For the inventor of potato chips, see George Crum. George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American composer of modern and avant garde music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres and extended technique. Examples include spoken flute (one speaks while blowing into the instrument) and glass marbles poured onto an open piano. Biography Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and began to compose at an early age. He studied music first at the Mason College of Music in Charleston where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1950. He obtained his Master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then briefly in Berlin before returning to the United States to study at the University of Michigan, from which he received his Ph.D. 1959. Although his scores and recordings sell steadily, Crumb has earned his living primarily from teaching. His first teaching job was at a college in V