George Crumb, BLACK ANGELS - Departure

[Ace7963]

Im scared

[bialata]

George Crumb is just wasting brain cells creating such a nonsense!

And you are killing yours listening to that :)

[bialata]

George Crumb is just wasting brain cells creating such a nonsense!

And you are killing yours listening to that :)

[trouble292]

absolutely mind blowing. another great piece from george crumb. it's a little quiet though, so you might want to turn your speakers up.

[MikeyManNp]

@sansumida - To say that using a device like a hocket makes these two periods related is dumb. The reason for using a hocket today is completely unrelated to the heterophonic textures used in the past. Yes, composers draw from the past, but the direction and the strategies for composing especially in music written after 2000 is so different, to compare the two would be stupid. Give a crumb score to a cpe musician and see if they recognize the hocket or even recognize it as music.

[Casals1990]

Nokia-Ringtone at 0:14 -> lool

[MAFL77]

@jefffoster73 If you don't like this music that is perfectly fine, now that doesn't measn that you are not an intellectual or that these composers are such; they just like this kind of music. Society unfortunately has put a lbel of "intellectualism" to certain ideas, icluding "classical" music. Anyway, just a thought.

[Skutieos7]

fucking awesome

[SlypKnoTt4evr]

we had to listen to this in music class today...it came out blasting! super loud...we all just burst out laughing and laughed for the whole entire song!!! its freakin halarious!!!!!!! we couldnt stop laughing, then afterward we somehow got on the topic of cannibalism...hah ha ha weird! this is some funky shizz...can u imagine someone listening to this in their car really loud with their windows down!? so effin funny!!!

[NicoA47]

@SlypKnoTt4evr Well this is really funny. I should do that

...and I truly enjoyed this composition.

[mastermindgokuto]

@SlypKnoTt4evr

Me too, but instead of laughing my class was freaked out XD

[SlypKnoTt4evr]

@mastermindgokuto hah

[sansumida]

@SlypKnoTt4evr Laughter is the first reaction to FEAR ....

[SlypKnoTt4evr]

@sansumida well it is kinda scary...like somthing you'd hear if an evil convict were chasing you down a dark alley with a knife and a baseball bat....

[djpokki]

why.

[dormetheus]

This is performed by Kronos Quartet?

[TurkishRose91]

that's intense! i like :].

[Lisztman88]

Mozart would crap a brick if he heard this.

[geocham]

@Lisztman88 I think he'd understand it. Listen to the beginning of the dissonance quartet, he was always way ahead of his time.

[Horseyme206]

I saw this video in my Music Class today and it scared the shit outta me but I loved it! :D

[njd908]

do you hear this? this is TERRIBLE.

[floydian1987]

@njd908 your a dumbass go back and listen to your new justin bieber album

[MikeyManNp]

I just want to say that anyone who thinks this is a part of a history of medieval and renaissance music course is dumb...Hundreds of years too late, crumb is most obviously contemporary, just open your ears, second he was born in the 1900s, saloneffects, you are very confused, sounds like you are making something up...most definitely this is not classical in the slightest bit

[sansumida]

@MikeyManNp Actually you are dumb, the Common practice tonal period was from 1600-1900. Outside these dates composers use a lot of similar techniques for examples Hocketing, used by medieval composers such as Machaut. Crumb has a good pedigree, contemporary classical and medical are very related!

[CowHoofOnAHotPlate]

negroe angels.

[saloneffects]

This piece is going to be on my exam tomorrow.

I really can't analyze it except to say it gives me a headache...its like a million mosquitoes swarming

[cute12but12strange]

Then you didn' listn to all of it.... I think ou failed that test.

[saloneffects]

@cute12but12strange ya..I did actually. I have to take the whole course again :( (History of Midieval and Rennaisance Music)

[thefaboloussob]

Yikes! That certainly is unpleasant, but I guess that's s'pozedta b more artistic. This is classical, not easy listening or muzak. Incidentally, I discovered this after learning a Crumb composition is up for a Grammy. (Classical Contemporary Composition).

[DStroyU]

sounds like it would fit nicely into a Silent Hill game.

[jrdnjlly]

beautiful piece <3 crumb

[hazo28]

Uggggh....what a fucking mess/ contempory crap. Anyway....got to go and have a hearing test now.

[roossoner51]

@hazo28 mozart is GAY

[VitricArt]

Oh yeah, always liked this piece. Sounds like apocalyptic beings writhing out of the bowels of the earth. Nice tidbit of the "Dies Ire" near the end at 5:20.

[GrahamGJohnson]

My ears :/

[RanDyDip]

OMFG! haha my orchestra teacher put this song on while he was tuning us ( inter. orchestra 7th - 8th) and it was awsome....

