AMERICAN CLASSICS George CRUMB Vox Balaenae

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George AMERICAN CLASSICS CRUMB (b. 1929) George 1 Vox Balaenae (1971) for Three Masked Players 18:50 (Amplified Flute, Amplified Cello, and Amplified Piano) CRUMB

Federico’s Little Songs for Children (1986) 13:24 Vox Balaenae 2 1. La Señorita del Abanico (Señorita of the Fan) 2:13 3 2. La Tarde (Afternoon) 1:49 (Voice of the Whale) 4 3. Canción Cantada (A Song Sung) 1:19 5 4. Caracola (Snail) 2:36 New Music Concerts Ensemble • Robert Aitken 6 5. El Lagarto está Llorando! (The Lizard is Crying) 2:06 7 6. Cancioncilla Sevillana (A Little Song from Seville) 1:51 8 7. Canción Tonta (Silly Song) 1:31

9 An Idyll for the Misbegotten (Images III) (1986) 9:51

0 Eleven Echoes of Autumn (Echoes I) (1965) 17:36 for Violin, Alto Flute, Clarinet and Piano

This recording was made possible by the generous support of The Herbert Green Family Charitable Foundation Inc.

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George Crumb (b. 1929) Ryan Scott Vox Balaenae • Federico’s Little Songs for Children • An Idyll for the Misbegotten • Eleven Echoes of Autumn Ryan Scott is an acclaimed marimba and multi-percussion soloist. He also plays with the Toronto Symphony George Crumb’s reputation as a composer of hauntingly (1977), for soprano, solo trombone, antiphonal Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, New Music Concerts, the Composers’ beautiful scores has made him one of the most children’s voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers and Orchestra, the Bob Becker Ensemble, Soundstreams Canada, Continuum, ArpaTambora, and the Evergreen Club. frequently performed composers in today’s musical large orchestra. George Crumb’s most recent works He has collaborated numerous times with the violist Rivka Golani, and has been a guest artist on several occasions world. From Los Angeles to Moscow, and from include Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik for solo piano with NEXUS. He has made CDs for Centrediscs, CBC Records, hatART and Naxos. Ryan Scott is currently writing Scandinavia to South America, festivals devoted to the (2001), Otherworldly Resonances for two pianos (2002) a cycle of etudes for the marimba, the first of which had its première recently by the composer on Two New Hours music of George Crumb have sprung up like and a four-part song cycle, American Songbook (The on CBC RadioTwo. wildflowers. Now approaching his 75th birthday year, River of Life, A Journey Beyond Time, Unto the Hills, Crumb, the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the The Winds of Destiny) (2001-2004). David Swan 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, continues to compose new George Crumb’s music often juxtaposes contrasting scores that enrich the musical lives of those who come musical styles. The references range from music of the A native of Saskatoon, the pianist David Swan gained national exposure at the age of sixteen as winner of the first in contact with his profoundly humanistic art. western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition for the Performance of Canadian Music. After completing doctoral studies at the George Henry Crumb was born in Charleston, West non-Western musics. Many of Crumb’s works include University of Indiana, he settled in Toronto, where he has freelanced continuously since 1986. His varied activities Virginia on 24th October 1929. He studied at the Mason programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical include ensemble and solo performances, accompaniment, recording and teaching, and he retains a special interest College of Music in Charleston and received the elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and in twentieth-century repertoire. He served for many years as organist of St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto, and Bachelor’s degree in 1950. Thereafter he studied for the meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly appears regularly with New Music Concerts. Master’s degree at the University of Illinois, Champaign- eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching Urbana under Eugene Weigel. He continued his studies position