Crumb, G :: Madrigals Book IV
George Crumb presents Madrigals: Book IV for soprano, flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute), harp, double bass, and percusion, based on the poems and texts of Federico Garcia Lorca.
Book IV is comprised of:
I. Por que naci entre espejos? El dia me da vueltas. Y la noche me copia en todas sus estrellas. [Why was I born surrounded by mirrors? The day turns round me. And the night reproduces me in each of her stars.]
II. Tu cuerpo, con la sombra violeta de mis manos, era un arcangel de frio. [Through my hands' violet shadow, your body was an archangel, cold]
III. La muerte me esta mirando desde las torres de Cordoba! [Death is watching me from the towers of Cordoba!]
'The Madrigals were composed between 1965 and 1969. Like many of Crumb's most significant works, including Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968) and Ancient Voices of Children (1970), they are constructed from fragments of poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca. In a sense, his many Lorca pieces constitute, as the composer has pointed out, 'an extended cycle.' Still, each work stands firmly on its own merits.
The four books, which last about thirty-two minutes in performance, are scored for soprano and a variety of instruments: vibraphone and double bass in Book One, alto flute (doubling flute and piccolo) and percussion in Book Two, harp and percussion in Book Three, and flute, harp, bass and percussion in Book Four. Fierce themes of Eros and Thanatos haunt the piece, reflected in its agitated, percussive idiom and angular, often harsh vocal lines. The texts evoke Goyaesque images: Verte desnuda es recordar la tierra ('To see you naked is to remember the earth'), Los muertos llevan alas de musgo ('The dead wear mossy wings'), both from Book One; La muerte me esta mirando desde las torres de Cordoba! ('Death is watching me from the towers of Cordoba!') from the last book.
Crumb's penchant for hidden structures is evident in the first madrigal of Book Three, La noche canta desnuda sobre los puentes de marzo ('Night sings naked above the bridges of March'), in which he uses two instrumental isorhythms of different lengths, while the voice floats unencumbered above. Yet the Madrigals are, like all of Crumb's music, more about meaning than technique. Dark and disquieting, they are the music made when reason sleeps.
- Liner Notes; George Crumb, New World Records 80357
Oversized. Single score.
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