Crumb, George Henry (1929– )

US composer of imagist works. His music employs unusual graphics and imaginative sonorities, such as the musical saw in Ancient Voices of Children (1970), settings of poems by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for his orchestral work Echoes of Time and the River (1967).

He studied in Berlin, Germany, and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His early work was influenced by Arnold Schoenberg, and he has also used improvisational techniques.

Works Orchestral Variazoni (1959), Echoes of Time and the River (1967).

Instrumental 11 Echoes of Autumn for violin, flute, clarinet, piano (1965), Black Angels for amplified string quartet, 13 Images from the Dark Land (1970), Voice of the Whale, with electronics (1972), four books of Makrokosmos for amplified piano and percussion (1972–79), Processional for piano (1983), A Haunted Landscape for instrumental ensemble (1984), An Idyll for the Misbegotten for amplified flute and three percussionists (1985), Zeitgeist for two amplified pianos (1987).

Vocal Night Music for soprano and ensemble (1963), four books of madrigals for soprano, with various instrumental ensembles (1965–69), Ancient Voices of Children for soprano and ensemble (1970), Star-Child for soprano, children's voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers, and orchestra, performed New York, 1977, conductor Boulez), Federico's Little Songs for soprano, flute, and percussion (1986).