at the University of Pennsylvania after more Trevor Tureski under Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Berlin than thirty years of service. Awarded honorary from 1954-1955. He received the D.M.A. in 1959 from doctorates by numerous universities and the recipient of The percussionist and composer Trevor Tureski has performed throughout Canada and Europe. His solo the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, after studying dozens of awards and prizes, he makes his home in performances have been recorded for broadcast by the CBC and Radio France, as well as Dutch, German and Swiss with Ross Lee Finney. Pennsylvania, in the same house where he and his wife networks. Tureski also appears on compact disc recordings by such labels as Empreintes Digitales, Centre Pieces George Crumb’s early compositions include Three of more than fifty years raised their three children. His and Radio Canada. He studied percussion with Russell Hartenberger at the University of Toronto and with Gaston Early Songs (1947), for voice and piano, Sonata (1955) music is published by C.F. Peters. Sylvestre in Paris, and has also studied electronic and computer music at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. He for solo violoncello, and Variazioni (1959) for George Crumb’s many awards include the Elizabeth is principal percussionist with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and a regular performer with the Toronto orchestra, the composer’s doctoral thesis. In the 1960s Croft fellowship for study, Berkshire Music Centre Symphony, New Music Concerts, Esprit Orchestra and the National Ballet Orchestra. and 1970s, George Crumb produced a series of highly (1955), Fulbright Scholarship (1955-6), BMI student influential pieces that were immediately taken up by award (1956), Rockefeller grant (1964), National Joaquin Valdepeñas soloists and ensembles throughout the world. Many of Institute of Arts and Letters grant (1967), Guggenheim these were vocal works based on the poetry of Federico grant (1967, 1973), Pulitzer Prize for Echoes of Time Considered one of the most distinguished clarinetists of his generation, Joaquin Valdepeñas has performed with García Lorca, including Ancient Voices of Children and the River (1968), UNESCO International Rostrum such artists as Kathleen Battle, Glenn Gould, Cho-Liang Lin, Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Rudolf Serkin, Richard (1970), Madrigals, Books 1-4 (1965-69), Night of the of Composers Award (1971), Koussevitzky Recording Stoltzman and Pinchas Zukerman. He has also performed with orchestras around the world, including the English Four Moons (1969), and Songs, Drones and Refrains of Award (1971), Fromm grant (1973), Member, National Chamber Orchestra, with which he recorded Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto to critical acclaim. He is Principal Death (1968). Other major works from this period Institute of Arts and Letters (1975), Ford grant (1976), Clarinetist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Joaquin Valdepeñas is a founding member of Amici, Canada’s include Black Angels (1970), for electric string quartet, Prince Pierre de Monaco Gold Medal (1989), Brandeis foremost chamber ensemble, and has collaborated with the American, Muir and Orford String Quartets, as well as Vox Balaenae (1971), for electric flute, electric cello University Creative Arts Award, Honorary member, with members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, Vermeer and Tokyo Quartets. He often participates in chamber music and amplified piano, Makrokosmos, Volumes 1 and 2 Deutsche Akademie der Kunste, Honorary member, festivals, including those of Banff, Casals in Puerto Rico, Evian, New York’s Mostly Mozart and the Aspen Music (1972, 73) for amplified piano, Music for a Summer International Cultural Society of Korea, six honorary Festival. As Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Toronto he has taught many students who now occupy Evening (1974) for two amplified pianos and degrees, 1998 Cannes Classical Award: Best CD of a positions in symphony orchestras around the world. percussion, and Crumb’s largest score, Star-Child Living Composer (Bridge 9069), 2001 Grammy for Best

