Product Details
- An MVD Exclusive
- SKU: MVD7499D
- Format: DVD
- UPC: 760137749998
- Street Date: 06/24/16
- PreBook Date: 05/20/16
- Label: Mug-Shot Productions »
- Genre: Classical
- Run Time: 54 mins
- Number of Discs: 1
- Audio: STEREO
- Year of Production: 1976
- Region Code: 0
- Box Lot: 30
- Territory: WORLD
- Language: English
Cast & Crew
- Director: ROBERT MUGGE
- Producer: ROBERT MUGGE
- Producers: ROBERT MUGGE
Product Assets
George Crumb - George Crumb: Voice Of The Whale
Robert Mugge's 1976 portrait of renowned composer George Crumb featuring a performance of his composition "Vox Balaenae"
- List Price: $19.95
- Your Price: $19.95
- In Stock: 31
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In 1976, "music filmmaker" Robert Mugge created his first music-related film. Titled GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE, it was this dazzling, 54-minute portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy-winning composer George Crumb. The film was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and makes innovative use of color and a dialectical structure to reveal Crumb's life (green-tinted-footage), his work (blue-tinted footage, and connections between the two (full-color footage). Included in the film are a performance of Crumb's 1971 composition, "Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players"; samples of the rural, West Virginia gospel music that has influenced him; demonstrations by Crumb of exotic instruments and unusual effects that figure in his compositions; and scenes from his home and university teaching environments. At his home, Crumb discusses his compositional techniques with fellow composer Richard Wernick, and his musician wife Elizabeth discusses their life together; at the university, Wernick's Penn Contemporary players (Carole Morgan, Lambert Orkis, and Barbara Haffner) perform "Vox Balaenae." Words frequently used to describe George Crumb's work are "poetic, atmospheric, mysterious, evocative." He himself has said, "I feel intuitively that music must have been the first cell from which language, science, and religion originated." GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE was first broadcast over PBS on June 6, 1978. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored.
Media
Sales Points
- Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored
- Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored
- Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored
Press Quotes
A revealing and enlightening film biography of an innovative and original musical talent.
—Landers Film Reviews
A bizarre little nugget of a film
—Video Librarian
In recent years, George Crumb has been talked about, and praised, more than any other composer of the American avant-garde.
—Harold C. Shonberg, New York Times
A revealing and enlightening film biography of an innovative and original musical talent.
—Landers Film Reviews
A bizarre little nugget of a film
—Video Librarian
In recent years, George Crumb has been talked about, and praised, more than any other composer of the American avant-garde.
—Harold C. Shonberg, New York Times
A revealing and enlightening film biography of an innovative and original musical talent.
—Landers Film Reviews
A bizarre little nugget of a film
—Video Librarian
In recent years, George Crumb has been talked about, and praised, more than any other composer of the American avant-garde.
—Harold C. Shonberg, New York Times
