By George by Crumb!

A little bit of culture shall we?
I have to admit I've only recently been switched onto him, but how amazing is George Crumb?
Not to be confused with another visionary with a very similar name George Crum (the inventor of potato chip), Crumb is an American composer of modern and avant garde music. Born October 24, 1929, (the same day as the infamous great Crash on Wall Street), Crumb is known for his "unusual and hauntingly evocative timbres and for incorporating mysterious voices and sounds of unconventional instruments into his works," and for his innovative use of theatrical techniques in chamber music. Examples include spoken flute (one speaks while blowing into the instrument) and glass marbles poured onto an open piano. He has also used unusual layouts of musical notation in a number of his scores. In several pieces, his complex music is symbolically laid out in a beautiful circular or spiral fashion. I'm impressed!

By Erueti Brown with 1 comment