Online Library

George Crumb

AboutCompositions

Contact Info

George Crumb's website. George Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia on 24 October 1929. He studied at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and received the B.Mus. 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 füür 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. Crumb first taught theory and analysis at Hollins College, Virginia before being appointed as instructor and assistant professor in piano and composition at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1958. From 1964-1965 he also acted as creative associate / composer-in-residence at the Buffalo Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, State University of New York, Buffalo. In 1965 a long association with the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia started with his appointment as assistant professor and then full professor. Since 1983 he is the Annenberg Professor of the Humanities. He retired in May 1997 from teaching. George Crumb married Elizabeth May Brown on May 21, 1949. They have one daughter and two sons. Though George Crumb began composing as a teenager, he regards most of his early music as juvenilia, and has discouraged performances of these early compositions. Exceptions are 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 compositions that were highly successful, earning the composer numerous international performances, recordings, and awards. 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. Crumb's recent works include: Quest (1994) for guitar and chamber ensemble; Mundus Canis (1998) for guitar and percussion; Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik (2001) for amplified piano; ...Unto the Hills (2002) for folk singer, amplified piano and percussion quartet; and Otherwordly Resonances (2002) for two amplified pianos.

Title	Ensemble Type	Composed	Duration	Media
Ancient Voices of Children	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:27:00
Federico's Little Songs for Children	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:00:00
Idyll for the Misbegotten, An / horn transcription	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:15:00
Lux Aeterna	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:15:00
Gnomic Variations	Keyboard		00:00:00
Eleven Echoes of Autumn	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:16:00
Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:40:00
Night Music I	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:20:00
An Idyll for the Misbegotten	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:15:00
Dream Sequence (Images II)	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:15:00
A Little Suite for Christmas A.D. 1979	Keyboard		00:21:00
Unto The Hills (American Songbook III)	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:00:00
Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik	Keyboard		00:15:00
Songs Drones and Refrains of Death	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:30:00
Mundus Canis (Five Humoresques for Guitar and Percussion)	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:00:00
Night Music I	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:20:30
A Haunted Landscape	Orchestra		00:16:00
Variazioni	Orchestra		00:20:00
Otherworldly Resonances	Keyboard		00:14:00
A Journey Beyond Time (American Songbook II)	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:03:00
The River of Life (American Songbook I)	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:07:00
The Winds of Destiny (American Song IV)	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:08:00
Quest	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1994	00:25:00
Easter Dawning	Keyboard	1992	00:04:00
Zeitgeist: Six Tableaux, Book 1	Keyboard	1987	00:35:00
Idyll for the Misbegotten, An	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1985	00:15:00
Haunted Landscape, A	Orchestra	1984	00:00:00
The Sleeper	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1984	00:03:00
Sleeper, The	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1984	00:02:00
Processional	Keyboard	1983	00:08:00
Pastoral Drone	Keyboard	1982	00:08:00
Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979, A	Keyboard	1980	00:15:00
Apparition: Elegiac Songs and Vocalises	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1979	00:20:00
Celestial Mechanics (Makrokosmos IV)	Keyboard	1979	00:22:00
Star-Child	Orchestra	1977	00:36:00	Star-Child
Makrokosmos, Vol. II	Keyboard	1973	00:33:00
Makrokosmos, Vol. I	Keyboard	1972	00:33:00
Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1971	00:18:00
Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1970	00:25:00
Madrigals Book III	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1969	00:07:30
Madrigals Book IV	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1969	00:09:00
Madrigals	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1969	00:00:00
Night of the Four Moons	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1969	00:16:00
Echoes of Time and the River	Orchestra	1967	00:21:00	Echoes of Time and the River
Madrigals Book II	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1965	00:06:30
Madrigals Book I (1965)	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1965	00:09:00
Four Nocturnes, violin and piano: Night Music II	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1964	00:09:00
Five Pieces for piano	Keyboard	1962	00:08:00
Sonata for Solo Violoncello	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1955	00:10:20
Three Early Songs	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1947	00:07:00

New Music USA Online Library

Explore

George Crumb

New Music USA Online Library

Explore

Login

George Crumb