fragments of Lorca's poetry spoken or incanted by the instrumentalists; Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1965); and Echoes of Time and the River (1967).

Rarely has a composer's evolution of musical expression been so inextricably formulated and intertwined with his exploration of a single poet's work. Lorca's poetry assimilated a multitude of artistic styles, but was particularly influenced by the Futurist energy and surrealist symbolism of such artists as Marinetti, Dali, Arp, Picasso and Stravinsky among others. This fusion of influences molded a poetic style which contained fantastic counterbalances of extremes; realist and surrealist juxtapositions within a perspective that is observant rather than experiential. And always contained in the poetry is the symbol and presence of Death, and the influence of the "dark sounds" and emotion of "duende" - the evil side of nature. As Crumb has written: "Lorca's haunting, even mystical vision of death. . . is the seminal force of his dark genius."

The sharp-edged precision of Crumb's musical language developed in descriptive relation to this quality of Lorca's poetry. His initial acquaintance with Lorca occurred during his student years at Ann Arbor, Michigan, well before his first mature composition, the 5 Pieces of 1962. That year Crumb began work on Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death, whose completion would require some six years. As in other pieces of Crumb's Lorca cycle, an extremely broad array of coloristic resources is employed, including: amplified instruments; players and soloist shouting, whispering, humming, and singing; a very personal use of "fringe" instrumental techniques, and some 50 percussion instruments, played by all of the performers.

The eight compositions of the Lorca cycle reflect an ongoing maturation, not so much in musical language, but rather in an increasingly complex and richly textured transformation of the poetic implications and images of the text into musical expression. Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death is the largest composition of the Lorca cycle, both in musical forces used, and in the length and complexity of the form. The title, which is a conscious variation of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, reflects the three types of formal structure used. In Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death, the periodic arrangement of these forms is dramatically positioned to achieve a cohesive macro-structure. The following chart presents an outline of the two part structure: Part 1 - Refrain I, Song I Death Drone I, Refrain II, Song II, Pause Part 2 - Refrain III, Song III Death Drone II, Refrain IV, Song IV Death Drone III (William K. Bland)

A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979

performer:

Lambert Orkis - piano

producer: Bill Bennett
engineer: Curt Wittig

recorded at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, Maryland, in August 1982

Written for Lambert Orkis, A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 is, in Crumb's characterization, an "aural tableau" of seven pieces conceptually related to the Nativity frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. The private chapel, painted by Giotto de Bondone (1267?-1337) and finished in 1305, traces, through a series of separate panels, the lineage and conception of Jesus, incidents in his life, and his crucifixion and resurrection. These frescoes, instrumental in initiating the transition from a Medieval to Renaissance 'style' of expression, were revolutionary not only for their bold use of colors and formal balance, but also, for their humanistic portraiture.

Only two of the pieces from the Suite are actually based on panels from the Chapel - 1) The Visitation and 4) Adoration of the Magi. The remaining five pieces are related to a seasonal observance of the Nativity.
...
Considered together like the panels of a fresco, these seven pieces convey both an extroverted sense of wonderment and joy, and an inward contemplation of the religious intertwining of the human and the metaphysical. The mystery of God becoming man is, to Christians, the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to redeem mankind. Giotto, a fervent Christian, represented this in scenes both joyous and quietly personal. A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 portrays a similar balance. (William K. Bland)

Apparition
Elegiac Songs and Vocalises for Soprano and Amplified Piano

performers:

Jan DeGaetani - mezzo-soprano
Gilbert Kalish - amplified piano

producer: David Starobin
engineer: David Hancock
associate engineer: Paul D. Lehrman

recorded at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, New York City in October 1982

Written in 1979 for Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert Kalish, Apparition is George Crumb's first work for solo voice and piano, and his first setting in English. The text of Apparition is extracted from Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", part of a set of poems grouped under the title Memories of President Lincoln. Whitman wrote "When Lilacs..." during the weeks 'following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865. Although Whitman's poem is specifically an elegy to Lincoln, Crumb has chosen most of his text from a section subtitled "Death Carol." This is a pause in the direct reference to Lincoln, and contains some of Whitman's most imaginative writing on the experience of death.

In Apparition, each song and vocalise form a piece of the larger vision, eventually coalescing as a tableau. The literary and musical materials focus on concise, highly contrasting metaphors for existence and death. Yet Crumb's cycle offers the listener reassurance, for just as in Whitman's verse, death is never depicted as an ending of life. Instead, it is circular, always a beginning or an enriched return to a universal life-force. (William K. Bland)

Tracklisting:

1. Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death: Part One {9:26}

2. Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death: Part Two {15:45}

3. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: The Visitation {3:16}

4. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: Berceuse For the Infant Jesu {1:50}

5. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: The Shepherd's Noel {1:11}

6. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: Adoration of the Magi {2:00}

7. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: Nativity Dance {1:08}

8. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: Canticle of the Holy Night {3:03}

9. A Little Suite For Christmas, A.D. 1979: Carol of the Bells {2:36}

10. Apparition: I. The Night in Silence Under Many a Star {3:10}

11. Apparition: Vocalise 1: Summer Sounds {1:02}

12. Apparition: II. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd {1:36}

13. Apparition: III. Dark Mother Always Gliding with Soft Feet {2:59}

14. Apparition: Vocalise 2: Invocation to the Dark Angel {0:59}

15. Apparition: IV. Approach Strong Deliveress! {2:07}

16. Apparition: Vocalise 3: Death Carol ("Song of the Nightbird") {0:42}

17. Apparition: V. Come Lovely and Soothing Death {6:20}

18. Apparition: VI. The Night in Silence Under Many a Star {3:49}

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