George Crumb: Madrigals, Books I–IV [w/ score]

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George Crumb // Madrigals (1965–9)
Performed by Anne-Marie Mühle, mezzo-soprano; Ulf Bergström, flute; Seppo Asikainen, percussion; Åsa Lännerholm, harp; and Robert Röjder, double bass

0:00 Title page and front matter
Book I
0:12 I. Verte desnuda es recordar la tierra [To see you naked is to remember the earth]
2:11 II. No piensan en la lluvia, y se han dormido [They do not think of the rain, and they’ve fallen asleep]
5:15 III. Los muertos llevan alas de musgo [The dead wear mossy wings]
Book II
9:20 I. Bebe el agua tranquila de la canción añeja [Drink the tranquil water of the antique song]
11:05 II. La muerta entra y sale de la taverna [Death goes in and out of the tavern]
13:58 III. Caballito negro ¿Dónde llevas tu jinete muerto? [Little black horse, where are you taking your dead rider?]
Book III
15:34 I. La noche canta desnuda sobre los puentes de marzo [Night sings naked above the bridges of March]
17:08 II. Quiero dormir el sueño da las manzanas [I want to sleep the sleep of apples]
19:20 III. Nana, niño, nana del caballito grande que no quiso el agua [Lullaby, child, lullaby of the proud horse who would not drink water]
Book IV
22:57 I. ¿Por qué nací entre espejos? [Why was I born surrounded by mirrors?]
25:11 II. Tu cuerpo, con la sombra violeta de mis manos, era un arcángel de frío [Through my hands’ violet shadow, your body was an archangel, cold]
27:20 III. ¡La muerta me está mirando desde la torres de Córdoba! [Death is watching me from the towers of Córdoba!]

Each book of Crumb's Madrigals, for a slightly different ensemble, sets fragments of poetry of his favorite poet, Federico García Lorca. In many ways, these books frame Crumb's early stylistic evolution. Each piece is short, fleeting, and fragmentary, using a host of extended techniques, but the first two books display more modernist, angular atonality in comparison to the latter two, where melody and free allusions to tonality and modality take root.