Marine Biology inspiring Classical Music

The January 1979 issue of the "National Geographic" magazine, contained an unique surprise. The page 24A & 24B bound into the magazine was a flexible plastic (vinyl?) 7 inch  record, 33 rpm Stereo entitled "Songs of the Humpback Whale." It contained live recordings of the sound of the animal. It could be detached from the magazine &  played on an ordinary record player. It had also an explanatory commentary by Roger Payne, Ph.D. Research Biologist, New York Zoological Society.

This recording inspired the American Composer, George Henry Crumb (1929-92) to compose a work called "Vox Balaenae" (Voice of the Whale) for three masked players playing electric flute, electric cello & electric piano. The composer advised that each of the three players wear a black half-mask throughout the performance of the work. The masks, by effacing a sense of human projection, will symbolise the powerful impersonal forces of nature. It is hard to imagine that only flute, piano & cello (all electronically enhanced) are capable of producing the sounds of this piece. (From "Chamber Music - A Listener's Guide" by James M.Keller, Oxford University Press, 2011).