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Saturday, August 19, 2017

George Crumb - "Music For A Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1975 (Nonesuch)


I know his name well, but not his music whatsoever till I purchased this piece of vinyl of George Crumb's "Music For A Summer Evening."   I was intrigued by reading that the music on this album consists of two amplified pianos and percussion.  How can that possibly be a bad thing?  

The music here is a combination of great peace, and then dramatic mood change with the percussion and the sound from the two pianos.   There are also vocals in the mix as well.  That reminds me of Japanese Kabuki music, and that is another added twist to this work that's very American, yet looks beyond its border.  At parts, when the pianos are playing a melody, it sounds like something from the 18th-century European court music.  It's only traces of the melody here and there that comes through the textures, especially in "Myth" on side two.  

The percussion on this piece is a lot of instruments: vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, bell tree, claves, maracas, sleigh bells, wood blocks and other such instruments. "Music For a Summer Evening" is a solid piece of mood, which I'm fond of, or at the very least a visitor in those woods. 

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