Riding

Abstract

The methodology employed in the gathering of data for this study will include personal interviews with Crumb, selected ensemble and family members, and a review of any publicly available materials (published books, journal articles, newspaper articles, concert program notes, recordings and radio broadcasts). Crumb will also be invited to provide the researcher with any unpublished writings, recordings or other pertinent data that he believes would be beneficial to the study.

Mr. Crumb's new settings of familiar American and patriotic ballads will strike a chord with singers, pianists and conductors alike, and the song cycle has been premiered at an unusual time in our country's political history. His settings of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" speak to the listener of Crumb's very personal feelings about the United States' present involvement in the Middle East. The purpose of this study will be to document this work by transcribing an oral history in order to record the facts surrounding the creation and performances of his latest published song cycle.

The Winds of Destiny includes such popular melodies as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, " "When Johnny Comes Marching Home, " "Twelve Gates Into the City, " "Go Tell It On The Mountain, " and "Shenandoah, " and was premiered by Orchestra 2001 and soprano, Ms. Barbara Ann Martin. The premieres took place on August 4, 2005, at the Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria and at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States on September 17, 2005. Crumb's cycle was the only work composed by an American to be performed at the 2005 Salzburg Festival, and these settings mark new territory for him since he has traditionally set poetry from composers such as Frederico Garcia Lorca to his own original melodies. An oral history which will detail the events that led to the composition and its introduction to the public will aid generations of singers, instrumentalists and composers for years to come if Mr. Crumb and the participating musicians consent to giving their detailed account of the rehearsals and performances.

The proposed study will provide insight and factual documentation of the conception, rehearsals and premiere performances of George Crumb's latest (fourth) song cycle, The Winds of Destiny. Mr. Crumb has been a renowned composer since the late 1960's and has composed chamber works for soprano and chamber ensemble which have won him multiple awards. This work is one of four song cycles which comprise a unit called the American Songbook Collection. It is written for soprano, percussion quartet and amplified piano in which Mr. Crumb set traditional, patriotic and familiar American ballads to an unusual array of percussive sounds without disturbing the original melodies.