The Music
Makrokosmos II, George Crumb
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George Crumb’s Makrokosmos II is one of four Makrokosmos sets written between 1972 and 1979. All four sets take their inspiration from the stars, and all use extended piano techniques to coax otherworldly sounds from the instrument. In this set, the pianist is asked to play inside the piano, plucking, strumming and striking the strings with fingertips and fingernails, knocking on the metal beams with the knuckles, scraping lengthwise along the bass strings, and stopping the strings at various points to produce harmonics. The pianist also vocalizes: whispering, shouting, whistling and singing. Crumb delineates the set into three main sections, beginning each with remarkable effects produced by using foreign objects on the strings: a sheet of paper in the first movement, glass tumblers in the fifth, and a wire percussionists brush in the ninth. | ||
| Each of the pieces is associated with zodiacal sign, and embodies its characteristics: for example, the piece for Gemini has a dualistic nature, the piece for Scorpio is passionate and violent, and so on. Crumb is a master of quotation, and this set of pieces is no exception. Some of the references are musical: Scriabin’s “mystic chord” in the second movement, the Dies Irae in movement eight, the slow movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata in Movement eleven. Others are verbal: In movement seven, the pianist shouts “Tora! Tora! Tora!” the code words transmitted by Japanese fighter pilots returning from Pearl Harbour to indicate success in their mission. Conversely, in the final movement, the pianist quotes from the Catholic Mass, singing “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis,” then whispering “Dona nobis pacem,” which means “Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us; Give us peace.” Crumb also makes pictorial references with the pieces that close the three main sections, in which he shapes the musical staves into images: Twin Suns is curled into two paired circles, A Prophecy of Nostradamus gazes from the page like a giant eye, and the Agnus Dei is rounded into a peace sign. Taken as a whole, the pieces form a riveting dramatic arc, taking us on a journey from the restless anxiety of the first section, to the apocalyptic violence of the second, culminating in the mystical acceptance of the third. | |||
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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. 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. 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. | ||
| Visit georgecrumb.net | |||
