Of Crumb and the Crash

Synopsis

In the year 1929, October 24 fell on a Thursday, and that particular day has the dubious honor of being dubbed “Black Thursday” — for it was on that fateful day that the New York Stock Exchange crashed. A full-blown financial panic ensued, leading to the Great Depression of the 1930s. For many who saw their fortunes wiped out overnight, it must have seemed like the end of the world.

Meanwhile, in Charleston, West Virginia, a baby boy was born on Black Thursday who would grow up to become one of America’s most original composers. By the 1970s, George Crumb was acknowledged as a masterful creator of impressionistic and mysterious soundscapes, with evocative titles like Dream Sequence, Night of the Four Moons, and Eleven Echoes of Autumn.

Most of Crumbs’ pieces are for small ensemble, but in 1977 he composed a large-scale work, Star-Child, scored for antiphonal choirs, bell ringers, and a large symphony orchestra positioned for surround-sound effect in the concert hall. Crumb said it traces a “progression from darkness and despair to light or joy and spiritual realization.”

A recording of Star-Child was issued to celebrate Crumb’s 70th birthday in 1999 — a year, curiously enough, in which the stock market enjoyed an all-time high, just before taking yet another downward plunge!

Music Played in Today's Program

George Crumb (1929-2022): Musica Apocalyptica, from Star-Child; Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra; Thomas Conlin, conductor; Bridge 9095

On This Day

Births

• 1811 - German composer, conductor and pianist Ferdinand Hiller, in Frankfurt am Main

• 1882 - Hungarian operetta composer Imre [Emmerich] Kálman, in Siófok

• 1925 - Italian composer Luciano Berio, in Oneglia, Imperia

• 1929 - American composer George Crumb, in Charleston, West Virginia

• 1931 - Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, in Chistopol, Tatar (USSR)

Deaths

• 1799 - Austrian violinist and composer Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, 59, at Castle Rothlottia, near Neuhaus (Bohemia)

• 1948 - Austrian composer Franz Lehár, 78, in Bad Ischl

• 1949 - Cuban composer and violinist Joaquin Nin y Castellanos, 70, in Havana

• 1971 - American composer Carl Ruggles, 95, in Bennington, Vermont

Premieres

• 1737 - Rameau: opera Castor et Pollux, in Paris at the Palais Royal Opéra

• 1885 - Jhn. Strauss Jr.: operetta, The Gypsy Baron, in Vienna

• 1910 - Victor Herbert: operetta, Naught Marietta, in Syracuse, N.Y.

• 1930 - Roussel: Symphony No. 3, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1931 - Robert Russell Bennett: Abraham Lincoln Symphony, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1936 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 16, in Moscow

• 1940 - John Alden Carpenter: Symphony No. 1 (revised version), by Chicago Symphony, Frederick Stock conducting

• 1946 - Bernstein: ballet Facsimile, at the Broadway Theater in New York City by the Ballet Theater, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with composer conducting

• 1946 - Cowell: Symphony No. 4 (Short Symphony), by the Boston Symphony, Richard Burgin conducting

• 1970 - Penderecki: Kosmogonia, at the United Nations in New York City

• 1992 - Libby Larsen: Marimba Concerto (After Hampton), by the Long Beach Symphony, with soloist William Moersch and JoAnn Falleta conducting

• 1994 - Harrison Birtwistle: opera The Second Mrs. Kong, at Glyndeborune

• 1997 - Geoffrey Burgon: Piano Concerto, in Singapore, with soloist Joanna MacGregor and the Singapore Symphony

• 1997 - Corigliano: D.C. Fanfare, in Washington, D.C., by the National Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting

• 2001 - Steve Reich: orchestral version of Different Trains, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, David Robertson, conducting

Others

• 1818 - Felix Mendelssohn, 9, plays his first public concert, in Berlin

• 1919 - First performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Walter Rothwell, conductor