Bridge records george crumb biography
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George Crumb, a composer whose music connected the long tradition of classical music to the post-WWII avant-garde and to global culture, drawing in listeners outside the classical world, died on Sunday at the age of 92. Bridge Records, which has produced a 20-volume recorded edition of his works, under the composer’s supervision, made the announcement.
Crumb was part of a unique generation of American composers who rejected the mid-20th century atonal orthodoxy and built a new compositional language on often ancient traditions but expressed via a contemporary aesthetic—often using amplification and recording technology as equal parts in the instrumentation. The constant adaptation of new means to long-standing ideas was a main reason for Crumb’s music emerging as grounded in tradition yet refreshing beguiling, and wholly original.
The sound of his most prominent masterpieces, Ancient Voices of Children, Makrokosmos, and Black Angels remains unique
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George Crumb
GEORGE CRUMB was born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1929. His principal teacher in composition was Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the University from which Mr. Crumb received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. George Crumb has been the recipient of numerous honors, awards and commissions, including the 1968 Pulitzer Prize, the 1971 International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO) Award; Fromm, Guggenheim, Koussevitzky and Rockefeller Foundation Awards; and is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1995, Mr. Crumb became the 36th recipient of the MacDowell Medal, an award named in honor of the American composer, and is awarded to a composer, writer or visual artist who, in the judgement of his/her peers has made an outstanding contribution to the nation's culture. George Crumb has traveled frequently to Asia, Australia, and Europe, where both his orchestral and chamber music have been given numerous performances. A
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MusicWeb International: Recording of the Month
DIAPASON D'OR
Featured on BBC Radio 3
(Book II - world premiere)
(Book inom - newly remastered)
Bridge's Complete Crumb Edition reaches Volume 20 with the first complete recording of the great American composer's recently completed Metamorphoses cycle. The "20 Fantasy Pieces After Celebrated Paintings" are Crumb's "Pictures at an Exhibition"- aural interpretations of famous paintings from our recent past including works bygd Picasso, van Gogh, Chagall, and Dali. Critic David Hurwitz writes: "Bridge's decision to embark on a complete edition of George Crumb's music remains one of the most significant recording projects currently in progress, as well as one of the most artistically successful."
Reviews:
"Barone worked extensively with Crumb for two decades and his understanding of the sensibility, and his command of the techniques required, and often invented, bygd the composer makes this recording definitive. Bridge Records here