Ancient Voices of Children
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Ancient Voices of Children is a composition by the American composer George Crumb. Written in 1970 the work is scored for mezzo-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.
[edit] Form and Compositional Style
Ancient Voices of Children is composed of six movements of which all but two are setting of fragments of longer poems by García Lorca. The two purely instrumental movements -- "Dances of the Ancient Earth" and "Ghost Dance" – serve as dance-interludes between vocal movements.
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- El Nino Busca Su Voz
- Dances Of The Ancient Earth
- Me He Perdido Muchas Veces Por El Mar
- De Donde Vienes, Amor, Mi Nino? (Dance Of The Sacred Life Cycle)
- Ghost Dance
- Se Ha Llenado De Luces Mi Corazon 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 mezzo-soprano singing a kind of fantastic vocalise (based on purely phonetic sounds) into an amplified piano. The singers voice echoes as the pianos string reverberate sympathetically with the singer. In the last movement a boy soprano joins the mezzo-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.'"
