Quotation and Framing: Re-contextualization and Intertextuality as Newness in George Crumb's Black Angels

TY - JOUR

T1 - Quotation and Framing

T2 - Re-contextualization and Intertextuality as Newness in George Crumb's Black Angels

AU - Petersen, Nils Holger

PY - 2010/6

Y1 - 2010/6

N2 - George Crumb's Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet (1970) are individually original, but also representative for compositional practices for the twentieth century. As in his other compositions, Crumb has integrated musical quotations and various musical styles, including a web of references that extend into other media in such a way that they form an indispensable part of the basic construction of the work: these components form part of its newness. In Black Angels the composer - among other well-known pieces of music - quotes the medieval 'Dies irae' sequence and the second movement of Schubert's string quartet in D minor (D. 810). The musical and intermedial references are framed with striking modernistic sounds exploring instrumental possibilities far beyond the traditional, thus creating a framework of extreme contrasts. The paper will contextualize, analyze and interpret Black Angels - which the composer explicitly linked to the Vietnam War - in a broad context of music, intermediality, religious symbolism, and cultural memory, pointing to the cultural meaning of this technique of recontextualization as a break with, as well as a continuation of, modernity.

AB - George Crumb's Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet (1970) are individually original, but also representative for compositional practices for the twentieth century. As in his other compositions, Crumb has integrated musical quotations and various musical styles, including a web of references that extend into other media in such a way that they form an indispensable part of the basic construction of the work: these components form part of its newness. In Black Angels the composer - among other well-known pieces of music - quotes the medieval 'Dies irae' sequence and the second movement of Schubert's string quartet in D minor (D. 810). The musical and intermedial references are framed with striking modernistic sounds exploring instrumental possibilities far beyond the traditional, thus creating a framework of extreme contrasts. The paper will contextualize, analyze and interpret Black Angels - which the composer explicitly linked to the Vietnam War - in a broad context of music, intermediality, religious symbolism, and cultural memory, pointing to the cultural meaning of this technique of recontextualization as a break with, as well as a continuation of, modernity.

KW - Faculty of Theology

KW - religious symbols; medieval liturgy; redemption

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0749-4467

VL - 29

SP - 309

EP - 321

JO - Contemporary Music Review

JF - Contemporary Music Review

IS - 3

ER -