In a 2011 interview with All Things Considered, Sellars observed how Crumb had tapped into still-unresolved elements of American history. In 2011, theater director Peter Sellars staged the work, featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw along with amplified piano and a percussion quartet. Political divide and the anguishes of war were a subject Crumb returned to in his 2004 work The Winds of Destiny, for which he arranged Civil War-era songs. it scared the bejabbers out of me." (An excerpt from the piece also formed part of the soundtrack for The Exorcist.) Violinist David Harrington was so inspired after hearing Black Angels that in 1973 he founded the famed Kronos Quartet to explore new music and new sounds for the traditional string quartet.ĭecades later, David Bowie declared the original recording of Black Angels to be one of his favorite albums of all time, writing: "It is a study in spiritual annihilation. No cause was given.Ĭrumb's howling, landmark 1970 work Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Darkland) (Images I) was a protest against the horrors of the Vietnam War that utilized spoken word, bowed water glasses and electronics. His death was announced by his longtime recording label, Bridge Records, which said that he died at his home in Media, Pa., with his family at his side.
While audiences could find some of his music forbidding or opaque, it often mined a deeply felt and uniquely American vein of emotion. The influential American composer George Crumb died Sunday at age 92.
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