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Richard Barrett (composer)

January 26, 2023

Richard Barrett (born 7 November 1959) is a Welsh composer.

Barrett in June 2015

Biography

Barrett was born in Swansea, Wales and attended Olchfa School. After completing his first bachelors degree in genetics and microbiology from University College London in 1980[1], he began to study music, taking private lessons with Peter Wiegold, and soon thereafter participating in the 1984 Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik where there were fruitful encounters with Brian Ferneyhough and Hans-Joachim Hespos. In the late 1980s he became associated with the so-called New Complexity group of British composers because of the intricate notation of his scores. He is equally active in free improvisation, most often in the electronic duo FURT with Paul Obermayer, formed in 1986, but also since 2003 as a member of the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Since 1990 about half of his compositions have been written for the ELISION Ensemble, most notably the extended works Opening of the Mouth, DARK MATTER, CONSTRUCTION and world-line. Most of his compositions since the 1990s have involved both acoustic and electronic resources, combined in many different ways. In 2005 he and Obermayer formed the electroacoustic octet fORCH.

He taught composition at Middlesex University from 1989 to 1992, and electronic composition at the Institute of Sonology of the Hague Royal Conservatory in 1996, where he worked until 2001. In 2009 he resumed teaching regularly at the Institute. Having moved from London to Amsterdam in 1993, he lived in Berlin from 2001 to 2013, initially as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service's (DAAD) "Berliner Künstlerprogramm", except between 2006 and 2009 when he was a professor of composition at Brunel University London.[2] Barrett has often been politically outspoken,[3] and in 1990 joined the Socialist Workers Party. While no longer an active member he remains aligned with revolutionary socialism.[4]

Barrett won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, in 1986, and was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize in 1989.[1] He also won the Chamber Music category of the 2003 British Composer Awards.[5]

Many of Barrett's works are grouped into series, and have extra-musical associations—particularly with the writers Samuel Beckett and Paul Celan, but also the Chilean painter Roberto Matta, and ideas from physics, mythology, astrology and philosophy (in the texts of DARK MATTER). Barrett's compositional techniques, which derive equally and indistinguishably from serial, stochastic and intuitive methods, have since the mid-1980s made extensive use of computer programs he has developed himself.[1] He regards free improvisation as a method of composition rather than as a different or opposed kind of musical activity.[6]

His codex series of compositions explores diverse ways of using composed frameworks as a point of departure for improvisation, particularly with larger groups, while the fOKT series extrapolates some of FURT's characteristic forms of texture and co-ordination into the octet context of the fORCH ensemble. The results of these more experimental and collaborative projects have exerted an increasing influence on Barrett's other compositional work, which remains mostly fully notated, although several compositions (for example transmission, Blattwerk and adrift) alternate between precise scoring and free improvisation for part or all of their duration. However, these different strategies are used to maximise the musical potential of the whole, rather than drawing attention to the distinction between improvisational and notational methods of composition—as Barrett himself puts it: "As a listener I generally prefer to concentrate on what music is doing rather than how it was done".[7]

Since 2003 he has been working on an eight-part cycle of compositions collectively entitled resistance & vision and with a projected total duration of over six hours, of which the first (NO), third (cell), fifth (Mesopotamia), sixth (IF), seventh (nacht und träume) and eighth (CONSTRUCTION) have so far been completed (July 2016). CONSTRUCTION is itself a conglomerate work lasting over two hours in performance, consisting of 20 components in four interwoven cycles which may also be performed singly or in various combinations. Since the completion of CONSTRUCTION he has completed a number of other projects which continue long-term associations—life-form for cellist Arne Deforce and world-line for ELISION—as well as inaugurating new ones—close-up for the Belgrade-based group Ensemble Studio6 and the work in progress natural causes (based on a cycle of poems written for him by Simon Howard), the first instalment of which was written for Musikfabrik.

He is currently based in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2019 his book Music of Possibility was published by Vision Edition.

