For the ideal performance of “Makrokosmos II: Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac,” by the American composer George Crumb, one should perhaps be outdoors in a remote clearing under a crystalline canopy of stars.

For the record, the premiere performance of Crumb’s suite for amplified piano took place indoors at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on today’s date in 1974, as part of a recital of new American works given by pianist Robert Miller.

In his program notes, Miller offered these words about Crumb’s Makrokosmos II:

“Each of the 12 pieces is associated with a different sign of the Zodiac, and is written out in a very precise notation, but the music will at times sound quite free and flexible, almost improvisatory. The piano has become an orchestra unto itself. There is an enormously wide range of sound, timbre, touch, dynamics, etc. Amplification, various vocal effects, the imaginative exploitation of the three pedals, effects produced by the fingers in contact with the strings, and the use of external devices -- contribute to this.

"One use of quotation by Crumb is beautifully subtle. In the eleventh piece, entitled 'Litany of the Galactic Bells,' the opening music -- a shimmering bell effect which recalls the Coronation Scene from Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov' -- gradually subsides and moves almost imperceptibly into a short excerpt from Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' Sonata. The effect is somewhat like the changing colors of a prism.”