[sansumida]

@RanDyDip Who's singing? sounds like a quartet to me, not a song.

[rebekahjeine]

Just close the eyes. It makes some magnificent pictures.

[chicojorge90]

Just because Philip Glass and George Crumb are associated with the "minimalist" genre doesn't mean they will sound anything alike. Crumb focuses on looking at how to make instruments sound different and nothing like they normally do. Glass is often associated with fugue-like music that is repetitive and circular.

[haru1ove]

George Crumb is a good composer, I mean, he was a genius. He was professor at UPenn.

I'm going to attend a concert tonight where my college music ensemble is playing one of his pieces!

Actually, they are forcing me to attend because I'm composition major.

[in5secs]

It hurts, that's all I'll say.

[AchilleDebussy]

I know there's supposed to be some type of deeper meaning to this but its just so unpleasant to my ears. Not to say that I don't like Crumb's style at all.

[nitekatt2007]

This composition is a shock to the soul, intense path to unknown doors of the creative musical mind, Crumb wrote in 1970 and it still bites into your gut. It is a brilliant work, but won't capture the ears of the "average" listener. The first time my roommate played the original LP in the 70's at 3AM, level 10 on the stereo, it blasted my guts up through my brain. Outside of Bernard Herrmann's string score featured in Psycho, style of intensity, Crumb passed the envelope a notch on this one.

[hellunder]

Such a bad timing with the nokia cell phone at 0:20.

[21earthman]

To me, this doesn't sound anything like any of the philip glass pieces that I have heard. But it is an interesting composition.

[haru1ove]

Why you mention Philip Glass? I don't get it.

[otaku1313]

BLACK ANGELS

GET HYPE

[mitwilliams]

The net net is very good listener but bisarro chido

[ahaili]

rofl everytime i watch this my cat turns her head :-D

[beaneyboy8]

thats so unfair the cellist gets to hit the gong

[aanonymouse]

i reckon!!!

[mountscoundrel]

as a cellist, i am really glad to see the gong part going to one of my peers!

[Angelskingarden]

Such energy! Crumb is clearly able to capture different emotions; he does it in an alarming way, almost overwhelming.

[Mayo1342]

@Angelskingarden my dick can play better violin than that.

that's almost "overwhemling".

[Angelskingarden]

@Mayo1342 Fuck you, you trailer trash piece of shit.

[knightxc]

we just started studying atonal music in music theory recently and we listened to some music by george crumb and philip glass. It is very different but for the most part I like it.

[sansumida]

@knightxc great music but Glass is so different from Crumb - he is a minimalist whereas Crumb is more avant-garde. This piece rocks!!

[anvivo08]

I got to meet George Crumb last month, as he came to WMU to put on a concert. He's quite an interesting guy with an even more interesting outlook on music.

With this type of music and atonality in general, I find it really hard to focus on the music - being brought up on Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music. Though I can still appreciate George Crumb and this music, it's just hard for me to really understand..... :/

[tamablue6]

Wow you were so lucky!!

[catz5rachel]

ok...tell me bout this person

[drummtb333]

i want to hear him score a movie. lol

it kind of reminds me of the music from lost

[Chesterton7]

beautiful, witty and very moving performance

this is the first time I heard this piece. thank you for posting this amazing performance

[drummtb333]

our school has a music theory book with this in it. it is the weirdest looking sheet music...or maybe im just a percussionist lol

[jessebrade]

this made me jump wen it started

[TheVeryYoungOldMan]

fuck all of your.

[HK83IE]

Crumb is not only interesting, he's one of the BEST of the modern composers.

[xGutturaLoungex]

My God this is HORRIFYING. Great job, Crumb!

[blobman2000]

no affence BUT THAT WAS SO FUCKING ANOYING

[hirfsk]

Super!!

My Favourite :D

[Animalll2003lll]

another shitty webern remix lol. sry, sucks.

there's nothing good in this music and you're all listening and paying attention like it's genius lol BOUM paf crrrr weeee weeeeionnnn weeee waaaaah CRRRRRR iccccchhhhhh ooooohhh crrrrr BOUM LOL. hilarious. this will be forgotten in 2 weeks even by the musicians who play it lol. all you do with this is lose your--and others'--time and money. sry to tell you that, but look at it straight---is it worth it???? it's not very good!

[QiGongWarrior]

"sry to tell you that, but look at it straight---is it worth it???? it's not very good!"

Really? It sounds like something you would hear from a movie?

But we all know that music isn't any good either, right? We all know it was just put in there to bring the movie down cause the video was just too good.

