# Narrative Content in George Crumb's Black Angels (1970)



## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Inspired by TalkingHead's wonderful post on narrative arc in Denis Smalley's Pentes (don't miss it, go check it out!), I felt like sharing a few of my thoughts on George Crumb's Black Angels (1970) for electric string quartet with players doubling on percussion.

This piece is a favorite of mine. It is a mid/late 20th-century work that, while not outwardly neoromantic sounding in the usual sense, contains a romantic narrative sensibility. Romantic narrative sensibility is not the only kind of narrative sensibility, but it does pervade this work.

Black Angels is a single-movement with 13 episodes. These 13 episodes are in stark contrast to one another, and yet as the piece progresses the content introduced in these episodes gets combined, compared, or re-contextualized.

The piece begins with dissonant and aggressive tremolos/glissandos in its initial Night of the Electric Insects episode. Later episodes introduce percussive dances, a foreboding Dies Irae plainchant, chorales (including a shadowy quotation of Schubert's Death and the Maiden, and an original chorale episode Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura), soulful aria singing (particularly the high cello melody in God Music). These ideas get reprised, recapitulated, and juxtaposed, similar to how a romantic composer would. Of course, Crumb isn't using traditional harmony (note the bassline motion aka chord inversions in the Death and the Maiden quotation or the crystal glasses accompanying the cello in God Music) or sonata form, but a lot of that kind of aesthetic sensibility is there.

Take e.g. the contrast between the initial otherworldly Lost Bells section and its reprise - to me nostalgic and disembodied, even bringing in part of the Sounds of Bones and Flutes. Or the reprise of the Night of the Electric Insects episode near the end of the work. The first Night of the Electric Insects episode is a roaring, harsh initial statement, but the reprise sounds oddly neutral and tragic to me, as if the music momentarily threatens to declare that the personal journey taken through the piece had been for nothing and won't receive fulfillment.

My favorite part is the reprise of the Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura near the end at around 18:30. This is the culmination that combines multiple elements throughout the piece - the chorale is played with 2 violins and viola with metal-capped fingers hammering away as their pitches are gradually adjusted as glissando while the cello sings in its highest register (evoking the above-mentioned God Music). We combine the distant reverence of the chorale, the personal longing of the aria, and the aggressive primality of the percussion. This realization that these disparate elements fit together allows us to see their emotional content from an elevated height - a quintessential achievement of romantic sensibility.


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## Guest (Oct 7, 2020)

Just listening to it now; very impressed so far (I'm up to II Absence/Pavanne Lachrymae). Have the Arditti Quartet ever done this? I'll reply to you in more detail later in the week. Thanks for posting!


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## Guest (Oct 9, 2020)

Wow, I've just finished listening to this; it is a remarkable work. I would like to thank you again for posting this, a fantastic discovery for me. I'm a little bit overwhelmed so please indulge me if I make any naive comments before I get to its narrative curve.

_*Black Angels*_ is decidedly a "(electric) string quartet" worthy of the name. Why do I say that? Well, I've heard many a contemporary string quartet (Philip Glass, John Cage...) that in my opinion do not merit that title. For me, Glass and Cage "string quartets" are more "music for 4 string instruments" than a real "string quartet". And what do I mean by that? Well, the mere passing of themes between violins I & II, viola and 'cello do not a string quartet make. Or if you prefer, passing easily interchangeable thematic material between the strings (voices) does not constitute the true essence of a string quartet. A real string quartet (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok...) involves strong and independent lines, a real dialogue.

_*Black Angels*_ is, I repeat, a real string quartet as per my definition above. For me, the most striking movements are _*Lost Bells*_ and _*God-Music*_. This piece by *Crumb* was composed in 1970 and I can hear how *John Tavener* and *Jonathan Harvey* may well have been influenced by this work. I also hear references to Berio.

I will return to its narrative arc and make other comments later. I will be more than delighted to listen to this work again to clarify my thoughts in the meantime...


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I have the score for that, it's a work of art in itself and is enormous in size. The Kronos recording is fabulous, so is the recording posted by the OP above which I hadn't heard before.
I particularly like the haunting sound achieved in the Pavane by bowing behind the left hand.
Here's the first page of Edition Peters with a pocket score for comparison, not that it's needed in these digital days, I'm just old school.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

TalkingHead said:


> _*Black Angels*_ is decidedly a "(electric) string quartet" worthy of the name. Why do I say that? Well, I've heard many a contemporary string quartet (Philip Glass, John Cage...) that in my opinion do not merit that title. For me, Glass and Cage "string quartets" are more "music for 4 string instruments" than a real "string quartet". And what do I mean by that? Well, the mere passing of themes between violins I & II, viola and 'cello do not a string quartet make. Or if you prefer, passing easily interchangeable thematic material between the strings (voices) does not constitute the true essence of a string quartet. A real string quartet (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok...) involves strong and independent lines, a real dialogue.


