A terrific performance by Brendan and Ida Nicolosi of what is for me a very beautiful piece:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=noomsby#p/u/3/bgX_Jw9Nndw

It immediately reminded me of Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children. I have no understanding of this music but I find it extremely haunting, beautiful, and fascinating even on first listening.

The piano sounds almost like a sitar to me near the beginning. The playing inside the piano sounds completely natural to me in this piece.

I thought touching the bass strings could cause damage. How is this prevented?

I wasn't aware that playing inside the piano will cause damage to *any* strings... Is this a fact? Can someone confirm this?

Other than that the piece is AWESOME and I wasn't aware of it really (although I do have various scores of Crumbs music). The performance is also excellent!

Thanks for linking us!

EDIT: The pianists' channel is filled with nice performances also! Just a heads up!

Yes, Crumb has written some great things. And, of course, crafted some beautiful-looking scores:

http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v46/n06/CrumbSpiral.gif

By the way, if you ever get a chance to listen to his Macrokosmos, Book 2, Piece 11 ("Litany of the Galactic Bells"), you'll hear a fascinating homage to Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata.


-Jason

It remains to be seen if such beautiful scores (indeed they are beautiful) are also practical. I have Macrokosmos but never sut down to study it and although I have a few other of his scores (which resemble the spiral one, which is always the example used) I've never had a chance to work on it and see if such a score is practical for a pianist... :-/

Still beautiful music and beautiful scores!

I heard my first Crumb piece two nights ago at a grad recital. 'Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik', apparently it's based on 'Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk. Strumming/scratching/plucking/slapping the strings, hitting the music stand with a mallet, shouting numbers in what I think was italian, holding down the sostenuto pedal throughout and sitting in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time at the end of the piece.

I would call it haunting as well, though I'm not sure how one could strum the chromatic strings and have sympathetic vibrations throughout the piece and not have it haunting (not going to get a lot of consonance with these methods). I will grant that there were some pretty neat sound effects and it was an interesting experience, but I don't know if I'll ever develop a taste for modern weirdness (one of the thoughts that came to mind while watching was "piano rape").



We got an email the other day from the piano tech telling us that one of the practice room pianos has had strings recently replaced just prior to the grad recital. It was the practice room that the same student had moved into in preparation for his recital. The piece is a bit rough on the strings.

According to some techs I have talked to, even very small amounts of natural oil on human skin can - eventually - lead to oxidization of copper-wound strings where they are touched, which, in turn, leads to corrosion. There is not complete agreement among techs just how much of a problem this may or may not be.

How serious this can be to any given piano depends upon how much the strings are touched.

Going further, some compositions for "prepared piano" require the placement of objects on or between the strings of a piano to change the timbre of the piano sound. No one would have permission to do that to my piano!

Regards,

So no Cage for you, Bruce?

... only on someone else's piano, and in very limited doses prescribed at very widely spaced intervals!

Oh, and by the way, the head of the keyboard department at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Dr. Jamie Syer, is presenting a recital this month which will include :
"The program includes a rare performance of Makrokosmos (Book I) by American composer George Crumb--a groundbreaking work for solo piano which demands all the usual sounds of the instrument, and many unusual ones as well. The work's astronomical and astrological connections are a good match for the International Year of Astronomy, and the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first explorations of the cosmos by telescope."

I shall certainly be present at that recital to learn what kind of musical sustenance I may derive from these "Crumbs"!

Regards,

I find them wonderfully clear and easy to read. If the goal of a score is to communicate to a performer the ideas, sounds, and manner of execution, then Crumb succeeds beautifully on all three counts.

When people have a problem with Crumb's scores, it's usually because they can't get past the shock of unfamiliarity. Likewise, if you try to read Joyce or Faulkner expecting convention punctuation, you'll be bewildered, but if you're open to the unconventional presentation of the material, then you'll find the material is all the better for being framed differently.

I actually find Crumb easier to read than a lot of composers who do their own (bad) engraving in Finale and don't bother tweaking the layout.

Bruce,

Oxidation (loss of electrons) and corrosion are different names for the same process. Copper forms two main oxides.

The black oxide is copper (II) oxide, which forms very slowly on any copper exposed to air; no way to stop that from happening. However, reactions involving the oils and sweat on your skin will form copper (II) oxide, hence the problems with touching a piano's bass strings. Formation of copper (II) oxide can be greatly speeded up by heating the copper sample.

Red copper (I) oxide also forms with exposure to air, but very slowly.

Other conditions result in familiar green verdigris, which usually is a copper (II) carbonate (Statue of Liberty), but also can be copper (II) chloride (which forms a green hydrate when exposed to water), or copper (II) acetate (which also forms a deep blue-green hydrate) depending on conditions.

On another note, rust is merely comprised of red oxides of iron. And getting moisture on the plain wire strings by contact is a good way to get that started. No one will be playing prepared piano on mine either.

PS — The Roman numeral (II) indicates the charge (+2) of the copper cation in solution, since copper is one of a few substances that have different charges in different compounds.

What he said.....BUT...

Having worked with a music prof. who did Crumb a lot, I have to say that the little chalk marks and pieces of sticky tape stuck to the strings can get a little annoying....
The strings can get corroded....worst of all the dampers can get hit and pushed out of shape....
Having said all that....
This is such amazing music that it is worth every inconvenience from this technicians point of view....maybe it's the California vibe and the fresh Pacific breeze...la la la la...some techs take themselves far too seriously :-)

PLUG PLUG...for Crumb players etc....
I have designed a music stand for a grand piano that allows the player to read the music and reach under to strike/pluck or whatever they do to the strings.
It's made of aluminum and will take apart easily for transport etc.
Everyone who tries it loves it....
I hand made a total of six and have two left....no more scheduled for production as I have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline just now....busy, busy...

I would think that cleaning the copper-wound strings after doing an "inside the piano" piece would take care of the corrosion problem. Tedious work, but it should take care of it (and usually it is not the entire string that would be affected). Alternatively, depending on what the music demands, it might be possible to wear surgical or some other kind of gloves.

There also seems to be a long pause at the end of Apparitions. I thought the video had actually ended(both players seemed frozen)...and then they bowed to the applause.

Related vids:
A Conversation with George Crumb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xo8SHjTxpc&feature=related

Ancient Voices of Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXm0NrP40DI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy4p7JRbk_s&feature=related

Black Angels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV6BeeoX474&NR=1