1st Edition

War and Death in the Music of George Crumb A Crisis of Collective Memory

By Abigail Shupe Copyright 2023
174 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

174 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

174 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book studies George Crumb’s The Winds of Destiny (2004) and Black Angels (1970) as artifacts of collective memory and cultural trauma. It situates these two pieces in Crumb’s output and unpacks the complex methodologies needed to understand these pieces as contributions and challenges to traditional narratives of the Civil War and the Vietnam War. The Winds of Destiny is shown to be... Read more

Introduction

  • Crumb, The Winds of Destiny, and Black Angels
  • Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1. Analyzing Memory and Trauma in the Music of Crumb

  • Methodologies
    • Collective Memory and Trauma
      • Death in Wartime
      • Collective Memory, Sound, Space, and Place
      • Memory and Musical Analysis

    • A Crisis of Collective Memory

    Chapter 2. Collective Haunting and the Civil War

    • Trauma and Memory
    • Ghosts and Memory
      • "Beautiful Dreamer"
      • "Bringing in the Sheaves"

    • "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"
    • Conclusion

    Chapter 3. The Winds of Destiny and the Musical Grotesque

    • Collective Civil War Memory
    • Victorious Belliphonic
    • Creating the Grotesque: Mahler’s Funeral March
    • Musical Grotesque
    • A Grotesque Musical Memorial
    • Conclusion

    Chapter 4. Black Angels, The Things They Carried, and the Vietnam War

    • Black Angels Reception
    • Notions of Truth and Narrative
    • Trauma, Morality, and Blurriness
    • Things
    • Happening-Truth and Story-Truth
      • "Night of the Electric Insects"
      • "Bones and Flutes"
      • "Pavana Lachrymae"

    • Return

    Chapter 5. Place and Subjectivity in Black Angels

    • Place, Wilderness, and Nature
      • "Night of the Electric Insects"
      • Placelessness
      • "Lost Bells"

    • God, the Devil, and the Morality of War
    • Listening

    Chapter 6. Conclusion: Ongoing Crisis

    • Ongoing Crisis of Collective Memory

     

    Biography

    Abigail Shupe is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on Rameau and experimentation in Enlightenment France and George Crumb’s music about death and war. She lives in Fort Collins, CO with her family.