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George Crumb (Oct. 1929-present) is an American composer who has written numerous contemporary pieces for orchestra, piano, voice, and chamber groups. One particular piece for Vocal Choral Orchestra by Crumb is Star-Child. “Star-Child…is sensitive, powerful, full of personality, and it marks a significant step in Mr. Crumb’s development…. This is big music and even passionate music. In a way, it is a synthesis both of what Mr. Crumb has been doing and of many contemporary techniques. Mr. Crumb has tied everything together, creating a score than transcends any derivations."

=Composition and Premiere= Star-Child was commissioned by the Ford Foundation and written in 1977. It is Crumb’s largest work and requires many musicians for it to be performed. It was written for soprano, antiphonal children’s voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers, and large orchestra. Originally, the orchestra members spoke as well as played, and the children’s choir also played the handbells. This was later revised in 1979 to the current personnel list. The layout the Crumb specified for the large ensemble is shown below.

Because Star-Child was specifically written for Irene Gubrud (soprano) and Pierre Boulez and the New York Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic performed the premiere of the piece on May 5, 1977. Boulez, David Gilbert, James Chambers, and Larry Newland conducted the piece. Gobrud, the Boys’ Choirs of the Little Church Around the Corner and Trinity School, and the Bell Ringers of Trinity School in New York all sang in the premiere. The score is also dedicated to Crumb’s two sons, David and Peter.

The title for Star-Child came from Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III), another one of Crumb’s compositions. In this piece, there is a section called “Hymn for the Advent of the Star-Child".

=Music= Star-Child, much like other pieces written by Crumb, deals with Biblical quotes and a contrast between light and dark. Throughout the piece is a sense of leaving a place of despair and darkness and reaching the freeing nature of lightness. This theme is reflected in both the progression of the music as well as in the text. In the beginning of the piece, the dark section, the lower, darker instruments are featured. In contrast, children’s singing and handbells are prominent at the end of Star-Child.

Four conductors are required to conduct all of the musicians in Star-Child. The first conductor conducts all of the vocal passages, the winds, and six of the percussionists until the very end of the piece. Conductor number two conducts all of the strings and two of the percussionists. The third conductor only conducts during the last movement when the brass and winds divide into smaller groups. When this happens, the third conductor directs the brass and three percussionists. During this same movement, a fourth conductor conducts another smaller group consisting of the clarinets, flutes, and vibraphone.

The eight percussionists play many nontraditional instruments such as iron chains, flexatones, pot lids, sizzle cymbals, metal thunder sheets, log drums, and wind machines. The more traditional percussion instruments are often used in nontraditional ways as well.

Star-Child is divided into 7 movements.

1.	Introduction: Desolato

2.	Vox Clamans In Deserto

3.	Ascensus Potestatum Tenebrarum

4.	Musica Apocalyptica

5.	Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse

6.	Adventus Pueroreum Luminis

7.	Hymnus Pro Novo Tempore

Although Star-Child is written for a large orchestra, “4. Musica Apocalyptica” is the only movement that utilizes every musician.

Although this piece has many movements, a listener should understand and listen to the piece as a complete work.

The main musical idea throughout the piece is “Music of the Spheres,” which is played by the strings and made up of chords built of perfect fifths. This melody “moves throughout the work in a circular and therefore static manner, a kind of background music over which the human drama is enacted.” This circular movement of the melody is visually depicted on the first page of the score, shown below. Over this melody, Crumb superimposed sequences of different, contrasting musical lines in the style of Charles Ives. Because these superimposed lines have different tempos and metrics, four conductors are needed. The different tempos and metrics shown by the conductors’ batons create unusual visual choreography.

There are many programmed and visual allusions throughout Star-Child. For example, seven sounding trumpets are used to represent the seven trumpets of the apocalypse. Two of the trumpet players sit in the audience, while five are positioned throughout the concert hall. Also, four drummers playing sixteen tom-toms represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

=Text=

The text in Star-Child is in Latin. The text was adapted from Dies Irae and Massacre of the Innocents, which are both 13th century texts, as well as John 12:36 from the New Testament of the Bible. Crumb used Latin text because he believed it conveyed a universal meaning of finding a way out of despair to a hopeful and bright future. Although four conductors are required for this piece, only conductor number one conducts the vocal lines.

The first phrase of Dies Irae is specifically used in the fourth movement as well as at the very end of the piece. The second movement contains text from Dies Irae as well, which is sung by a solo soprano in a duet with a solo trombonist located in front of the orchestra between solo vocalists. The final text of the piece comes from the Bible verse John 12:36.

