Apart from his three orchestral compositions, Crumb has attempted only one large-scale work, Star-Child (1977), a Ford Foundation commission for Pierre Boulez and the New York PO, which requires four conductors, soprano soloist, men’s chorus, children’s choir (also playing handbells), and a large orchestra encircled by eight percussionists. Star-Child expands upon the technique of simultaneous unsynchronized cycles used in Dream Sequence (1976). The Latin text leads from darkness to light, despair to redemption, a characteristic progression for Crumb. But the music is essentially reflective and illustrative, static rather than dynamic, and has been criticized for failing to live up to its cosmic concept.