Many of Crumb’s works include an implicit or real theatricality, ensuring him a significant place among postwar exponents of music theater. Yet his art is naturally monodic, expressed through subtleties of nuance, manner and coloration; perhaps poised above a trance-like drone, or exploding with iridescence—always magical and mysterious. Achieving so much with only a handful of musicians, it is hardly surprising that his music has been popular with dance companies—and was treated between 1965 and 1985, for instance, to over fifty different choreographies worldwide.