Victoria Adamenko has tried to elaborate what Crumb has called "the numerological basis of the entire work," as related to the "axis of symmetry" associated with "7" as the precise halfway point between the integer counting sequence from 1 to 13. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation) and Return (redemption)." Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects (tutti)Ĭrumb has stated that, "The underlying structure of Black Angels is a huge arch-like design which is suspended from the three 'Threnody' pieces. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects (tutti) The thirteen individual movements of Black Angels are divided into three large groups.
The image of the "black angel" was a conventional device used by early painters to symbolize the fallen angel." Movements The numerous quasi-programmatic allusions in the work are therefore symbolic, although the essential polarity - God versus Devil - implied more than a purely metaphysical reality. Īs a general summary of the musical composition, Crumb has stated that, " Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land) was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. The work abounds in conventional musical symbolisms such as the Diabolus in Musica (the interval of the tritone) and the Trillo Di Diavolo (the "Devil's trill", after Tartini). As Crumb states, "There are several allusions to tonal music in Black Angels: a quotation from Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet (in the Pavana Lachrymae and also faintly echoed on the last page of the work) an original Sarabanda, which is stylistically synthetic the sustained B major tonality of God-Music and several references to the Latin sequence Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath"). Robert Greenberg has interpreted the "Electric Insects" symbolized by Crumb in Black Angels as representing attack helicopters in military deployment during the Vietnam War.Ĭrumb has indicated that the composition "was commissioned by the University of Michigan and first performed by the Stanley Quartet." For the composition, Crumb used several quotations from previous composers most notably from Franz Schubert.
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