I was 17 when I first started to officially study composition with Chinary Ung. At the time, I was aware of a number of contemporary composers. But until I met Chinary I neither heard of Chinary nor George Crumb. That would all soon change. At my first lesson with Chinary, who also worked with Crumb at Tanglewood, he pulled out this enormous score of “Star-Child” for orchestra. Chinary recently copied some of the parts for the New York Philharmonic’s world premiere. He also had a tape of the world premiere. Then, one by one, I became well acquainted with all of Crumb’s music.

I first met George Crumb at the University of Illinois in 1980. Crumb earned the Masters degree at the University of Illinois decades earlier. Now he was there to receive both a university award and a performance of his orchestra work “Star-Child.” He also gave a presentation to Ben Johnston’s small contemporary music seminar which I was a part of. After that time, I would meet him at BMI student awards parties. I knew a few of his students, the late Jim Primosh and Stephan Jaffe. Everyone who knew him well had a great impersonation of the master’s drawl. Stephan Jaffe would say, How do you take your coffee, George? “I like a shot a white in my java.”

George Crumb’s music went against the tide of his generation but he wasn’t a reactionary. His music is poetic and personal. It offers a future that comes from a past. His embracing of the music of Appalachia, Europe, and Asia was certainly inspired by Charles Ives. For a 17-year-old composer, his sonic world was inspiring at a time when serial thinking and pattern music had little to offer. A hint at who inspired him and who was important to Crumb at the time can be found in the initials at the end of each piece of “Makrokomos,” vol. I: B.B., W.R.C., J.B., R.L.F., G.H.C., A.W., P.Z., C.D., A.S., D.R.B., F.G.L., B.W.