Alvin Curran
New Albion Records
All humans have a natural tendency to try and make sense of the inexplicable through intellectual, emotional, or artistic expression. In his 1988 piece Crystal Psalms, Alvin Curran uses the powerful spiritual nature of music to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," which was the first major attack on German Jews. After two nights of so-called "spontaneous" rampages, thousands of Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes were looted and burned, hundreds of Jews were injured, almost one hundred people were killed, and thirty thousand people were deported. Curran writes about Crystal Psalms: "By focusing on this almost incomprehensible moment in our recent history, I do not intend to offer yet another lesson on the Holocaust, but simply wish to make clear a personal musical statement and to solicit a conscious act of rememberg -- remembering not only this moment of unparalleled human madness of fifty years ago, but of all crimes against humanity anywhere anytime."
Curran's vision for this piece required international participation. On October 20, 1988, much of western Europe heard what was to become a legend in radio history -- a concerto for musicians in six nations, simultaneously performed, mixed and broadcast live in stereo to an audience that spanned from Palermo to Helsinki. Some 300 musicians and technicians collaborated to bring the piece to fruition, with a chorus, a quartet of strings or winds, a percussionist, and an accordionist present in each of the six locations. In addition, Curran used pre-recorded sounds (including Yementite Jews praying at the Western "Wailing" Wall, famous Eastern European cantors taken from old sound archives, and Curran's young niece singing her Bat Mizvah) as an accompaniment to the live performance. Ship horns, trains, crows, and breaking glass also add to the texture of Crystal Psalms. The somber music and startling, explosive samples combine to create multilayered and deeply moving music that allows the listener to remember and pay homage to the atrocity of Kristallnacht.
Jeanne Acceturo
last updated:
10/31/01
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