Background
In the 1950s and 60s, composers began a new push in experimental music, especially with regard to electronic techniques. George Crumb was commissioned by the Stanley Quartet (then in residence at his alma mater the University of Michigan) to create just such an experimental piece. Sure that he wanted to avoid writing a typical piece for string quartet, Crumb looked to experimental piano music from the early 60s for inspiration, and decided to explore the contemporary world's religious strife in his composition. "Black Angels" reflects these haunting and mystical undertones; Crumb meant for the violin to embody the devil's music, and cast the cello as "the voice of God."
The image of Black Angels is an archetypical convention used by artists to represent an angel banished from Heaven. The "Dark Land" refers to Hell, with consistent references to Diablo, via Diabolus in Musica, the Trillo del diavolo ("Devil's Trill", from Giuseppe Tartini), and the Dies Irae (quoted in section 4 Devil-music, and as a Duo Alternativo in section 5 Danse Macabre). Crumb also makes references to other tonal works that incorporate death, such as Schubert's Death and the Maiden (quoted in section 6 Pavana Lachrymae and section 13 Threnody III).
"Black Angels" was not originally intended to refer to wartime, and Crumb only associated his work with the war in Vietnam towards the end of its composition. "I came to recognize that there was something of the feeling of that strange time. That's when I called it music in tempore belli, in time of war," he said in an interview with Philadelphia City Paper. After making the connection between his piece and war, Crumb also connected it to another contemporary wartime piece, Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima." Both pieces open with high pitched extended technique on violin, and Black Angels features three important threnodies which divide it.
Read more about this topic: Black Angels (Crumb)
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