MUSICAL ZODIAC - George Crumb CD

“Music is a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse” -  George Crumb

Makrokosmos I & II (1972/73) is one of the most complete and influential cycles of the new technical resources of the piano from the latter twentieth century.

The first volume is composed in memory of Béla Bartok (1881 - 1945) and dedicated to the pianist David Burge (1930 - 2013) and the second in memory of Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) and dedicated to the pianist Robert Miller (1930) - 1981).

Each piece is assigned a zodiac sign reflecting his preoccupation with time and space.

Each volume is divided into three parts, themselves sectioned into four parts that are to be played without interruption.  Crumb designed the fourth piece of each part in the form of a symbol in relation to the composition. In the first volume: Crucifixus as a cross, The Magic Circle of Infinity as circle and Spiral Galaxy as a spiral (picture on the back cover).

Both volumes subtitled: Twelve pieces of fantasy after the zodiac for amplified piano. Twenty-four pieces that constitute a massive and detailed exploration of the sonorous possibilities of the piano, creating a virtuous synthesis between the conventional pianism (keyboard) and the unconventional (inside the piano), including the pianist through whispers, whistles, chants or shouts.

Crumb exploits all the pianistic color tones imaginable on the keyboard and inside the piano by traversing the entire pitch range of the instrument, using the three pedals, exploiting an (extraordinarily wide dynamic range through amplification), using the pianist's hands to strike, pluck and scrape the strings and through the use of objects: chains, glass tumblers, metal plectrums, metal thimbles, sheets of paper or a wire brush.

Fabio Álvarez, Pianist