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David Hetherington Contemporary Composition (Star-Child), 2004 Musical perhaps because the light-hearted and whimsical American “Composer of the Year”. character of these little poems contrasted so sharply A member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1970, David Hetherington served in recent years as the with the more somber poetry I had chosen for my earlier orchestra’s Acting Principal Cellist. As a chamber musician he has toured Canada, the United States and Europe and Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) settings. And thus, after a hiatus of sixteen years, I is a founding member of the Amici Chamber Ensemble, which presents an annual series of concerts at Glenn Gould for Three Masked Players (1971) found myself once again immersed in Lorca’s magical Studio and has made six recordings for Summit Records and Naxos. He is a member of the string quartet Accordes imagery. which performs regularly for New Music Concerts and constitutes the core string-players of the New Music Each of the three players should wear a black half-mask The seven little poems constituting the Canciones Concerts Ensemble. Accordes has recorded music of Jean Papineau-Couture, Harry Freedman, Alexina Louie, (vizor-mask) throughout the performance of the work. para Niños reflect many different aspects of a child’s Harry Somers and Norma Beecroft on the Centrediscs label of the Canadian Music Centre and has been nominated The masks, by effacing a sense of human projection, fantasy world. The mood can be reflective, playful, for several Juno Awards. Hetherington also made the première recording of Talivaldis Kenins’ prize-winning cello will symbolize the powerful impersonal forces of nature mock-serious, gently ironic, or simply joyous. At an sonata for Centrediscs. (nature dehumanized). Vox Balaenae can be performed early stage in the sketching process I decided to include under a deep-blue stage lighting, if desired, in which all four instruments of the flute family so that I might Fujiko Imajishi case the theatrical effect would be further enhanced. associate an appropriate timbre with the innate character Voice of the Whale, composed in 1971, is scored for of each poem. Of course the varied treatment of voice The Japanese-born violinist Fujiko Imajishi has made her home in Canada since 1968. After studies with Lorand flute, cello and piano which are amplified in concert and harp, together with purely compositional choices Fenyves, Ruggiero Ricci, Franco Gulli and the Hungarian Quartet she went on to win both the Montreal and performance. The work was inspired by the singing of likewise help delineate the desired mood. Toronto Symphony Competitions. Imajishi has performed as a soloist with leading Canadian orchestras and is the humpback whale, a tape recording of which I had The opening song, Señorita of the Fan (Vivace, currently the concertmaster of both the National Ballet of Canada and Esprit Orchestra. She has enjoyed a long heard two or three years previously. The masks, by giocosamente; scored with piccolo), is set for the most association with Toronto’s New Music Concerts with whom she gave the Canadian première of Ligeti’s Violin effacing the sense of human projection, are intended to part in a quintuple measure. The reference to “crickets” Concerto in 1999, a work she revisited with Esprit Orchestra in 2003. NMC’s compact disc Lutosławski conducts represent, symbolically, the powerful impersonal forces is illustrated by a chirping piccolo motif. Afternoon Lutosławski includes her performance of Partita and Chain II recorded during the composer’s final conducting of nature (i.e. nature dehumanized). The form of Voice (Andantino quasi barcarola; with flute in C) is delicate appearance in 1993. In November 2002 she performed Anthèmes for violin solo in the presence of composer Pierre of the Whale is a simple three-part design, consisting of and idyllic throughout. A Song Sung (Molto moderato, Boulez on the occasion of the presentation of the International Glenn Gould Prize and in December gave the world a prologue, a set of variations named after geological poco bizarramente; with alto flute) is set in a very première of Reconciliation for solo violin by the English composer Geoffrey Palmer, commissioned by New Music eras, and an epilogue. capricious style. The alto flute personifies Lorca’s Concerts. Imajishi is a founding member and first violinist of the string quartet Accordes. “Griffon bird”. The central song of the cycle, Snail Federico’s Little Songs for Children (1986) (Lento, languidamente; with bass flute), projects a sense Rick Sacks of timelessness and wonder. The soprano whispers the Federico’s Little Songs for Children, written for the opening and concluding lines of the poem; for the Composer and musician Rick Sacks holds a master’s degree in percussion from SUNY Stony Brook. He performs Jubal Trio, was completed during the summer of 1986. central portion, the soprano sings in “Sprechstimme with Arraymusic, The Glass Orchestra, New Music Concerts, the Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry New Opera, In 1970, after the composition of Ancient Voices of style”, combined with a highly coloristic use of the harp. Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan among others, and has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia. He Children (the eighth work of a Lorca cycle initiated in In The Lizard is Crying! (Lentamente e lamentoso; with has recorded with these ensembles as well as being the marimba player on the Nonesuch recording of Charles 1963 with Night Music I), I felt that I had exhausted the alto flute), the singer alternates between a quasi-cadenza Wuorinen’s Percussion Symphony (New Jersey Percussion Ensemble). In 1986 Rick revised and edited Edgard potential of Lorca’s poetry as a catalytic agent for my style of declamation and rhythmically articulated Varèse’s Hyperprism for COLFRANC music publishing, allowing the piece to be performed by nine players own music. I therefore turned my attention towards spoken passages. The alto flute participates in the without changing the music itself. That same year he performed in the première of George Crumb’s An Idyll for the traditional Latin texts (in Lux Aeterna and Star-Child); general sobbing! A Little Song from Seville (Tempo di Misbegotten with New Music Concerts. and then followed settings of Walt Whitman (in Habanera; scherzando, un poco buffo; with flute in C) Apparition) and Edgar Allan Poe (in The Sleeper). parodies a well-known type of Spanish popular music However, there remained a number of Lorca’s poems (and contains references to Debussy’s La Puerta del which I eventually hoped to treat musically, should Vino). The concluding piece, Silly Song (Prestissimo inspiration return. Among these, the Canciones para [and alternately: molto più lento]; with piccolo), is ... Niños (Songs for Children) especially intrigued me, just a silly song!

