Robert Mugge's 1976 film GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE is a portrait of the brilliant American composer George Crumb and includes a complete performance of his hauntingly beautiful composition "Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players" which is conducted by Richard Wernick and performed by his Penn Contemporary Players: Barbara Haffner, Carole Morgan and Lambert Orkis.
Most of the film was shot in black and white, with musical performance sections tinted blue and sections concerning Mr. Crumb's life (including interviews with him, his musician wife Elizabeth May Brown, and fellow composer Richard Wernick) tinted green. This clip features the opening of the film.
The film was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and makes innovative use of color and a dialectical structure to reveal Crumb's life (green-tinted-footage), his work (blue-tinted footage, and connections between the two (full-color footage).
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