Barrett, Richard (b. 1959)

[Richard Barrett]

Something new: as mentioned in the composing/practising thread, I recently finished a new piece in collaboration with the Alinéa Ensemble, a group of young musicians from Boston, which involved writing material for them to record, out of which the piece was then constructed. Like most of the other things I've done in recent months, it was realised with binaural processing in order to create a sense of 3D space when heard on headphones. The title of the piece is eye-blink after the book of poems by Harry Gilonis from which the texts are taken, and it's written for baritone voice with violin, cello, contrabass, piano, percussion and electronic sounds - although sometimes the voices and instruments are multiplied on themselves and/or electronically transformed, so it couldn't actually be performed live, although it will be followed eventually by a concert piece for the same instrumentation in which this material will form a series of "interludes" played through speakers.

The ensemble's Youtube channel is

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE-TG8UurpSlwdRanTrwUQw

where the piece will be premiered on Friday 28 August at 13.00 EST (18.00 BST I think) together with an interview about the music which I recorded with the ensemble last week.

[Bryn]

Something new: as mentioned in the composing/practising thread, I recently finished a new piece in collaboration with the Alinéa Ensemble, a group of young musicians from Boston, which involved writing material for them to record, out of which the piece was then constructed. Like most of the other things I've done in recent months, it was realised with binaural processing in order to create a sense of 3D space when heard on headphones. The title of the piece is eye-blink after the book of poems by Harry Gilonis from which the texts are taken, and it's written for baritone voice with violin, cello, contrabass, piano, percussion and electronic sounds - although sometimes the voices and instruments are multiplied on themselves and/or electronically transformed, so it couldn't actually be performed live, although it will be followed eventually by a concert piece for the same instrumentation in which this material will form a series of "interludes" played through speakers.

The ensemble's Youtube channel is

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE-TG8UurpSlwdRanTrwUQw

where the piece will be premiered on Friday 28 August at 13.00 CEST (17.00 BST I think) together with an interview about the music which I recorded with the ensemble last week.

Could you double check tht time converion please, Richard? https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/bst-to-cest-converter suggests 13:00 CEST to be 12:00 BST. Are you sure you meant CEST and not EST? In the latter case, 13:00 EST would be 18:00 BST, I think.

[Richard Barrett]

In the latter case, 13:00 EST would be 18:00 BST, I think.

Duly corrected. I thought it looked wrong!

[Joseph K]

Just finished listening to eye-blink - fantastic piece, I intend to give it many more listens. As usual, the piece inhabits a fresh and colourful sound-world with many interesting textures, harmonies and forms - and this latter aspect was brought attention to by the words appearing on the youtube video along with their performance, making use of the medium of the piece premiering on a video; also, the form of the piece seems to be clearly delineating according to the sections of the poem.

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks Joseph!

Here's the direct link

[teamsaint]

A beautifully presented performance, and as JK says, a great use of the medium.
I felt that I could connect it to music by other composers more easily than other works of Richard’s that I have heard, certainly in the style, if not the detailed construction.

[Richard Barrett]

I felt that I could connect it to music by other composers more easily than other works of Richard’s that I have heard, certainly in the style, if not the detailed construction.

Thanks ts. Anyone else who's reading might like to be made aware that the link has changed and the video is now here. A new version was uploaded because I had to point out that the texts in the original one were full of typos (I didn't see it before it went up).

While I'm here I would just like to add that, as might not be apparent from looking at the video of the piece (as opposed to the interview), the members of this group of performers are all around 20 years old, which is an important reason why I wanted to go beyond the parameters of their project and produce a new piece!

[Quarky]

Thanks ts. Anyone else who's reading might like to be made aware that the link has changed and the video is now here. A new version was uploaded because I had to point out that the texts in the original one were full of typos (I didn't see it before it went up).

While I'm here I would just like to add that, as might not be apparent from looking at the video of the piece (as opposed to the interview), the members of this group of performers are all around 20 years old, which is an important reason why I wanted to go beyond the parameters of their project and produce a new piece!

Excellent!! On a first hearing there seems to be a meditative/ Japanese influence ( but first hearings can be deceptive).

[Joseph K]

Excellent!! On a first hearing there seems to be a meditative/ Japanese influence ( but first hearings can be deceptive).

IIRC RB mentions something in the interview about being influenced by non-Western music...

[Serial_Apologist]

Many thanks for posting the new piece, Richard. Beautiful. The "stream-of-consciousness"-like interweaving of text with music calls to mind flickering thought processes in meditation, I think; We really, really are privileged, and I think Jonathan Harvey would also have loved this.

Now I'm going to watch your interview!

[Richard Barrett]

From my own perspective, the "non-Western" aspect is the result of more general influences rather than anything specific to this piece, although (I'm not sure whether it's made clear anywhere) the texts are actually based on mediaeval Chinese poems by various means of transformation (maybe not unlike the way the instrumental sounds are electronically transformed). The title (which is the title of the book of poems also) refers to the way that Chinese characters unfold a whole idea or situation instantaneously, as opposed to the way that most other languages use a temporal sequence of letters and words. The poems are from the same body of literature that Mahler drew on translations of for his Lied von der Erde, as I might have mentioned before. When listening a few days ago to Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles I was struck by the thought that somehow eye-blink relates to the Mahler piece in a comparable way to that in which the Stravinsky relates to the history of expansive settings of the Requiem texts (with Berlioz as the prime example), in the sense of the music being highly compressed and sectionalised, and the text (at least in the more static sections here) taking the form of brief excerpts. Not that I would expect anyone else to pick up that relationship!

And, S_A, I wish Jonathan were still around to hear it.

[Bryn]

Thanks Joseph!

Here's the direct link

"Video Unavailable. This video has been removed by the uploader."

[Bryn]

eye-blink now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kDYSSeWdAI

[Richard Barrett]

eye-blink now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kDYSSeWdAI

(see #202)

[Bryn]

(see #202)

I posted #208 in response to an email from Harry G which had a defunct URL for the eye-blink YouTube upload. The latest link I had noted from you was that in #200.