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An Idyll for the Misbegotten (Images III) (1986) Eco 6. Cadenza II (for Violin) Robert Aitken Eco 7. Cadenza III (for Clarinet) I feel that “misbegotten” well describes the fateful and Eco 8. Feroce, violento The world renowned Canadian flutist, composer and conductor Robert Aitken has been honoured with the Order of melancholy predicament of the species homo sapiens at Eco 9. Serenamente, quasi lontano (“hauntingly”) Canada and is a Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France). In 1970, having previously served as principal the present moment in time. Mankind has become ever Eco 10. Senza misura (“gently undulating”) flute for both the Vancouver and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Aitken embarked on a solo career that has taken more “illegitimate” in the natural world of the plants Eco 11. Adagio (“like a prayer”) him to virtually every corner of the globe. He has more than forty recordings to his credit including the highly and animals. The ancient sense of brotherhood with all praised Takemitsu: Chamber Music (Naxos 8.555859). Such notables as John Cage, George Crumb, Elliott Carter, life-forms (so poignantly expressed in the poetry of St Each of the echi exploits certain timbral possibilities of Toru Takemitsu, Gilles Tremblay, John Beckwith and Bruce Mather among many others have all dedicated works Francis of Assisi) has gradually and relentlessly eroded, the instruments. For example, eco 1 (for piano alone) is to him. In 2003 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Flute Association (USA). and consequently we find ourselves monarchs of a based entirely on the fifth partial harmonic, eco 2 on Robert Aitken was founder and artistic director of Music Today, Music at Shawnigan and in 1971 co-founded, with dying world. We share the fervent hope that mankind violin harmonics in combination with seventh partial Norma Beecroft, Toronto’s New Music Concerts, which he continues to direct today. In addition, in 2004 he retired will embrace anew nature’s “moral imperative”. harmonics produced on the piano (by drawing a piece of as Professor für Flöte at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, a post he held for sixteen years. My little Idyll was inspired by these thoughts. Flute hard rubber along the strings). A delicate aura of and drum are, to me (perhaps by association with ancient sympathetic vibrations emerges in echi 3 and 4, Teri Dunn ethnic musics), those instruments which most powerfully produced in the latter case by alto flute and clarinet evoke the voice of nature. I have suggested that ideally playing into the piano (close to the strings). At the Originally from Ottawa, the Canadian soprano Teri Dunn holds a Master of Music degree from the University of (even if impractically) the music should be “heard from conclusion of the work the violinist achieves a Toronto, where she studied with Mary Morrison. She was a prizewinner in the 1999 Eckhardt-Grammatté afar, over a lake, on a moonlit evening in August”. mournful, fragile timbre by playing with the bow hair Competition, and brings a wide expressive palette to her oratorio appearances, ranging from Bach’s St Matthew There are two quotations in An Idyll for the completely slack. Passion to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. As a chamber music performer, she has scored triumphs in the Misbegotten – the haunting theme of Claude Debussy’s The most important generative element of Eleven performance of several Bach cantatas, and numerous contemporary works, including George Crumb’s Ancient Syrinx (for solo flute, 1912) and two lines from the Echoes is the “bell motif”, a quintuplet figure based on the Voices of Children. On the operatic stage she has appeared as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte eighth-century Chinese poet, Ssu-S’ung Shu: whole-tone interval, which is heard at the beginning of the and Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Teri Dunn has performed with some of Canada’s finest ensembles, work. This diatonic figure appears in a variety of rhythmic including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Bach Consort, Opera in Concert, “The moon goes down. There guises, and frequently in a highly chromatic context. Exultate Chamber Singers, New Music Concerts, the Guelph Spring Festival, and the Ottawa Chamber Music are shivering birds and Each of the eleven pieces has its own expressive Festival. She is also an active conductor and teacher. A winner of the Leslie Bell Prize in Choral Conducting, she is withering grasses.” character, at times overlaid by quasi-obbligato music of on the Faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music and is a member of the Artistic Staff of the Toronto Children’s contrasting character, e.g., the “wind music” of the alto Chorus. The work is dedicated to Robert Aitken, who gave the flute and clarinet in eco 2 or the “distant mandolin première performance for New Music Concerts on 16th music” of the violin in eco 3. The larger expressive curve Erica Goodman November, 1986. of the work is arch-like: a gradual growth of intensity to a climactic point (eco 8), followed by a gradual collapse. A native of Toronto, Erica Goodman is acclaimed as one of the world’s outstanding solo harpists. She received her Eleven Echoes of Autumn (Echoes I) (1966) Although Eleven Echoes has certain programmatic training at the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), the National Music Camp (Inter-lochen, Michigan) and the implications for the composer, it is enough for the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia). Already a concert performer in her teens, she played under the baton of Igor Eleven Echoes of Autumn was composed during the listener to infer the significance of the motto-quote from Stravinsky when he recorded in Toronto. While at Curtis, she was a concerto soloist with the Philadelphia spring of 1966 for the Aeolian Chamber Players (on Federico García Lorca: “... y los arcos rotos donde sufre Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist at numerous international festivals, as well as with leading orchestras and commission from Bowdoin College). The eleven pieces el tiempo” (“... and the broken arches where time ensembles in Canada, the United States and Europe. As Canada’s foremost studio harpist, Erica Goodman has constituting the work are performed without interruption: suffers”). These words are softly intoned as a preface to played in hundreds of radio and television productions, commercials and film scores. In 1980, she won the Grand each of the three cadenzas (echi 5-7) and the image Prix du Disque Canada for her recording, Flute and Harp with Robert Aitken, and in 1995 won a Juno for her solo Eco 1. Fantastico “broken arches” is represented visually in the notation album, Erica Goodman Plays Canadian Harp Music, both on the BIS label. She has also recorded for the Marquis Eco 2. Languidamente, quasi lontano (“hauntingly”) of the music which underlies the cadenzas. Classics, Opening Day and CBC labels. Now Magazine selected Goodman as Best Classical Musician in its 1996 Eco 3. Prestissimo “Best of Toronto” readers’ poll. She continues to be an active member of the music scene in Toronto. Eco 4. Con bravura George Crumb Eco 5. Cadenza I (for Alto Flute) 8.559205 45 8.559205 559205 bk Crumb US 14/9/06 10:40 Page 4

