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A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 (1980)
| composer |
George Crumb (b. 1929) |
| performers |
Thomas Rosenkranz, piano |
| publisher |
C. F. Peters (BMI)http://www.edition-peters.com
|
| recording |
Live concert performance at Music Today Festival, University of Oregon School of Music, Eugene, Oregon |
| duration |
14:39 |
A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 was composed in early 1980 for pianist Lambert Orkis. It was inspired by early 14th-century Nativity frescoes painted by Giotto in the Arena (also Scrovegni) Chapel in Padua, Italy. Each movement of the work explores some aspect of the Nativity, alternately solemn, reverent, and joyous. Although the piece does not feature the wealth of extended techniques found in many of his piano works, Crumb does use harmonics, muted tones, and pizzicati to create a quiet yet otherworldly setting around the birth of Christ. Also notable is the strummed rendition of the 16th-century English Coventry Carol in the sixth movement.
George Crumb (b. 1929) has established himself as a unique and original voice in music from the United States. His music is intense and dramatic, often evocative of haunting images and otherworldly settings. His many notable works include Echoes of Time and the River (Echoes II), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1967, and more well-known pieces written in the 1970's such as Black Angels (Images I) and Ancient Voices of Children.
Crumb was born in West Virginia to musician parents: his father was a clarinetist, his mother a cellist. He studied music at Mason College in West Virginia and the Universities of Illinois and Michigan, where his principal teacher (and greatest influence) was composer Ross Lee Finney. Crumb's own career as a teacher began at Hollins College in Virginia and the University of Colorado in Boulder. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he taught until his retirement in 1997. Crumb's many awards and honors include the Pulitzer Prize, the Edward MacDowell Medal, grants from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Fromm, and Ford Foundations, and the Prince Pierre de Monaco Gold Medal in 1989. Crumb's music has been recorded on major labels as well as Bridge, Centaur, Col Legno, CRI, Jecklin, and Phoenix.
related websites
http://www.georgecrumb.com
Pianist Thomas Rosenkranz has performed all over the United States in solo, chamber and improvisation concerts. A strong advocate of contemporary music, he has given new music concerts at the Channing Concert Series in Houston, The Washington State and Pennsylvania Music Teacher's Conventions, and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He has been a guest artist at the University of Oregon's Festival of the Millennium, where he performed the world premiere of HyeKyung Lee's Confusion/Combustion and worked with composer George Crumb. Rosenkranz is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he studied piano with Robert Shannon and chamber music with members of the St. Petersburg Quartet. He currently studies with Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
related websites
http://www.thomasrosenkranz.com
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