Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Crumb dies at 92

PHILADELPHIA — George Crumb, 92, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who inspired generations with his keen use of concert hall theatrics and embrace of unusual instrumental techniques, died Sunday. His death, at home in Media, was announced by his record label, Bridge Records.

Crumb was widely considered one of the 20th century’s major composers, and he continued to produce music well into the 21st. Born in West Virginia, he spent most of his career in and around Philadelphia, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania and authoring an impressive series of scores that shattered conventions in classical music.

In the long, crowded arc of 20th-century music, Crumb’s influence was vast and profound.

“My gosh, when ‘Ancient Voices of Children’ came out, plus ‘Black Angels’ and ‘Music for a Summer Evening,’ but especially ‘Ancient Voices,’ it was shocking,” said James Freeman, founder of Philadelphia new music group Orchestra 2001, which had a three-decade-plus relationship with Crumb. “Here was this extraordinarily difficult music, imaginative music, that always had a mysterious side, a dark side, that was beautiful in its own right. People said, ‘I want to listen to more music like this.’ ”

“Ancient Voices of Children” premiered at the Library of Congress in 1970, and was scored for forces that included soprano, boy soprano, amplified piano, toy piano, and musical saw. The performers were instructed to yell and whisper. A recording of it became one of the best sellers of 20th-century music.

“It changed the course of creative careers for so many young composers at that time,” said Freeman.

Crumb was influenced by, and collected sounds from, just about anywhere and anything: nature and his childhood, Asian music, current events, and Debussy, Bartok and Mahler. He was particularly drawn to Federico Garcia Lorca, whose text is used in “Ancient Voices of Children.” His music could be peaceful, sparse, eerie or downright horrifying. The “Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects” from “Black Angels” was put to good use in the soundtrack to “The Exorcist.”

There were aspects of his compositional approach that were arguably more radical than the unusual percussion and atmospheric effects. Along with George Rochberg, who also taught at Penn, Crumb was not afraid of traditional tonality.

“The two Georges had enormous influence in totally different ways,” said Freeman. Their music gave composers “permission to do extraordinary things.”

In “Black Angels” for amplified string quartet, the cellist plays a theme from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet while holding the instrument backward and players strike a Chinese gong, use their bows to play the sides of wine and champagne glasses, shout numbers in various languages and whistle.

But close your eyes and listen, and “what you’re left with is a sensuous piece from 1970 whose sounds are surprising and original,” wrote this critic of a 2000 performance of the work by the Cassatt String Quartet. “ ‘Black Angels’ is largely about the emotional consequences of timbral possibilities, and it is still stunningly successful in blowing apart expectations of what can happen when two violinists, a violist and cellist get together.”

Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon, who studied with Crumb for five years at Penn, traces her predilection for unusual sounds and extended techniques to her teacher — things like her use of 50 bells at the end of “Blue Cathedral.”

It was one simple thing he said that altered the way she thought about music, she recalled.

“He said, ‘You know, Jennifer, the only thing that matters in the end is how it sounds.’ You study form and structure and things like that, but to have someone say that, it made me step back and say, ‘Maybe I should start with the idea of sound, with what sounds interesting.’ ”