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Ancient Voices of Children: and Modern Marketing Opportunities
Adam LaGesse
George Henry Crumb is an American Composer, born in Charleston, West
Virginia, on October 24, 1929 to George and Vivian Crumb. He was born into an
outstandingly musical and talented family. During the summer of 1970 Crumb would
compose his most well known piece: Ancient Voices of Children. This five-movement
piece could be more efficiently marketed to its target audience today than in 1970.
Ancient Voices has proven to be a virtuosic and successful piece of music, but was clearly
composed for a niche group. Marketing technology today could handle a situation like
this, but in the 70’s the technology was not readily available; leaving many target
audience members left out in the cold.
George’s father studied the flute from an early age. As a young boy he played in
the Crumb Family Orchestra and as a young adult became principal clarinet for the local
symphony. As an adult he found work in music copying. He used his talented ear to listen
to the radio and write down the music he heard. George senior also found work in the
film industry as a conductor for an orchestra pit that would perform during silent films.
Unfortunately George senior died on August 8, 1956 when his son was only 26. George
Crumb’s mother was also a talented musician. She played cello in the family ensemble
and eventually became the principal cellist for the Charleston Symphony. This lasted 25
years and she never missed a single concert.1
Growing up, George Crumb remembers sitting in the audience, with his younger
brother, watching the symphony orchestra his parents were in and being overwhelmed by
the powerful sounds. All of his young and adult life, Crumb’s focus was music. As a
young adult in high school, George recalls being bored with scholastic ideas and seemed
1
Don Gillespie, George Crumb, Profile of a Composer / with an Introduction by Gilbert Chase ;
Compiled and Edited by Don Gillespie (New York: C.F. Peters Corp., 1986), 8.
more interested in reading his fathers books on Mozart and Beethoven. At the age of
seven, his father gave him his first clarinet lesson. His instrument of choice became the
piano, shortly after he had his first lesson: two years after his clarinet lesson. He
continued to play several instruments; however, and would perform clarinet and flute
duos with his brother and father. George would also find himself accompanying his
mother and father on piano while they performed pieces by Mozart and others.2
George’s aunt was a violinist who studied in Berlin, Germany during the years
between the wars. While there, she collected several hundred scores due to how cheap
they were there. When she came home she gave these scores to her brother George
Crumb senior. This gave George junior a wide variety of music to study as a young boy.
He would listen to these pieces on record or on the radio while following along in his
score. Later when his piano skills became stronger he would play orchestra scores. He
would play the melody and accompany himself with the other hand. At the age of ten or
eleven, he began composing pieces of his own; some of which had Mozart like qualities.
His mother recalls finding manuscripts in his room during this time. He would compose
quickly and as much as possible during his high school years.3
George began his college experience at Mason College. After three years there he
transferred to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. While there he studied with
Eugene Weigel and was influenced by Hindemith and Bartok.4 After his time at
University of Illinois he went to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While attending
he won a scholarship that sent him to the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood. After
this festival he spent the next year studying in Germany with Boris Blacher. After this
2
Ibid.
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
3
year in Germany George returned to Ann Arbor to complete his degree. Most importantly
while there, he encountered the poetic work of Federico Garcia Lorca.5 The poetry of
Lorca inspired Crumb and was used for the basis of several Crumb compositions. Ancient
Voices of Children is one of those pieces along with ten other pieces written by Crumb.6
Crumb’s career started with a position teaching theory and analysis at Hollins
College in Virginia; however, this position only lasted him a year. After that he moved to
Boulder Colorado to teach secondary piano at the University of Colorado. While in
Colorado he composed a milestone piece called Five Pieces for Piano and Night Music 1,
which was the first of his Lorca influenced pieces.7
After his stint in Colorado, George received a grant allowing him to work as a
resident composer at the Buffalo Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. During his
time as resident composer, Crumb made local friends and grew to love the contemporary
music scene on the east coast. For this reason he chose to stay in the area after the term
was up, instead of moving back to Colorado. Not long after this, Crumb received a
position at Pennsylvania State University. He composed several of his most famous
works while at Penn State including Madrigals I and II, and Night of the Four Moons and
in 1970 Crumb would compose his widely known piece: Ancient Voices of Children.8
Ancient Voices of Children, was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidge Foundation in 1970, for the foundation’s 14th Festival of Chamber Music at the
Library of Congress in Washington D.C. This work is another composition based on the
poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. Ancient Voices is primarily a vocal piece but also
5
Richard Steinitz, George Crumb, in the Oxford Music Online, accessed April 22, 2014.