Selected works

  • Ne songe plus à fuir (1985–86) for solo cello
  • EARTH (1987–88) for trombone and percussion
  • I open and close (1983–88) for string quartet
  • negatives (1988–93) for 9 players
  • Vanity (1991–94) for orchestra
  • CHARON (1994–95) for bass clarinet
  • Tract I "ㅡ" (1984–96) for solo piano
  • Tract IIa "Hypothesis"
  • Tract IIb "Husk"
  • Tract IIc "The Light Gleams an Instant"
  • Tract IId "Lacunae"
  • Tract IIe "As Heard so Murmured"
  • Opening of the Mouth (1992–97) for two vocalists, 9 instrumentalists and electronics
  • transmission (1996–99) for electric guitar and electronics
  • Blattwerk (1998–2002) for cello and electronics
  • DARK MATTER (1990–2003) for voices, ensemble and electronics
  • NO (1999–2004) for orchestra
  • Flechtwerk (2002–06) for clarinet and piano
  • adrift (2003–07) for piano and electronics
  • Nacht und Träume (2004–08) for cello, piano and electronics
  • fOKT 1 – (2005– ) for the fORCH octet
  • Mesopotamia (2006–09) for 17 instruments and electronics
  • codex I – ... (2000– ) for improvising ensembles
  • IF (2006–10) for orchestra
  • cell (2005–11) for alto saxophone, accordion and contrabass
  • CONSTRUCTION (2005–11) for voices, instruments and electronics
  • vale (2005–12) for solo flute
  • fold (2011–12) for solo Redgate-Howarth system oboe, also (2016) for soprano saxophone
  • life-form (2011–12) for cello and electronics
  • EQUALE (2013) 8-channel electronic music composed in collaboration with Kees Tazelaar
  • urlicht (2013–14) for three percussionists
  • world-line (2012–14) for flugelhorn/piccolo trumpet, percussion, electric lap steel guitar and electronics
  • eiszeiten (2012–14) for horn, trombone, tuba and electronics
  • wake (2014–15) for three instrumental trios and electronics
  • codex XV (2015) for three groups of improvising musicians and conductor
  • close-up (2013–16) for six performers and electronics
  • everything has changed/nothing has changed (2013–17) for orchestra
  • natural causes (2015–...) for 16 musicians and electronics
  • tkiva (2016–17) for 4 instruments and electronics
  • Vermilion Sands (2017–18) electronic music
  • entoptic (2017–18) for percussion and electronics
  • disquiet (2018) electronic music
  • membrane (2017–19) for trombone and electronics

Selected discography

  • Chamber Works. ELISION Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli (Etcetera 1993)—contains Ne songe plus à fuir, EARTH, Another heavenly day and negatives
  • FURT: Live in Amsterdam 1994 (X-OR 1995)
  • Vanity. BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Tamayo (NMC 1996)
  • FURT: angel (JdK 1999)
  • Opening of the Mouth. ELISION Ensemble conducted by Simon Hewett (ABC Classics 1999, reissued 2009)
  • FURT: defekt (Matchless 2002)
  • FURT: dead or alive (Psi 2004)
  • FURT: OMNIVM (Psi 2006)
  • transmission (NMC 2007). ELISION soloists—contains interference, abglanzbeladen/auseinandergeschrieben, basalt, air, knospend-gespaltener and transmission
  • fORCH: spin networks (Psi 2007)
  • Ute Wassermann and Richard Barrett: pollen (Creative Sources 2008)
  • FURT plus: equals (Psi 2008)
  • Negatives. ELISION Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli (NMC 2009) – reissue of Chamber Works with the addition of codex I
  • FURT: sense (Psi 2009)
  • Adrift—3 compositions 2007/8 (Psi 2009). RB with Sarah Nicolls, ELISION, Champ d'Action—contains adrift, codex VII and codex IX
  • Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (guitar): numbers (Creative Sources 2012)
  • DARK MATTER (NMC 2012). ELISION and Cikada ensembles conducted by Christian Eggen
  • Richard Barrett, Jon Rose (violin/tenor violin), Meinrad Kneer (contrabass): colophony (Creative Sources 2013)
  • SKEIN – RB with Frank Gratkowski, Achim Kaufmann, Wilbert de Joode, Okkyung Lee and Tony Buck (Leo Records 2014)
  • fORCH: "spukhafte Fernwirkung" (Treader 2015)
  • "Music for cello and electronics" (double CD, Aeon 2016). Arne Deforce (cello) and Yutaka Oya (piano)

With Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble

References

  1. ^ a b c Warnaby, John (2001). "Barrett, Richard". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780195170672.
  2. ^ Service, Tom. 10 February 2005. "Just Say No". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Whittall, Arnold. Autumn 2005. "Resistance and Reflection: Richard Barrett in the 21st Century". The Musical Times 146, no. 1892: 57–69.
  4. ^ Lenz, Veronika, 2005. "Unasked Questions: An Interview with Richard Barrett".
  5. ^ , britishcomposerawards.com
  6. ^ Gilmore, Bob. 2009. "Interview with Richard Barrett". Paristransatlantic.com.
  7. ^ Barrett, Richard, 2009. Liner notes for CD adrift. Psi Records 09.10.

Further reading

  • Anderson, Julian. July 1997. "Richard Barrett: Vanity; Michael Finnissy: Red Earth; Anthony Payne: Time's Arrow". Tempo, new series, no. 201:55–57.
  • Fox, Christopher. September 1993. "British Music at Darmstadt, 1982–1992". Tempo, new series, no. 186:21–25.
  • Fox, Christopher. 1995. "Music as Fiction: A Consideration of the Work of Richard Barrett". Contemporary Music Review, 13, no. 1 ("Aspects of Complexity in Recent British Music"): 147–157.
  • Freeman, Robin. September 1994. "Richard Barrett, compositeur maudit manqué", Tempo, new series, no. 190:41–46.
  • Hewitt, Ivan. March 1994. "Fail Worse, Fail Better". The Musical Times 135, no. 1813:148–151.
  • Toop, Richard. 1988. "Four Facets of the 'New Complexity'". Contact no. 32:4–8.
  • Toop, Richard. 1991. "Richard Barrett in Interview". Sounds Australian, no. 29:27–31.

External links

  • Official website
  • FURT's website
  • Video documentary on CONSTRUCTION with interview and performance footage

