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Composer George Crumb dead

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:11 am
by robcat2075
If you ever had a textbook on "20th Century Music" you would see a mention of George Crumb and an image of his "Spiral Galaxy" score. You rarely heard much music of George Crumb, but you frequently saw of it.

He wrote a smattering of orchestral works. Did anyone here ever play trombone in one of them?

Obits...
NY Times: George Crumb, Eclectic Composer Who Searched for Sounds, Dies at 92
Mr. Crumb wrote startling works, sometimes with political themes, and challenged musicians to employ new techniques, vocalize and move about the stage.
While rejecting the sometimes arid 12-tone technique of Modernists, Mr. Crumb beguiled audiences with his own musical language, composing colorful and concise works that range in mood from peaceful to nightmarish.


Norman Lebrecht: How Boulez blanked George Crumb
...My piece had compared Crumb, then 70 and returning from a long silence, with Boulez who had written nothing of consequence for years. Boulez took offence, I was told, at being mentioned in the same column as ‘that George Crumb’.
Being detested by a name conductor would probably be the highlight of most modern composers' careers.


Random listicle site: George Crumb, Prolific Avant-Garde Composer, Dies at 92
Among Crumb’s most famous compositions were his graphic scores, which were hand-drawn on oversized sheets and took the form of elaborate shapes and spirals. “I don’t have any artistic skills outside of musical calligraphy,” he said in a 2016 interview. “I just think the music should look the way it sounds.”


"Spiral Galaxy":