Ibid.
7
Steinitz, 11.
8
Ibid., 12.
6
features electric piano, harp, oboe, and three percussionists, just to name a few. In regards
to the Lorca text, Crumb said, “I feel that the essential meaning of this poetry is
concerned with the most primary things: life, death, love, the smell of the earth, the
sounds of the wind and the sea”.9 With that in mind, listening to Ancient Voices of
Children becomes more that just music: it becomes an experience. An experience that
one would encounter living in an African or Native American tribe while encountering
different timbers from around the world as well.
The vocal effects used in this piece embody the stereotypical idea of ancient
language. The vocalist will use different timbers like rolling their tongue or making “wawa” sounds. There is even a section requesting improvised pitches to be sung rapidly.
These notes end up sounding like the laughter of a mad woman. All the players in this
music have vocal parts in some capacity. Many times players are asked to whisper or yell
different things. This adds to the haunting sound already established by the other parts.
For example, in “Dances of the Ancient Earth” (which is primarily a dance movement for
one or more dancers), some of the performers are asked to chant “Kai to cho”, while the
oboe and harp player have the melody. This melody has a mysterious sound similar to the
“snake charmer” of the Middle East. The harp part during this movement has paper in the
strings, giving it a sound similar to an Ancient Greek stringed instrument. This enriches
the idea of an ancient world.
The next section is titled I Have Lost Myself in the Sea Many Times. This section
completely embodies the sounds of a haunting movie. The vocals are whispering through
tubes, the piano is being played with a chisel, a music saw is used to create high pitched
screeching motives, and at the end of this movement the vocalist has a glissando from A#
9
Crumb, George. Ancient Voices of Children. New York: C.F. Peters Corp., 1970.
to B followed by a short motive. This gives off a sound that will send chills down
someone’s back. It resembles the music in the beginning of the Ghostbusters movie.
When Crumb was trying to focus on things like life and death, he nailed it with this
movement. This is the sound of life and death existing at the same time.
When it comes to modern music, there are no rules in notation left. The next
section titled Dance of the Sacred Life-Cycle is literally written in a circle. This is not the
only time Crumb has done this. Some of his other scores are written in circles or spirals.10
The significance of the circular notation is that it is about the cycle of life. The poetic
lines are “Each afternoon in Granada, a child dies each afternoon”.11 This movement
opens with similar virtuosic vocal parts from the first movement leading up to a demonic
descending cackle into the climax of the movement when the vocalist yells “el nino!”
After this introduction, the marching drums begin to play. These drums seem to navigate
the rest of the ensemble around the circle because they are the only unchanging part.
After the cycle is over, everything calms to a very atmospheric sound with vocals. This is
the sound of mourning for the lost child. The most intense moment may be when a toy
piano is played at the very end. The use of a toy piano relates it more closely to the child
and really captures the feeling of loss.
Ghost Dance is another movement dedicated to dance. The texture and
orchestration of this movement is quite “ghostly”. Within the movement there are small
percussion instruments like shakers and maracas, mandolin, and vocal whispers. The
mandolin uses a “bottle neck” technique. This gives the instrument a sliding chromatic
timbre. The entire movement sounds very thin; so thin you could see through it, just like
10
11
Gillespie, 48.
Crumb.
a ghost. The whispering resembles the spooky sounds one might hear when they are
home alone. This movement really does sound haunted.
The sixth and final movement is the longest, clocking in just over seven minutes
long. The first few lines of the poem are “My heart of silk is filled with lights, with lost
bells”.12 Crumb captured these words with the use of small chime like bells and gongs,
sleigh bells, harp, and a percussion part similar to that of a clock “tick-tock”. The way
they all interact with each other describes the words. The harp has a silky soft sound and
the bells have a clear and ideal sound for light. These sounds carry on for most of the
movement; however, the most spectacular part of this movement and piece is at the very
end of this final movement. For the entire performance the boy soprano part has been offstage, because that is the lost voice that the lead has been looking for. In these final
moments the boy soprano walks slowly on stage as the lead vocals are calling god to give
back her ancient soul of a child. As he is entering they have a duet. To show this middle
ground between the two voices, the boy soprano sings on stage while the lead has parts
singing into the piano. This technique gives an “out of body” experience, while the lead
is receiving her ancient soul of a child. In regards to this part of the piece, Crumb said; “It
is sometimes of interest to a composer to recall the original impulse – “the creative germ”
– of a compositional project. In the case of Ancient Voices I felt this impulse to be the
climactic final words of the last song: “and I will go very far… to ask Christ the Lord to
give me back my ancient soul of a child.”13 And that is exactly what he did. Crumb
rebirthed the initial creative and meaning of the piece right before the end and gave a
lovely resolution.