[Animalll2003lll]

ok..... but what are you trying to say?

I'm just saying that this is another shitty webern remix. it sucks. it's stupid music for stupid people. it might be helpful in a movie for like 15 seconds. but it's really not original and not 'nice'. anyway. matter of taste.

[QiGongWarrior]

Ok you have insulted people now go back to your cave stupid troll.

[puremanliness]

You don't know what you're bitching about and it makes you look pretentious to everyone. This music is extremely hard to perform, and there is meaning deeper than just atonality, but your ears just aren't conditioned to hear beyond that. So, until you can come up with an argument a little more thought out than "it sucks", then we'll talk. I personally like Crumb, yet Webern went further than Shoenberg, but I feel like he left behind an important component...dont know what it is!

[4thPOC]

"this will be forgotten in 2 weeks even by the musicians who play it"

Really?

Some advice:

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. "

[Animalll2003lll]

some advice: you're Gay (not gay--Gay). change fast. if you don't realize why this is bad then ask around you 1/what people think of this music and 2/why they like it/dislike it. you'll see very fast this music has nothing for itself. this music is like the emperor in andersen's tale 'the emperor's clothes'. it's just plain bad, but Gay people do as if it was superior. also read about the Sokal affair, it's the same thing but about post-modern prose.

[puremanliness]

Wow, well I'm glad you're so intent on hatred. Are you familiar with music at all? Do you listen to anything other than Romantic music and earlier? Maybe you're a pop/rock-esque fan? The blues? Rap? Jazz? You really have no idea how music has evolved. People hate this music because it's absence of tonality, but what is tonality other than a set system? What is your idea of creativity? Atonality is the simple escape from the confining system of tonality. (continued)

[puremanliness]

You don't have to like the music, but can you really deny this organized sound to be a form of expression, which is a pretty widely agreed definition of art? Music is an aural form of art, ergo this is music. It is an extremely ugly and violently horrific piece of music, but it is music all the same. So hate it, that's your choice, but how dare you judge me for what I like. Besides, I thought gay people liked techno, lol. I appreciate your assumption, but the name says it all. Until next rant...

[Animalll2003lll]

dude I hate it because it's Gay. get it? Gay. Gay Gay. I composed that stuff. it's a huge loss of time. only Gay people go on and doing stuff. it's retarded and that's why I hate it now and I have to warn everyone this is stupid and dangerous.

you can always justify with jargon, but it still sucks, and yes indeed other styles of music are better. even rock ;) srsly dude, read about the Sokal affair--important.

[puremanliness]

Well, I'm glad you are capable of identifying the song's sexual preference. As far as you not liking it, I'm glad you don't because you obviously don't have the mental capacity to come up with a good argument. I'm glad you like confined organized sounds, I do too, but I have the ability to listen beyond sounds we are raised to like. Good luck with your mediocre, ignorant life. I'm just saying that you don't have to like it, only understand it. Done, you are a waste of time.

[Animalll2003lll]

omg you're soooo Gay, it's unbelievable. your answers are so Gay. wtver don't talk to me, but hey read about the Sokal affair. good luck mannn.

[BuffyNiggz]

Edgy (that's Edgy, not edgy, as capital letter tend to enhance the point in your lack of a coherent argument).

[HK83IE]

You're obviously young and newer to the web. You're about 10 years late when we went through the new music v traditional music wars on the web. Traditional lost and new music marches on with or without the pro-traditional antagonists. There are so few left. They've been beaten out on the streets, tails between their legs.

[TheCakeGuru]

Music isn't a fight you idiot, everything works together, and people take elements out of every genre to make some music, there was never a fight, just idiots like you who thought they would start an argument over the web, the musicians, however, haven't changed their views at all.

[CHIODOS3038]

welcome to new music.

[TheCakeGuru]

There's tons of new music, this, however, will probably never catch on.

[HK83IE]

ahhh you're just being a bad sport since you've gotten your head beat in. You need to stay down and take the 10 count. You're showing signs of not being able to take much more punishment.

[TheCakeGuru]

"new music v traditional music wars on the web"

You're saying music is a big fight, it's a culture, get your facts straight and stop trying to divide everyone into new or classical music, there are no winners or losers, there are opinions, and you have to deal with some people like country and death metal, or blues and classical, and all different sorts instead of close-minded people like you who can't bare music that is different from theirs.

[4thPOC]

"you can always justify with jargon, but it still sucks."

Brilliant juxtaposition.

[4thPOC]

I'm not interested in debating aesthetics with you (you're mantra-like repetition of a post-post modern re-constructionist prank proves that you're obviously a valued expert in the field - besides I don't believe in that shit.)

