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the century, and now again I think<br />
they've become more and more<br />
relevant because our age is<br />
typically like that, that influence is<br />
coming from everywhere. All the<br />
popular musics, the ethnic musics,<br />
the whole tradition of Western<br />
music, there are collisions all' over<br />
the place. I really can't see any<br />
kind of a purist way of approaching<br />
music given the staggering array of<br />
various influences.<br />
STEENHUISEN: lWzen you 're<br />
referring to other music, you 're<br />
tapping into larger frameworks, of<br />
societies, belief systems, e(c. ls<br />
this associativeness important to<br />
you? .<br />
CRUMB: I think cine has to<br />
reinvent it. I must say that there<br />
are two ways of dealing with other<br />
music - let's say in this case with<br />
respect to traditional folk music.<br />
One of the ways that just about<br />
everybody does is by making<br />
arrangements of it, like Aaron<br />
Copland did, decorating it somewhat.<br />
The other way interests me<br />
much more, and that's the way<br />
Charles Ives did it. He completely<br />
absorbed - the way Bela Bartok did<br />
-the ethos of the folk idiom into his<br />
musical bloodstream. The spirit,<br />
the gem,Jine spirit of folk music,<br />
rather than just pitting it as some<br />
sort of genre/style that is easy to<br />
treat.<br />
In this way, I'm looking forward to<br />
seeing how people in Toronto might<br />
react to the folk song settings Unto<br />
the Hills, because I'm doing<br />
another one of those. I've almost<br />
finished one that is involved with .<br />
spirituals, and may even do a third<br />
set- (laMghing) i've become a<br />
composer of American songbooks<br />
STEENHUISEN: How did you<br />
work with the folk songs?<br />
CRUMB: These are treatments of<br />
tunes, it's not so literal-minded.<br />
People tell me that they came<br />
away from it knowing that it was<br />
still my own music, although I'm<br />
starting with materials that are<br />
borrowed. With this one, I really<br />
had in mind not a trained voice, but<br />
that particular genre of voice that<br />
one associates with folk music. It<br />
will be sung by my daughter, and<br />
she does that really well . .<br />
STEENHUISEN: , Do you wish<br />
that t~ listener would tap into the<br />
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