It was the end of 1883, and Gustav Mahler experienced heartbreak. Mahler conveyed the experience in a letter to a friend, alluding to a new work: 'I have written a song cycle,' he wrote, 'six songs, all of which are dedicated to her.'
The songs were conceived as if a wafaring man had suffered a heavy fate and now goes out into the world, wandering aimlessly. This six-part song cycle would ultimately become "Songs of a Wayfarer."
Hosted by Eric Garcia.

First, he composes the piece for electric string quartet. The four performance double on tam-tams, maracas, and crystal goblets tuned to specific pitches. At various moments in the performance, they employ metal thimbles and glass rods. They whisper. They shout. They make clicking sounds with their tongues. They intone music of the past while playing a work composed in an Avant-garde style. George Crumb became one of American music's most distinctive voices in the second half of the 20th Century.
Hosted by Eric Garcia.

It would gain the reputation as the most scandalous piece of music ever composed. An early criticism deemed it "the work of a madman." After its premiere in 1913, music would never be the same. This episode of Noted, Igor Stravinsky's riotous masterpiece Rite of Spring, hosted by Eric Garcia.