Ancient Voices of Children

Ancient Voices of Children is a composition by the

American composer George Crumb. Written in 1970,
the work is scored for soprano, boy soprano, oboe,
mandolin, harp, amplied 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 Garca Lorca. The piece was premiered at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C, on October 31,
1970, as part of the Coolidge Foundations 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]

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 nal 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.'"

2 References
1

Form and compositional style

[1] Donal Henahan, New York Times review, Nov. 1, 1970,

page 68

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

[2] The LP recording produced by Nonesuch (1971) features

the same performers as the premiere, as written on the
back of the LP sleeve.

The Little Boy was Looking for his Voice

3 External links

1. El nio busca su voz

Ocial home page

Dances of the Ancient Earth

2. Me he perdido muchas veces por el mar
3. De dnde vienes, amor, mi nio?
(Dance of the Sacred Life-Cycle)
4. Todas las tardes en Granada, todas las
tardes se muere un nio
Ghost Dance
5. Se ha llenado de luces mi corazn de seda
Highly virtuosic in style, Ancient Voices of Children is famous for its bizarre and often eerie vocal eects. Perhaps the most original of these is produced by the soprano
singing a kind of fantastic vocalise (based on purely
phonetic sounds) into an amplied piano. The singers
voice echoes as the piano strings reverberate sympathetically with the singer. In the last movement, a boy soprano joins the soprano. He briey sings from o stage
before coming on stage for the nal vocalise. As with
many of Crumbs compositions, Ancient Voices of Children includes a large number of experimental sounds and
1

4 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1

Text

Ancient Voices of Children Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Voices_of_Children?oldid=728217453 Contributors: RodC,

Jashiin, RussBot, Gaius Cornelius, Chris the speller, DavidRF, S.dedalus, Clegs, Shouriki, Cnilep, Squandermania, Jg2904, VictorianMutant, Xtfcr7, Kdj24370, Maybeparaphrased and Anonymous: 8

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