January 26, 2023
richard, barrett, composer, richard, barrett, born, november, 1959, welsh, composer, barrett, june, 2015, contents, biography, selected, works, selected, discography, references, further, reading, external, linksbiography, editbarrett, born, swansea, wales, at. Richard Barrett born 7 November 1959 is a Welsh composer Barrett in June 2015 Contents 1 Biography 2 Selected works 3 Selected discography 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksBiography EditBarrett was born in Swansea Wales and attended Olchfa School After completing his first bachelors degree in genetics and microbiology from University College London in 1980 1 he began to study music taking private lessons with Peter Wiegold and soon thereafter participating in the 1984 Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik where there were fruitful encounters with Brian Ferneyhough and Hans Joachim Hespos In the late 1980s he became associated with the so called New Complexity group of British composers because of the intricate notation of his scores He is equally active in free improvisation most often in the electronic duo FURT with Paul Obermayer formed in 1986 but also since 2003 as a member of the Evan Parker Electro Acoustic Ensemble Since 1990 about half of his compositions have been written for the ELISION Ensemble most notably the extended works Opening of the Mouth DARK MATTER CONSTRUCTION and world line Most of his compositions since the 1990s have involved both acoustic and electronic resources combined in many different ways In 2005 he and Obermayer formed the electroacoustic octet fORCH He taught composition at Middlesex University from 1989 to 1992 and electronic composition at the Institute of Sonology of the Hague Royal Conservatory in 1996 where he worked until 2001 In 2009 he resumed teaching regularly at the Institute Having moved from London to Amsterdam in 1993 he lived in Berlin from 2001 to 2013 initially as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service s DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm except between 2006 and 2009 when he was a professor of composition at Brunel University London 2 Barrett has often been politically outspoken 3 and in 1990 joined the Socialist Workers Party While no longer an active member he remains aligned with revolutionary socialism 4 Barrett won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik Darmstadt in 1986 and was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize in 1989 1 He also won the Chamber Music category of the 2003 British Composer Awards 5 Many of Barrett s works are grouped into series and have extra musical associations particularly with the writers Samuel Beckett and Paul Celan but also the Chilean painter Roberto Matta and ideas from physics mythology astrology and philosophy in the texts of DARK MATTER Barrett s compositional techniques which derive equally and indistinguishably from serial stochastic and intuitive methods have since the mid 1980s made extensive use of computer programs he has developed himself 1 He regards free improvisation as a method of composition rather than as a different or opposed kind of musical activity 6 His codex series of compositions explores diverse ways of using composed frameworks as a point of departure for improvisation particularly with larger groups while the fOKT series extrapolates some of FURT s characteristic forms of texture and co ordination into the octet context of the fORCH ensemble The results of these more experimental and collaborative projects have exerted an increasing influence on Barrett s other compositional work which remains mostly fully notated although several compositions for example transmission Blattwerk and adrift alternate between precise scoring and free improvisation for part or all of their duration However these different strategies are used to maximise the musical potential of the whole rather than drawing attention to the distinction between improvisational and notational methods of composition as Barrett himself puts it As a listener I generally prefer to concentrate on what music is doing rather than how it was done 7 Since 2003 he has been working on an eight part cycle of compositions collectively entitled resistance amp vision and with a projected total duration of over six hours of which the first NO third cell fifth Mesopotamia sixth IF seventh nacht und traume and eighth CONSTRUCTION have so far been completed July 2016 CONSTRUCTION is itself a conglomerate work lasting over two hours in performance consisting of 20 components in four interwoven cycles which may also be performed singly or in various combinations Since the completion of CONSTRUCTION he has completed a number of other projects which continue long term associations life form for cellist Arne Deforce and world line for ELISION as well as inaugurating new ones close up for the Belgrade based group Ensemble Studio6 and the work in progress natural causes based on a cycle of poems written for him by Simon Howard the first instalment of which was written for Musikfabrik He is currently based in Belgrade Serbia In 2019 his book Music of Possibility was published by Vision Edition Selected works EditNe songe plus a fuir 1985 86 for solo cello EARTH 1987 88 for trombone and percussion I open and close 1983 