Ancient Voices of Children

Ancient Voices of Children is a composition by American composer George Crumb. Written in 1970, the work is scored for soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, amplified piano (and toy piano), and percussion (three players), and was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. Ancient Voices of Children is subtitled “A Cycle of Songs on Texts by Federico García Lorca.” The piece was premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C, on October 31, 1970, as part of the Coolidge Foundation's 14th Festival of Chamber Music. The initial performers of the "Ancient Voices of Children" are the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, which featured Gilbert Kalish (piano), Jan DeGaetani (mezzo-soprano), and Michael Dash (boy soprano).^[1][2]

Form and compositional style

Ancient Voices of Children is composed of five movements of which all but two are setting of fragments of longer poems by García Lorca. Two purely instrumental dance-interludes – "Dances of the Ancient Earth" and "Ghost Dance" – appear between vocal movements.

The Little Boy was Looking for his Voice

1. El niño busca su voz

   Dances of the Ancient Earth

2. Me he perdido muchas veces por el mar
3. ¿De dónde vienes, amor, mi niño? (Dance of the Sacred Life-Cycle)
4. Todas las tardes en Granada, todas las tardes se muere un niño

   Ghost Dance

5. Se ha llenado de luces mi corazón de seda

Highly virtuosic in style, Ancient Voices of Children is famous for its bizarre and often eerie vocal effects. Perhaps the most original of these is produced by the soprano singing a kind of fantastic vocalise (based on purely phonetic sounds) into an amplified piano. The singer's voice echoes as the piano strings reverberate sympathetically with the singer. In the last movement, a boy soprano joins the soprano. He briefly sings from off stage before coming on stage for the final vocalise. As with many of Crumb's compositions, Ancient Voices of Children includes a large number of experimental sounds and instruments. This includes prayer stones, Japanese temple bells, a musical saw, and a toy piano. All the performers are also asked to speak, whisper, or yell at times.

Of his inspiration for Ancient Voices of Children Crumb has provided the following insights:

"It is sometimes of interest to a composer to recall the original impulse – the 'creative germ' – of a compositional project. In the case of Ancient Voices I felt this impulse to be the climactic final words of the last song: '... and I will go very far ... to ask Christ the lord to give me back my ancient soul of a child.'"

References

1. Donal Henahan, New York Times review, Nov. 1, 1970, page 68
2. The LP recording produced by Nonesuch (1971) features the same performers as the premiere, as written on the back of the LP sleeve.

External links

• Official home page