Educational Media Reviews Online

Bridge Records is in the midst of a ‘complete edition’ project featuring American composer George Crumb (b. 1929). This DVD is the 14th volume of that edition; the rest are all audio CDs. The accompanying booklet claims that this is a ‘portrait’ of the award-winning composer, but anyone looking here for a filmed biography of Crumb, one of the most important innovators for piano and chamber music in the 20th century, will be sorely disappointed. This is essentially a performance DVD, with full renditions of Crumb’s Three Early Songs (1947) for voice and piano, Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik (Ruminations On ‘Round Midnight By Thelonious Monk) (2002) for solo piano, and Apparition (1979) for soprano and amplified piano, all of which are available on other Bridge Records CDs. Excerpts from five other works, also available in full renditions from the ‘complete edition’ set, are included in this DVD. The program gets its title from the “Yoda” segment of Mundus Canis (A Dog’s World) (1998), for guitar and percussion; the piece ends with the percussionist sternly saying, “Bad Dog!” An entity called The George Crumb Ensemble performs the screened pieces: Crumb (percussion), Tony Arnold (soprano), Robert Shannon (piano), George Starobin (guitar). They do a fine job, but libraries owning CDs of these works do not need to add more, and the visual impact of the performances are not particularly compelling. Snapshots from Crumb’s past are shown in b&w and color but they offer scant insight into his private or public life. Crumb’s own comments on his work offer little more than printed program notes at his online Website. Texts for the vocal works and notes on the pieces shown in performance, along with full credits for the film, are in the DVD booklet. The sound track can be heard in stereo 2.0 or Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound or DTS.

A more engaging DVD featuring Crumb came out in 2004 from Mode Records (#142): George Crumb: Makrokosmos I & II, with Margaret Leng Tan, piano. It features dramatically filmed full performance of these strange and wonderful pieces and a 45-minute interview-conversation with Crumb, his publisher, and the pianist that is far more revealing of Crumb’s musical philosophy and place in contemporary musical culture than the Bridge "Bad Dog" DVD.