Sea-Nocturne (…for the end of time) George Crumb (b. 1929), American pioneer of avant-garde music stated that "although technical discussions are interesting to composers... the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels of our psyche." His innovations in sound and extended technique have always been in service of musical expression and spiritual experience rather than exclusively for technical originality. His string quartet Black Angels (1971) incorporates an eccentric combination of instruments, including crystal glasses, and gongs to evoke the sounds and experience from the Vietnam War. The Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), written in the same year as