Volume 8 Issue 7 - April 2003

NEW
MUSIC
composer 2composer
INTERVIEW WITH depressed, so the strings keep
ringing almost to infinity. Of
GEORGE course, I was also influenced by
composers like Debussy, whose
music seems to reflect that same
CRUMB obsession with the slow decay of
sounds and reverbation.
MARCH2003
by Paul Steenhuisen
George Cnunb was born on
October 24, 1929, the Black
Thursday of the great stock market
crash. Throughout his career, he
has composed numerous mysterious,
introverted, and distinctively
orchestrated works that are part of ·
the post-1950 musical canon,
including his Ancient Voices of
Children, Black Angels, Night of
the Four Moons, and Vox Balaenae
(Voice of the Whale), among
others. On Sunday April 13, at the
Gleim Gould Studio, New Music
Concerts brings him to Toronto for
a concert entitled The Unknown
Cnunb. In an affiliated event,
students of the Glenn Gould ·
Professional School will perform
other of his works on Friday April
11 at the Royal Conservatory.
Since first learning about this
concert, I've looked forward to
talking with this renegade American
composer.
STEENHUISEN: You've written
that "the tndy magical and spiritual
powers of music arise from deeper
levels of our psyche, and that every
composer, from his or her formative
years, has acquired 'a natural
acoustic' that remains in their ear
for life. " How did your sense of
time and place, and your environment
in the Appalachian river
valley influence you as a composer?
CRUMB: I was influenced by the
particular acoustic of the Kanawha
river valley in West Virginia. You
would hear echoing effects from
sounds that were across the river,
and it had a kind of ricochet effect,
becatlse sound travels very well
over water. I think this just
became part of my hearing. My
music is involved with echoing
effects and this is precisely the
acoustic of such a place. 'I love
instruments that appear not to ever
want to die out, like tams tams and
gongs -thesoundsjustkeep
reverberating. When I write for
piano, usually the damper pedal is
STEENHUISEN: Did your early
musical experience and geography
affect your unique sense of
instrumental timbre as well?