12
13
Ibid.
Ibid.
Marketing Ancient Voices of Children today would be much easier than it was the
year of its premier: 1970. Not only would it be easier today, it would also be much
cheaper. Marketing is a constantly changing field with an endless array of possibilities on
what to market. Today, marketers can reach their target market in more ways than ever,
and people have the ability to answer almost any question in less than five seconds, at
any given time. We can communicate with one another from the other side of the planet
in an instant. George Crumb said in his article Music: Does it Have a Future?, “The
geographical extension means, of course, that the total musical culture of planet Earth is
“coming together” as it were. An American or European composer, for example, now has
access to various Asian, African, and South American cultures.”14 This article was
written in 1980. A lot has changed and we have become a more global world since then.
There is no doubt that Ancient Voices is a piece of music for a niche group of
listeners. It may be put in the classical category in a very broad sense because of the
instrumentation and the way in which it is performed. Within that category or genre not
everyone who listens to that type of music will like it. That is with any kind of music.
The problem of trying to market Ancient Voices is how could they reach out to all the
people that do want to listen to it.
The goal of this music was not to sell a million records and make a lot of money
from it and become famous. For most artists that never happens and that is not their goal.
From a marketing perspective; however, that would be the most ideal outcome. In the
1970’s when the album was released there was a few potential things to be done. First
and most importantly Ancient Voices was recorded and sold on record. The next step
14
George Crumb, “Music: Does It Have a Future?,” The Kenyon Review, 1980, 1.
would have been radio time. If the piece mad it past that, it would have gone to television.
If it were this successful, there would also have been a tour of it as well.
Crumb did sell albums and so the people who wanted it bought it. But at the time
the next step is radio. The royalties generated from radio play could have been profitable
but in todays world there is no doubt there would be profit. With new satellite radio
stations and music subscription-based online radio, Ancient Voices could be more
profitable today than in 1970. Recently there has been an issue with pirated music and
other media, but royalties have been increasing due to services like Spotify, iTunes Radio,
and Satellite Radio. These are all popular ways to listen to almost anything you want for
free, and still grant royalties to those who deserve them. Many of these services give
suggestions to the users while they are listening. For example: if someone was listening
to Bartok radio, in the corner of the computer or device it may suggest George Crumb.
That is one way to market for free. Other ways might be Youtube, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and Blogs. These are all ways to reach out to people who may be interested in
the music. This would not be done just on a computer either. All of these social medias
could be exploited on phones, TV’s, and tablets. Today the option of free advertising and
fundraising is available through websites like kickstarter, or bandcamp.
Regardless of which ways a marketer chose to market Ancient Voices of Children,
there are many more options today than there were in 1970. Many of these new ways are
free and would have reached the target audience faster and cheaper than a radio or
television station. If Ancient Voices of Children had been released today, it would have
had more opportunities and could have become an even bigger success.
Bibliography
Crumb, George. Ancient Voices of Children. New York: C.F. Peters Corp., 1970.
Crumb, George. “Ancient Voices Of” (MP3). Accessed April 15, 2014.
http://wiu.naxosmusiclibrary.com.ezproxy.wiu.edu/catalogue/item.asp?cid=60349
7108466.
Crumb, George. “Music: Does It Have a Future?” The Kenyon Review, 1980.
Gillespie, Don. George Crumb, Profile of a Composer / with an Introduction by Gilbert
Chase ; Compiled and Edited by Don Gillespie. New York: C.F. Peters Corp.,
1986.
Ginell, Richard S. "Salonen, Mallki, and Crumb." American Record Guide, 03, 2011. 10,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/863383460?accountid=14982.
Morgan, Robert. Modern Times. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1994.
Steinitz, Richard, George Crumb, in the Oxford Music Online, accessed April 15,
2014,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.wiu.edu/subscriber/article/grov
e/music/A2249252?q=%28Ancient+voices+of+children%29&search=quick&pos
=14&_start=1#firsthit.