Black Angels premiered in 1970, and your still working your fool ass off trying to preach it's irrelevance 39 FUCKING YEARS LATER (and failing.)

I'd say Crumb won.

Maybe you'd have more luck composing a Sokal-style concerto for Kronos to premiere.

[Animalll2003lll]

don't lose your time with this crap.

[4thPOC]

Hey, I appreciate your concern, brother, but I find this "crap" very worthy of my time. I listen to Crumb for my own personal pleasure, just like other idiots have since 1947.

I'd tell you not to waste YOUR time trying to straighten me out, but your time is really none of my business.

[saladshootavvv]

Did anyone else hear that fucking cell phone go off in the beginning?!?!?! (it was a Nokia ring)

[madderbass]

The recording of the Kronos Quartet doing this brilliant work is one of the best recordings you can get of this work.

[ahaili]

hahaha that sounds so cool!!!

[ryry125]

love it

[DCMSangro]

no this one isn't El niño busca su voz is though

[Butterworth92]

It's a bit crumby isn't it? lol, sorry

[agameofdarts]

silly

[Shrubbs]

That is the most frightening thing I think I've ever heard in my life

[lastcrazyhorn]

This rocks if you can stand to listen to it long enough.

[ud752]

it sounds like Satan is eating shit

[billyguns2]

A friend of mine and I had to leave the auditiorium before we were asked to leave upon witnessing a performance of this by the legendary Concord Quartet: we were audibly laughing so hard we were in near hysterics; it was the part where the musicians started mooing like cows.

[AceMaceAM]

wtf???? i could never do this, it sounds like organized crap, its good and bad at the same time!! so confused...

[ColonelCognitional]

Wow, I would like to see the score so I could see how Crumb notated this.

[piccologirl]

I think it's in the Norton Anthology.

[ryry125]

I love this

[HardstyleCozmix]

Why does this sound like god shitting on satans dead body ? It sounds like fucking crap !!!

[glanue]

The first time I listened to the first movement, Night of the Electric Insects, I was initially turned off. Obviously the dissonance is hard to hear. But then when I thought about the instruments making this sound I was quite intrigued. Then especially when I heard Sounds of Bones and Flutes, I was surprised they were even playing violins. I think this piece is genius and I really enjoy it. Not something I could listen to in my car but definitely a smart piece.

[clariny90]

more bad than scary.... XD this freaked out my friends when they heard it

[nitekatt2007]

When I first heard this piece that my bass player roommate turned me onto as we were students at Berklee Boston, MA, I was freaked!! He turned up the stereo at about 2AM and it was too much. A real masterpiece from George Crumb and a fellow West Virginian. How could anyone sight read this?

[yodiepants]

re- sight reading: I have one of Crumb's scores and I think sight reading is mostly impossible. The score I have calls for a dull 5/8th" chisel and bent up paper clip to be used for really specific playing instructions to get the right timbres out of the instruments. So you'd actually be reading words, not just notes. Then gawking. Then playing.

[npelletier89]

This is so god damn scary, but it's awesome! Some freaky angel monster people flying around - first thing this makes me see haha

[icerose06]

never has music itself scare the shit out of me without any visuals whatsoever.

[riteofspring13]

I love this piece! I would love to play it too. Great experimental string work.

[limegreenmuumuu]

I can imagine watching a horror movie then seeing the musicians playing the music trying to tell the hero not to go in there.

[Rionoir007]

i have never seen such a shit before, terrible absolutly terrible.

[TheIndigoEffect]

It's music, so it's actually more important that you listen to it than see it. At any rate, you shouldn't talk, it makes you sound stupid.

[HeavensAria]

prolly because it goes against most peoples asthetic tastes. But if you understand the context in which the music was composed (during the Vietnam war, and with experimentation with electric sound manipulation) it's really quite fascinating.

[susannahDreamCity]

has anyone ever seen the score? It's an artwork in itself!

[barelysufficient]

that's weird somehow, in the first moment i was really shocked. i feel sorry for those poor violins... ;-)

[54spiritedwill54]

my favorite composition!

[PanItal]

My ears are too sensitive to listen to this music without pain... It definately hasn't been written for me...

[vespertinne]

Fucking fantastic piece. Played well! Bravo.

[RyanH120389]

I Listened to this song on shrooms, bugged me the fuck out.

[johnnytothemc]

i listened to this song sober, bugged me the fuck out.

[hc257]

this is a shit....only noise

[lastdreams]

A great piece, actually. I think they used it in the Exorcist.

Haha. It's a good piece to close your eyes and think/dream to.

