Makrokosmos

Makrokosmos is a series of four volumes of pieces for piano by American composer George Crumb. The name alludes to Mikrokosmos, a set of piano pieces by Béla Bartók, one of Crumb's favorite 20th-century composers. The first volume of the set was composed in 1972, while the last was completed in early 1979; the first performance of all four volumes in sequence was given by Yvar Mikhashoff, Aki Takahashi, Stephen Manes, Freida Manes, Jan Williams and Lynn Harbold, in Buffalo, New York, on 12 June 1980.

Makrokosmos, Volume I was composed in 1972 for pianist and friend David Burge (who previously commissioned and premiered Crumb's Five Pieces for Piano (1962)). The collection is subtitled Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac and is scored for amplified piano. Its contents is as follows:

The last piece of each part is notated in such a way that the score forms an image: a cross (piece 4), a circle (piece 8), and a spiral (piece 12). Burge premiered Volume I at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, on 8 February 1973.

The second volume of Makrokosmos was completed in 1973. It largely follows the organizational scheme of the first volume, bears the same subtitle (i.e. Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac) and is also scored for amplified piano. Crumb has stated that the two volumes form a sequence of 24 fantasy-pieces. Volume II comprises the following works:

Similarly to Volume I, the last piece of each part is notated so that the score forms an image: two circles (piece 4), the peace sign (piece 12), etc. The collection was premiered by Robert Miller at the Alice Tully Hall, New York City, on 12 November 1974.

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