English Translation of Text
Soprano:

“Voice crying in the wilderness”

Deliver me, O Lord from

eternal death on that dreadful

day when the heavens and the earth

shall be moved, and Thou shalt come

to judge the world by fire.

O Lord, deliver me from eternal

Death!

I am seized with fear and trembling

when I reflect upon the judgment

and wrath to come.

Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal

death.

Soprano:

“Advent of the children of light”

O Lord, grant them light!

The ancient law is no more,

Gone are the rites of old!

Already the blind

See a ray of light!

And the bonds of death are broken!

Children:

“Hymn for the new age”

Light shines in the darkness!

Exult in God!

Glory on high!

Rejoice in God!

Soprano:

Their bonds are nearly broken,

For born in the king of glory!

Children:

Light shines in the darkness!

Glory on high!

Exult in God!

Rejoice in God!

Soprano:

The flow of death is swallowed up,

The law of mercy is bestowed on us!

Children:

Let us praise God!

Soprano:

It is a day of joy,

A light is shed on the

yoke of the singers!

A festival is celebrated,

Therefore let us rejoice!

Children:

Glory on high!

Light shines in the darkness!

Soprano:

While ye have light,

believe in the light,

that ye may be the children of light.

=Reception and Influence= Some music critics believed that Crumb put too many intricate details into the piece because the ensemble is so large. They thought that so large an ensemble with so many intricate and different lines causes some detail and delicacy to become lost. However, other critics such as Harold C. Schonberg, an American music critic and journalist for the New York Times, praised Star-Child. The quote by Schonberg at the beginning of this article, mentions the power, sensitivity, emotion, and complexity of the Star-Child.

=Notes=

=References=

Borroff, Edith. “George Crumb.” Chap. 4 in Three American Composers. Lanham, MD: University Press of America: 1986.

Bruns, Steven, Ofer Ben-Amots, and Michael D. Grace, eds. George Crumb & The Alchemy of Sound: Essays on His Music. Colorado Springs, CO: The Colorado College, 2005.

Crumb, George. Star-Child. New York: C.F. Peters, 1977.

Schonberg, Harold C. The New York Times. 7 May 1977 http://www.georgecrumb.net/comp/star-r.html

Starobin, Robert. “Star-Child.” The Official George Crumb Home Page. 20 Oct. 2012 http://www.georgecrumb.net/comp/star.html

=Further Reading= 1. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, S.v. “Crumb, George (Henry Jr.),” by Nicolas Sloimsky, Laura Kuhn, and Dinnis McIntire.

2. Brooks, Richard. “Music Reviews.” Notes 45, no. 3 (Mar. 1989), http://www.jstor.org/stable/940827 (accessed Oct. 6, 2012).

3. Kandell, Leslie. “New York: George Crumb Concert.” American Record Guide 75, no. 4 (July 2012), http://search.proquest.com/docview/1032848562?accountid=9807 (accessed Oct. 1, 2012).

4. Oxford Music Online, S.v. “Crumb, George (Henry),” by Richard Steinitz. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06903 (accessed Oct. 7, 2012).

5. Reeder, Douglas Bell. “Symbolism and Textual Painting in Four Vocal Works by George Crumb.” Doctoral diss., Ohio State University, 1997. https://ezproxy.butler.edu:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=rih&AN=1997-08799&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed Oct. 6, 2012).

6. Schonberg, Harold C. “’Star-Child’ by Crumb: Sensitive and Powerful Work Performed by Philharmonic.” New York Times (May 7, 1977), http://search.proquest.com/docview/123079290?accountid=9807 (accessed Oct. 6, 2012).

7. Schramm, Betsy Lynn. “Timbre and Texture as Structural Determinants in Ceorge Crumb’s Star-child.” Doctoral diss., University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 1993. https://ezproxy.butler.edu:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=rih&AN=1993-04002&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed Oct. 6, 2012).

8. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, S.v. “Crumb, George (Henry),” by Richard Steinitz.

=External Links=

Recordings
1. Crumb, George. 70th Birthday Album. Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Warsaw Boys Choir, David Starobin, Susan Narucki, George Crumb, Ann Crumb, Thomas Conlin. Thomas Conlin. Bridge Records BCD 9095. 1998,1999. Compact disc.

2. Crumb, George. Complete Crumb Edition. Various performers. Various conductors. Bridge Records 9028. 1991. Compact disc.