The image of the "black angel" was a conventional device used by early painters to symbolize the fallen angel." Movements The numerous quasi-programmatic allusions in the work are therefore symbolic, although the essential polarity - God versus Devil - implied more than a purely metaphysical reality. Īs a general summary of the musical composition, Crumb has stated that, " Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land) was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. The work abounds in conventional musical symbolisms such as the Diabolus in Musica (the interval of the tritone) and the Trillo Di Diavolo (the "Devil's trill", after Tartini). As Crumb states, "There are several allusions to tonal music in Black Angels: a quotation from Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet (in the Pavana Lachrymae and also faintly echoed on the last page of the work) an original Sarabanda, which is stylistically synthetic the sustained B major tonality of God-Music and several references to the Latin sequence Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath"). Robert Greenberg has interpreted the "Electric Insects" symbolized by Crumb in Black Angels as representing attack helicopters in military deployment during the Vietnam War.Ĭrumb has indicated that the composition "was commissioned by the University of Michigan and first performed by the Stanley Quartet." For the composition, Crumb used several quotations from previous composers most notably from Franz Schubert. According to Greenberg, 'Electric Insects' was the preferred euphemism which Crumb used to describe the attack helicopters being symbolically referenced by the music being played contra-tonally by high pitched violins to a rapid tempo. According to Robert Greenberg, the opening threnody is symbolic of the attack helicopters used predominantly during the war in Vietnam as a principal instrument of warfare preferred in American combat operations in the field. The work, as a threnody, is written as an ode or lament for the progress of the Vietnam War. The work references the second movement, Andante con moto, from Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet.
The piece is notable for its unconventional instrumentation, which calls for electric string instruments, crystal glasses, and two suspended tam-tam gongs. Crumb numerically structured the piece around 13 and 7, as numbers traditionally related to fate and destiny. The Latin phrase in tempore belli, in time of war, written into the score by Crumb is a reference to the Vietnam War taking place at the time when Black Angels was composed.
It was composed over the course of a year and is dated "Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 (in tempore belli)" as written on the score. 66304, copyright 1971), subtitled "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land", is a work for "electric string quartet" by the American avant-garde composer George Crumb. WikiMili Black Angels (Crumb) Last updated October 26, 2021īlack Angels (Edition Peters, New York, no.
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