Barrett, Richard (b. 1959)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Beef Oven!]

... I suspect your diary already had '29th April'.

.

Only one. But have you seen how many Mondays they've put in for next year? Political correctness gone mad ....

[Bryn]

That track (n + 2) - x was removed from the Soundcloud page because it became a track on the album FUNCTION released a couple of weeks ago on Bandcamp where it's joined by three related pieces: https://furtlogic.bandcamp.com/album/function

angel on the other hand has NOT been removed https://soundcloud.com/r-barrett/fur...rett/sets/furt

Something dodgy going on with Bandcamp. The price quoted (€8), which I also submitted when required, transmuted into £8.91 when it got to the Paypal stage. With the quoted Paypal exchange rate being 1 GBP = 1.07805 EUR this just does not add up. It should total £7.40. Very strange.

[Richard Barrett]

Interested parties might like to know that the LA-based quartet gnarwhallaby has just posted a video of the piece I wrote for them in 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPt1GoXQco

It consists of four sections, I guess you could call them movements even, each of which is a homage to a different 20th century American composer-performer: Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy and Miles Davis respectively. The second is in fact based almost entirely on "Round Midnight" and the fourth adds an electronic part to the quartet of clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone, cello and piano. The performers are Brian Walsh, Matt Barbier, Derek Stein and Richard Valitutto. The last couple of years has seen a considerable increase in the uptake of my work from young US performers - hopefully this will be one of those American trends which eventually finds its way to the UK!

edit: it's a fantastic performance but the cello unfortunately gets a bit lost in the recording...

[Joseph K]

Watching now.

[Beef Oven!]

Don't know why, but I wish somehow you'd got a drum kit into this composition. Forgive me if that's a stupid idea, but it's my gut feel.

[Richard Barrett]

Don't know why, but I wish somehow you'd got a drum kit into this composition. Forgive me if that's a stupid idea, but it's my gut feel.

The drum kit is the piano! (particularly in the final part)

[Beef Oven!]

The drum kit is the piano! (particularly in the final part)

I know, I did get that! And not just the piano, plenty of percussive and rhythmic stuff in there from other instruments. But my question is much simpler.

[Bryn]

The drum kit is the piano! (particularly in the final part)

I blame that Cage fella.

[Boilk]

Watching now.

Disable 'mute' and you can listen too!

[Serial_Apologist]

Disable 'mute' and you can listen too!

[Richard Barrett]

I know, I did get that! And not just the piano, plenty of percussive and rhythmic stuff in there from other instruments. But my question is much simpler.

The piano in relation to the more-or-less-unison between the other instruments and the electronic part is modelled on the way Tony Williams creates a solo around the repeating melody line in Miles's "Nefertiti" (actually a Shorter composition, though I think I'd be correct in thinking that it would have been Miles's idea to perform it as it appears on the album). And in the first part Cecil's concept of the piano as consisting of "88 tuned drums" is expanded to make the whole quartet into a single complex percussion "instrument". If there had been a real percussion setup in the ensemble the music would have been very different because using it in those sorts of ways would be somehow too obvious and predictable, rather than (hopefully) sufficiently oblique to come across as homage rather than imitation. Of course then there's a real bass clarinet in the third (Dolphy) section but there, rather than emulating his style in any straightforward way the music echoes the structure of his solos by changing directions every few seconds.

[Beef Oven!]

The piano in relation to the more-or-less-unison between the other instruments and the electronic part is modelled on the way Tony Williams creates a solo around the repeating melody line in Miles's "Nefertiti" (actually a Shorter composition, though I think I'd be correct in thinking that it would have been Miles's idea to perform it as it appears on the album). And in the first part Cecil's concept of the piano as consisting of "88 tuned drums" is expanded to make the whole quartet into a single complex percussion "instrument". If there had been a real percussion setup in the ensemble the music would have been very different because using it in those sorts of ways would be somehow too obvious and predictable, rather than (hopefully) sufficiently oblique to come across as homage rather than imitation. Of course then there's a real bass clarinet in the third (Dolphy) section but there, rather than emulating his style in any straightforward way the music echoes the structure of his solos by changing directions every few seconds.

Thanks for explaining that. I'll listen with it in mind. I quite understand the homage/imitation idea. I just love drums and wish more contemporary composers would include a kit in what they do.

[Richard Barrett]

Some people here have asked me about my forthcoming book... well, I'm happy to say it isn't forthcoming any more but actually exists! (although I haven't actually had my hands on one yet)

More information here, where copies can also be ordered. (It's a mere £25 by the way.)

[Bryn]

Some people here have asked me about my forthcoming book... well, I'm happy to say it isn't forthcoming any more but actually exists! (although I haven't actually had my hands on one yet)

More information here, where copies can also be ordered. (It's a mere £25 by the way.)

Meanwhile, 17 years ago http://www.rogerreynolds.com/futureofmusic/barrett.html which contains, in quotes, the very title of the new book.