6) and “Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura” (no. The two Medieval-sounding movements, “Pavana Lachrymae” (no. “Devil-music (no.4) and God-music (no.10) are symmetrically placed and conceptual opposites. These 3 sections are divided into 13 movements (“Thirteen Images from the Dark Land”) in symmetrical pairs, the seventh movement standing as the lynchpin in the center. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation), and Return (redemption). Black Angels is arranged in an arch-like design of 3 large “Threnody” sections (a “threnody” is a lament). The numbers 3, 7, and 13 take on a special significance in the proxy war for Good vs.
This contrasts with the abundant use of the “Devil’s Trill” throughout the piece, a reference to Paganini, suspected by many of his compatriots to have made a pact with the devil in order to play at a level of virtuosity the world had never witnessed. The sixth movement, Pavana Lachrymae (a pavana is a slow 16th century dance, lachrymae means “tears” in Latin) contains an extensive quote from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” (Der Tod und das Mädchen) rendered in a Medieval style reminiscent of early church music. Crumb represents the depths of Hell in the fourth movement, “Devil-Music,” by having the second violin and viola play the Latin Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”) with a crunching sound which activates harmonic partials so that the pitch sounds below the note they are playing (I was not aware this was physically possible). The symbolic presence of Good and Evil is a thread that runs through every measure, sometimes represented overtly in entire movements. The numerous quasi-programmatic allusions in the work are symbolic although the essential polarity – God versus Devil – implies more than a purely metaphysical reality.
Sometimes art needs to explore regions that prefer to remain beyond the light of day.įrom here it gets technical you don’t have to read on to appreciate the music. Crumb pushes the musicians to their physical but also spiritual limits. The faculty worked at night after we were in our bunks and through the forest we heard horrifying sounds it remains the most terrifying piece of music I know. I first heard "Black Angels" when I was 14 at a summer music camp. In addition to chanting in Japanese, German, Russian, Hungarian, and Swahili, the musicians are assigned other instruments including maracas, gongs, and tuned crystal glasses.
BLACK BUTLER SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 ENGLISH DUB DAILYMOTION FULL
The piece is full of extremes: instruments play beyond their design limits and extended techniques are employed such as bowing upside down or tapping the strings with glass rods. And that coincided with all of the protest movements around the country, which kind of led to a whole new kind of America. At a certain point, I realized that it was becoming a reflection of a lot of the anxiety and uncertainty of those days. There are many works throughout music history that are reactions to political events, but in this case it kind of crept up on me. I think that the upset in the world found its way into the music, which happens so frequently. It’s more than 40 years old now, but I remember that it was a very difficult piece to write. He conceived the work "as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world,” stating that “the image of the ‘black angel' was a conventional device used by early painters to symbolize the fallen angel." Crumb wrote recently: "Black Angels" was written at a time when America was convulsed by tremendous social upheaval and the trauma of Vietnam (the top of the score is inscribed “George Crumb, in tempore belli, 1970” ). He has received the Pulitzer Prize, a Grammy Award, a Fulbright Scholarship, Rockefeller and Ford grants, Guggenheim Fellowship, and numerous other awards. He has a long association with the University of Pennsylvania, where I am Director of the Chamber Music Department and casts a huge shadow despite retiring before I arrived. George Crumb studied music in West Virginia, Illinois, and Germany before returning to study at the University of Michigan, from which he received his D.M.A. "Black Angels" fits in that last category for me and it will for you, too. Other music I hear and think “huh?” but eventually become a fanatical convert (Bartók was once like this for me but I understand most people don’t have the time nor inclination to stick with music that is an acquired taste.) There is a third category of music that causes a visceral reaction and continues to reveal itself every time you hear it. I love some music the first time I hear it but then it starts to sour by the third time.