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George AMERICAN CLASSICS CRUMB (b. 1929) George 1 Vox Balaenae (1971) for Three Masked Players 18:50 (Amplified Flute, Amplified Cello, and Amplified Piano) CRUMB

9 An Idyll for the Misbegotten (Images III) (1986) 9:51

0 Eleven Echoes of Autumn (Echoes I) (1965) 17:36 for Violin, Alto Flute, Clarinet and Piano

This recording was made possible by the generous support of The Herbert Green Family Charitable Foundation Inc.

8.559205 8 CMYK NAXOS Playing George Time: CRUMB 59:42 (b. 1929) broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and 8.559205 1 & Vox Balaenae (1971) AMERICAN CLASSICS for Three Masked Players 18:50 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. • Made in Canada Robert Aitken, Amplified Flute George Crumb’s reputation as a David Hetherington, Amplified Cello composer of hauntingly beautiful David Swan, Amplified Piano scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers 2 8 - Federico’s Little Songs today. He has won numerous awards for Children (1986) 13:24 and prizes, including the Pulitzer, CRUMB: Teri Dunn, Soprano • Robert Aitken, Flutes and a 2004 Musical America Erica Goodman, Harp ‘Composer of the Year’ laurel. 9 An Idyll for the Misbegotten Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) is (Images III) (1986) 9:51 scored for amplified flute, cello and Robert Aitken, Amplified Flute piano, and was inspired by a tape Vox Balaenae Trevor Tureski, Rick Sacks, Ryan Scott, Percussion recording of whale songs that the Vox Balaenae Vox 0 Eleven Echoes of Autumn composer had heard. Federico’s Little (Echoes I) (1965) 17:36 Songs for Children originated in Fujiko Imajishi, Violin • Robert Aitken, Alto Flute Lorca’s Canciones para niños, and Joaquin Valdepeñas, Clarinet • David Swan, Piano employs all four members of the flute family, performed by the celebrated CRUMB: New Music Concerts Ensemble Canadian flutist Robert Aitken. DDD Robert Aitken, Director This recording was made possible A full track list can be found on the last page of the booklet. by the generous support of Recorded at CBC Glenn Gould Studio on 13th April, 2003, The Herbert Green Family and Performing Arts Centre, The Country Day School, Charitable Foundation Inc. King City, Ontario, from 10th to 12th September, 2004. Sung texts are available at www.naxos.com/libretti/crumb2.htm www.naxos.com 8.559205 8.559205 Producers: Bonnie Silver and Norbert Kraft Engineer: Norbert Kraft • Editor: Bonnie Silver Publisher: C.F. Peters • Booklet notes: George Crumb Cover image: Humpback whale breach by Brett Atkins (dreamstime.com) NAXOS