[jhg12989]

this is great to wake up to in the mornings

[queenworks]

If this is what woke me up every morning i would subsequently have to change my sheets every morning as well...

[drummtb333]

i bet crumb sits behind a keyboard and just punches the living shit out of it and has it record into a computer.

[DonneRich]

i was shocked dammit!!!!! :P

[gypsypunk333]

Great to listen to. A real bitch to play.

[xWesenburgerx]

That's painfull

[burningxdimx]

WHAT THE FUCK

[wonsleved]

lol thats what i said when i first heard this, its great to supprise ppl with

[MoreThanHeroez]

XD you can hear a phone ring in the beginning about 20 seconds in.

[themattster1991]

CRUMB IS ONE MY FAVORITE COMPOSERS...

[HK83IE]

my favorite composition!

[puremanliness]

LaWlzzz!!! Dis stuf iz so GAI!!! Gay, gaye, GAY!

-Animalll2003lll

[Animalll2003lll]

hahaha but you get it though? like... "Gay" lol? get it? "Gay" like someone how likes to smell his own farts? lololol get it? not just gay but "Gay"?

[puremanliness]

Ok, I think I see what you're getting at..."gay", like someone who can't spell?

Ha, I'm just playing, but seriously, I've shown a lot of people this discussion, and I must say, they think you are a trip! You don't deserve to be taken seriously because you make no effort to understand something you are unfamiliar with. That's fine, but just remember that people with a lot of experience in this style of music can make a worthy opinion of it. It's like those people who talk about football, but

[puremanliness]

(continued) are only familiar with the Superbowl. I encourage you to explore this music, once you have found out enough about the history and style and intent, then make up your mind about it. I would have said the same thing 7 years ago, but I grew up being taught not to speak my mind unless I had something in mind my to speak of. OK, I must move on...I'm in a Louis Armstrong mood...

[TheCakeGuru]

I don't think it's good because it follows no natural harmonies, no rythms, I find that anyone can sound that bad on any instrument, and therefore this piece shows no element of skill or quality, they are only doing this because some people think it sounds artsy and different, and I'm not saying it's not, I just don't find this to be art.

[E4492]

In my personal consideration, you both got this theories right. There are different kinds of art, as there are different kinds of appreciation. This piece is an example of a perturbing, strong, stereotype breaker. This is something hardly heard before and is completely different from other music we've always known as art, but that doesn't means this can't be art too, it is just different. Maybe is harder for some of us, but looking carefully, maybe we can find diamonds inside carbon (not always)

[Levium31]

George Crumb's work follows melodic patterns he uses to describe what he's feeling. If you had any brain or imagination you might be able to discern that, but since it's not pretty, or a book with pictures in it, you don't understand it. Way to be a typical listener.

[TheCakeGuru]

Listen, art is a way of expressing emotions through whichever outlet possible, like painting, sketching, composing, and many other talents they may have, it doesn't meant I have to act like I enjoy their outlet to be deep or intelligent, in fact, you must have a serious problem for judging someone by musical taste because it takes no intelligence at all to listen to music, it is not just intelligent people that listen to classical, it is not only idiots that listen to metal. Think next time.

[Levium31]

And you have a serious problem even commenting on something you don't understand. And as far as the judging thing, aren't you doing that by judging me? Good to see people with bad taste in music are also hypocrites, safe assumption to make based on your mindless dribble. Go listen to mmbop if you don't like this and keep your crappy uneducated comments to yourself. Look up Crumb's other work, maybe wiki him before you say, "lol i don't like it cuz it doesn't have justin timberlake in it".

[TheCakeGuru]

I never judged you, I stated how there was no need to tell me I have bad taste in music just because I don't like this, learn to respect people's differences, I didn't go and make fun of Crumb's music, nor did I say anything negative to or about him, I said I don't like his music, this wasn't intended as an argument, it was a statement, and no one was fighting before you came along. This is not an argument and it will not escalate to one, so good day to you.

[Levium31]

Well if you read this again, I'd simply ask that you understand what you're talking about when you say you don't like something, please do everyone a favor and take a music fundamentals class at your local college.

[TheCakeGuru]

You don't need to take a class to have good taste in music. argument over.

[acarrizo82]

Levium31: you have no right to criticize anybody as "stupid" or unimaginative for their personal taste, it's only discouraging to the uninitiated listener and a huge turn-off. TheCakeGuru: many composers in the 20th C. used "untraditional" sounds artistically, as painters sought to use unrealistic colors, shapes and patterns to describe the 20th C's heightened levels of noise, anxiety, and paranoia. Does this make the piece in any way more... accessible?

[Estevarium]

this is crazy... Crumb is a really weird experimental composer, I enjoyed this.