Because George Crumb's atmospheric compositions are usually scored for chamber ensembles and filled with myriad quiet effects, his larger-scaled orchestral works may be more difficult to recognize and appreciate. The private tone that Crumb practically trademarked, in such works as Ancient Voices of Children and Music for a Summer Evening, is harder to find in his largest ensemble pieces; though his gestures, quotations, and advanced techniques are similar, they are less intimate and affecting in such a public "forum" as ...
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Because George Crumb's atmospheric compositions are usually scored for chamber ensembles and filled with myriad quiet effects, his larger-scaled orchestral works may be more difficult to recognize and appreciate. The private tone that Crumb practically trademarked, in such works as Ancient Voices of Children and Music for a Summer Evening, is harder to find in his largest ensemble pieces; though his gestures, quotations, and advanced techniques are similar, they are less intimate and affecting in such a public "forum" as the orchestra. Crumb's intense vision is blurred in A Haunted Landscape (1984), which, due to fat string textures, busy woodwinds and brass, and sustained violence in the percussion, resembles a horror film soundtrack. Star-Child (1977) still has enough of Crumb's mannerisms to be identifiable, but the vastness of his forces, his apocalyptic texts, and his Ivesian complexities make the work too pretentiously epic to really touch the emotions. Of the three works here, only Echoes of...
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