88 for string quartet negatives 1988 93 for 9 players Vanity 1991 94 for orchestra CHARON 1994 95 for bass clarinet Tract I ㅡ 1984 96 for solo piano Tract IIa Hypothesis Tract IIb Husk Tract IIc The Light Gleams an Instant Tract IId Lacunae Tract IIe As Heard so Murmured Opening of the Mouth 1992 97 for two vocalists 9 instrumentalists and electronics transmission 1996 99 for electric guitar and electronics Blattwerk 1998 2002 for cello and electronics DARK MATTER 1990 2003 for voices ensemble and electronics NO 1999 2004 for orchestra Flechtwerk 2002 06 for clarinet and piano adrift 2003 07 for piano and electronics Nacht und Traume 2004 08 for cello piano and electronics fOKT 1 2005 for the fORCH octet Mesopotamia 2006 09 for 17 instruments and electronics codex I 2000 for improvising ensembles IF 2006 10 for orchestra cell 2005 11 for alto saxophone accordion and contrabass CONSTRUCTION 2005 11 for voices instruments and electronics vale 2005 12 for solo flute fold 2011 12 for solo Redgate Howarth system oboe also 2016 for soprano saxophone life form 2011 12 for cello and electronics EQUALE 2013 8 channel electronic music composed in collaboration with Kees Tazelaar urlicht 2013 14 for three percussionists world line 2012 14 for flugelhorn piccolo trumpet percussion electric lap steel guitar and electronics eiszeiten 2012 14 for horn trombone tuba and electronics wake 2014 15 for three instrumental trios and electronics codex XV 2015 for three groups of improvising musicians and conductor close up 2013 16 for six performers and electronics everything has changed nothing has changed 2013 17 for orchestra natural causes 2015 for 16 musicians and electronics tkiva 2016 17 for 4 instruments and electronics Vermilion Sands 2017 18 electronic music entoptic 2017 18 for percussion and electronics disquiet 2018 electronic music membrane 2017 19 for trombone and electronicsSelected discography EditChamber Works ELISION Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli Etcetera 1993 contains Ne songe plus a fuir EARTH Another heavenly day and negatives FURT Live in Amsterdam 1994 X OR 1995 Vanity BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Tamayo NMC 1996 FURT angel JdK 1999 Opening of the Mouth ELISION Ensemble conducted by Simon Hewett ABC Classics 1999 reissued 2009 FURT defekt Matchless 2002 FURT dead or alive Psi 2004 FURT OMNIVM Psi 2006 transmission NMC 2007 ELISION soloists contains interference abglanzbeladen auseinandergeschrieben basalt air knospend gespaltener and transmission fORCH spin networks Psi 2007 Ute Wassermann and Richard Barrett pollen Creative Sources 2008 FURT plus equals Psi 2008 Negatives ELISION Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli NMC 2009 reissue of Chamber Works with the addition of codex I FURT sense Psi 2009 Adrift 3 compositions 2007 8 Psi 2009 RB with Sarah Nicolls ELISION Champ d Action contains adrift codex VII and codex IX Richard Barrett and Han earl Park guitar numbers Creative Sources 2012 DARK MATTER NMC 2012 ELISION and Cikada ensembles conducted by Christian Eggen Richard Barrett Jon Rose violin tenor violin Meinrad Kneer contrabass colophony Creative Sources 2013 SKEIN RB with Frank Gratkowski Achim Kaufmann Wilbert de Joode Okkyung Lee and Tony Buck Leo Records 2014 fORCH spukhafte Fernwirkung Treader 2015 Music for cello and electronics double CD Aeon 2016 Arne Deforce cello and Yutaka Oya piano With Evan Parker s Electro Acoustic Ensemble The Eleventh Hour ECM 2004 The Moment s Energy ECM 2007 SET Psi 2009 hasselt Psi 2012 References Edit a b c Warnaby John 2001 Barrett Richard In Sadie Stanley Tyrrell John eds The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd ed London Macmillan ISBN 9780195170672 Service Tom 10 February 2005 Just Say No The Guardian Whittall Arnold Autumn 2005 Resistance and Reflection Richard Barrett in the 21st Century The Musical Times 146 no 1892 57 69 Lenz Veronika 2005 Unasked Questions An Interview with Richard Barrett British Composer Award Winners britishcomposerawards com Gilmore Bob 2009 Interview with Richard Barrett Paristransatlantic com Barrett Richard 2009 Liner notes for CD adrift Psi Records 09 10 Further reading EditAnderson Julian July 1997 Richard Barrett Vanity Michael Finnissy Red Earth Anthony Payne Time s Arrow Tempo new series no 201 55 57 Fox Christopher September 1993 British Music at Darmstadt 1982 1992 Tempo new series no 186 21 25 Fox Christopher 1995 Music as Fiction A Consideration of the Work of Richard Barrett Contemporary Music Review 13 no 1 Aspects of Complexity in Recent British Music 147 157 Freeman Robin September 1994 Richard Barrett compositeur maudit manque Tempo new series no 190 41 46 Hewitt Ivan March 1994 Fail Worse Fail Better The Musical Times 135 no 1813 148 151 Toop Richard 1988 Four Facets of the New Complexity Contact no 32 4 8 Toop Richard 1991 Richard Barrett in Interview Sounds Australian no 29 27 31 External links EditUnited Music Publishers biography page Official website FURT s website Video documentary on CONSTRUCTION with interview and performance footage Portals Biography Classical music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Richard Barrett composer amp oldid 1130366005, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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