Black Angels (Crumb)

2 Instrumentation

Black Angels (Edition Peters, New York, no. 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. 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.[1] Crumb is very interested in numerology
and numerically structured the piece around 13 and 7.
The piece is notable for its unconventional instrumentation, which calls for electric string instruments, crystal
glasses, and two suspended tam-tam gongs.

Black Angels is primarily written for (in Crumbs words)

electric string quartet. Though generally played by amplied acoustic instruments, the work is occasionally performed on specially constructed electronic string instruments. The music uses the extremes of the instruments
registers as well as extended techniques such as bowing on
the ngerboard above the ngers and tapping the strings
with thimbles. At certain points in the music, the players
are even required to make sounds with their mouths and
to speak.

Each of the string players is also assigned a set of instruments to play throughout the piece. Some of the equip1 Structure
ment requires specic preparation, such as the crystal
glasses, which are tuned with dierent amounts of waThe thirteen individual movements of Black Angels are ter.
divided into three large groups.
Violin 1
I. Departure
Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects (tutti)

maraca

Sounds of Bones and Flutes (trio)

7 crystal glasses

Lost Bells (duo)

6 glass rod

Devil-music (solo)

2 metal thimbles

Danse Macabre (duo)

metal pick (paper clip)

II. Absence
Pavana Lachrymae (trio)

Violin 2

Threnody II: Black Angels! (tutti)

Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura (trio)

15 suspended tam-tam and mallet

Lost Bells (Echo) (duo)

contrabass bow (for use on tam-tam)

III. Return

7 crystal glasses

God-music (solo)

6 glass rod

Ancient Voices (duo)

Ancient Voices (Echo) (trio)

2 metal thimbles

Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects (tutti)

metal pick (paper clip)

The structure of the work displays the numerological elements important to Crumb, that is, thirteen movements, Viola
of which the seventh is the centerpiece. Further, the or 6 crystal glasses
ganization of movements displays symmetry and palindrome: the instrumentation of each movement follows a
6 glass rod
palindromic structure: 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3,
4; the rst, central and thirteenth movements are titled
2 metal thimbles
Threnody; God-music and Devil-music stand symmetri metal pick
cally opposite each other.[2]
1

Cello
maraca
24 suspended tam-tam, soft and hard mallets

EXTERNAL LINKS

[6] Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. groove.nl. Retrieved 17

July 2011.
[7] Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie. Vanity Fair. Retrieved
21 January 2016.

contrabass bow

6 External links
3

Stage positioning

Crumbs score includes a diagram that places the four

musicians in a box-like formation. Electric Violin II and
Electric Cello are located near upstage right and upstage
left, respectively, with their tam-tams between them.
Electric Violin I and Electric Viola are near downstage
right and downstage left, respectively, but are slightly farther apart than the other two musicians in order to allow
full sight of the quartet. Violin I, Violin II and Viola have
a set of crystal glasses downstage of them, while Violin
I and Cello have maracas upstage of them. Each of the
four musicians has a speaker next to him or her.

Cultural inuences

The Kronos Quartet, which specializes in new music, was

originally formed when violinist David Harrington heard
Black Angels over the radio.[3] He thought Crumbs
piece was something wild, something scary and absolutely the right music to play.[4] It was the rst composition Kronos performed.[4] The Kronos Quartet recorded
the work on their album Black Angels.
Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects is featured on
the soundtrack of The Exorcist.[5]
III. Return - God-music is heard in the television series
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage on the third episode of the
series titled The Harmony of the Worlds.[6]
The record is mentioned by David Bowie among his 25
favorite records[7]

References

[1] Kronos Quartet. kronosquartet.org. Retrieved 2016-0325.

[2] MTO 18.2: Johnston, George Crumbs Black Angels.
www.mtosmt.org. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
[3] Elizabeth Farnsworth (3 December 1998). KRONOS.
PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
[4] Yaple, Carol (2008). Four Hundred Candles: The Creation of a Repertoire. Kronos Quartet. Retrieved 200901-26.
[5] George Crumb. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 9
January 2010.

Interview in Philadelphia City Paper

Black Angels at George Crumbs ocial website

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