Agreed with independent lines and dialogue in the Black Angels being a strong suit of the work! However, I'm not sure I agree with the necessity or even great importance of dialogue in itself string quartets in the later half of the 20th century. Take the quartets of not only Glass and Cage, but others like Lachenmann and Scelsi etc. They are not primarily dialogue focused - if anything, the sound as a complete ensemble takes precedence (although it's not a "massed" sound like an orchestra, but a "lean" chamber sound). I'd say that the string quartet genre couldn't have continued in importance in the second half of the 20th century without the overall sound of a quartet texture being interesting enough for composers to explore.


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2020)

SeptimalTritone said:


> Agreed with independent lines and dialogue in the Black Angels being a strong suit of the work! However, *I'm not sure I agree with the necessity or even great importance of dialogue in itself string quartets in the later half of the 20th century. *Take the quartets of not only Glass and Cage, but others like Lachenmann and Scelsi etc. They are not primarily dialogue focused - *if anything, the sound as a complete ensemble takes precedence* (although it's not a "massed" sound like an orchestra, but a "lean" chamber sound). I'd say that the string quartet genre couldn't have continued in importance in the second half of the 20th century without the overall sound of a quartet texture being interesting enough for composers to explore.


I think I see what you mean. Many contemporary composers have distilled that "essence" that you refer to (Cage, Glass, Scelsi, _et al_...). Fair enough, they have well assimilated the idea, they have captured "the envelope", so to speak, the gestures and so on. I still think that such compositions remain "music for 4 string instruments" rather than a "real" string quartet. It's not for nothing that Mozart and Beethoven underwent considerable efforts in writing their quartets, which must surely remain one of the hardest of genres. Crumb's _*Black Angels*_ is for me a _tour de force_ in that genre, and I thank you again for bringing it to my attention.


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2020)

I haven't had the time yet to have another listen of _*Black Angels*_ and to cover the subject of its narrative curve, it's a very dense work; Smalley's _*Pentes*_ is far simpler in that respect! I will get back to you as and when.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Of course, take your time! I haven't seen many posts on TC that analyzed a hardcore contemporary work in detail, so I was impressed with what you wrote earlier. I hope I can write more about this music myself in time.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2020)

Well, I've had another listen and have to say once again that this is a _tour-de-force_ in the string quartet genre. Its narrative curve (or "unfolding", if one prefers) is far from straightforward and far less organic than the Denis Smalley _*Pentes*_ piece I discussed elsewhere.

To offer an absurdly simplistic summing up, I would tentatively suggest that it is a curve that - on micro and macro levels - juxtaposes texture, gesture and melody via a range of string-playing techniques (pizzicato, glissandi, tremolo, harmonics, _arco_ and _con legno_, _sul pont_, _sul tasto_, etc.). That said, I haven't yet grasped the relevance of using the percussion and other instruments assigned to the quartet players, which I will have to consider later.

Another feature that I found of interest was the "fused ensemble" effect, meaning the _bloc_ sound the ear perceives despite the frenetic individual lines in play. This reminded me of a technique used by *Varèse* (listen to his piece _Octandre_) and *Xenakis* (listen to his work _Pithoprakta_).

I have much more to discover in _*Black Angels*_ but in the meantime I found two articles of interest that do a much better job of it than I can:
http://www.ipedr.com/vol42/040-ICKCS2012-K10055.pdf
https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.12.18.2/mto.12.18.2.johnston.html


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2020)

I hope you all (other than SeptimalTritone and Mikeh375, obviously) have had the opportunity to listen to *Crumb's* _Black Angels_ and to have read the articles I linked above.
I had a chat this morning with a colleague of mine (he's a contemporary music specialist, *Ligeti* in particular) and he mentioned that he attended a performance of this work in Lucerne (Switzerland) a couple of years ago. He was very impressed by the "visual" aspect of the quartet players as they moved around the stage to make use of the other instruments prescribed by Crumb. You may think this is a neglible point (so used are we to listening to CDs, MP3s, YouTube videos, etc.) but the actual "live" content of any work has an important role to play. Can you visualise fat *Ignaz Schuppanzigh* and his fellow quartet players sweating as they struggled with Beethoven's late quartets? Hah!


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