As both of these elements are, in a sense, foreign to the nature of the strings, it was necessary to translate them into the medium of the quartet. One is the element of fanfare (or other somewhat stirring sounds) and the second is a kind of lyricism normally associated with the voice. "I feel that in a large and general way, two diverse elements are juxtaposed in the Sixth Quartet (1970). The first one dates from student days, the second (1944) is already concerned with the special sonorities possible in this medium, the third (1951) is more complex in texture and probably the most dissonant, the fourth (1954) is more simple and lyrical, and the fifth (1961) again is much taken up with special sonorities. "The six string quartets which I have written might be considered as a musical diary which I have kept through the years.
At certain points in the score there occurs a kind of ritualistic counting in various languages, including German, French, Russian, Hungarian, Japanese, and Swahili. An important pitch element in the work - ascending D-sharp, A, and E - also symbolizes the fateful numbers 7-13. in terms of phrase-length, groupings for single tones, durations, patterns of repetition, etc.
These "magical" relationships are variously expressed - e.g. The numerological symbolism of Black Angels, while perhaps not immediately perceptible to the ear, is nonetheless quite faithfully reflected in the musical structure. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation), and Return (redemption). The underlying structure of Black Angelsis a huge arch-like design which is suspended from the three " Threnody" pieces. The image of the "black angel" was a conventional device used by early painters to symbolize the fallen angel. The numerous quasi-programmatic allusions in the work are therefore symbolic, although the essential polarity - God versus Devil - implies more than a purely metaphysical reality. It is a dance with the dark expanse of the universe, but we are given no time to learn the steps.New York String Quartet: Paul Zukofsky, violin Romuald Teco, violin Jean Dupouy, viola Timothy Eddy, cello Gilbert Kalish, pianoīlack Angels (Thirteen Images From The Dark Land) was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. It provokes fear of the unknowable, of humankind’s inability to comprehend its own existence.
The piece deals only in contradiction, disjuncture, and enormity, tearing apart the ensemble into a series of vast, irreconcilable tensions. Black Angels is, appropriately, both uplifting and crushingly morbid. Enigmatic movement titles and allusions to the music of Schubert and Beethoven form an interpretative mesh, one so dense that it threatens to destroy all sense of meaning.īut perhaps this is precisely the point. The work makes use of numerical symbolism, in particular the sacred seven and demonic thirteen. George Crumb has cryptically related the piece to fallen angels, mortality, and the Vietnam War.
We are left uncertain how to interpret the composition that results. There, they must recite streams of syllables and bash tam-tams. Here, they are called to play crystal glasses. The musicians, too, are pushed to their limits at times, they seem to be attacking or ignoring their instruments. The viola, cello, and pair of violins are amplified and subjected to electronic distortion, their timbre radically transformed. With Black Angels, the string quartet, a form often associated with cool detachment, gives way to a visceral experience.
As we fail to impose a sense of reason upon the sequence of events in which it is lodged, it glimmers just out of reach, revelling in our inability to order this chaos. A macabre tango strikes up, as if played on Death’s own fiddle. Shouts, moans, and all manner of strange, unclassifiable sounds ricochet about in the void. Percussive, plucked string patterns race through the darkness.