Black Angels

Sub-titled "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land", Black Angels is a modern classic, a tour de force for string quartet that is extremely challenging to perform, but the payoff is so tremendous that it's absolutely worth the effort (even at 1am!!! - click here for more information on this weekends 24/7 event)

Peter Burwasser's excellent article in the Philadelphia CityPaper describes the circumstances of Black Angel's genesis:
"1970 was a tough year for America. Memories of the recent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, as well as the immolations of American black inner-city neighborhoods, hovered darkly, acridly, in the air. It was, above all else, the ongoing nightmare of Vietnam that engulfed the national consciousness, casting a huge shadow over virtually all human intercourse. It was into this lurid zeitgeist that George Crumb’s amplified string quartet "Black Angels" was premiered. The music crystallized the composer’s uncanny ability to project ferocity and the beatific in the same voice. New music in 1970 was still dominated by emotionally constricted serialism, and Crumb’s direct sensuality had an explosive effect. "Black Angels" was an instant classic, and has since been recorded 10 times, a remarkable, perhaps unprecedented statistic for contemporary art music."

Black Angels is organized in 13 short movements, grouped in 3 larger sections:
I - Departure (Click below to hear Kronos landmark recording of this section)

1. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects
2. Sounds of Bones and Flutes
3. Lost Bells
4. Devil-music
5. Danse Macabre
II - Absence
6. Pavana Lachrymae
7. Threnody II: Black Angels!
8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura
9. Lost Bells
III - Return
10. God-music
11. Ancient Voices
12. Ancient Voices (Echo)
13. Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects