8/25/07: New York Premier of George Crumb’s Winds of Destiny; Songs of Strife, Love, Mystery, and Exultation.

9/20 Update - I’ve put a couple excerpts from this performance up. You can find them here.

I’ll be joining the Locrian Chamber Players for a performance of George Crumb’s newest work, scored for soprano, piano, and percussion quartet. In typical Crumb style, the score is exquisitely crafted and has some brilliant and expressive visual tricks, such as the inversion of contrast in the movement pictured here.

This setting of American war folksongs inevitably evokes current events, although the composer has stated that protest against the Iraq war was not his specific intention. He is also well known for his powerful Vietnam War era composition Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land), which had a similar relationship with the struggles of its time.

Crumb has been playing with score construction for decades, and often they can stand alone as works of art or political statements, such as his Spiral Galaxy, pictured here.

Saturday, August 25 at 8 PM:

George Crumb The Winds of Destiny
Kevin Volans Asanga
Aaron Paul Low Sonata in Five Movements

10th Floor Performance Space, Riverside Church
More info here.