Richard Barrett CONSTRUCTION

[Panjandrum]

But I fancied I could hear individual pairs of hands clapping in an echoic acoustic, which I took to be a sign of thin attendance.

Sound of one hand clapping?

I actually enjoyed much of this performance: the influence of Boulez was there texturally at first, and Berio with the various collage-like sprechtgesang interpolations.

[french frank]

I linked to the hcmf website, ff

http://www.hcmf.co.uk/Richard-Barret...l-CONSTRUCTION

Yup, thanks. I'd forgotten it was an interview. Well, I think that's illuminating and answers some of the comments made here.

I listened to 30 minutes and although it was by no means a penance I couldn't then face the rest. It's probably something to have a recording of and get into bit by bit, feeling for the signposts.

(I managed about 50 minutes of Edward Cowie's string quartet birdsong pieces last night but there was an interval in the middle. I do tend to flag in very long works)

[Alison]

The length of CONSTRUCTION partly explains its fascination and challenge for me.

I understand that if a nightclub employs a 7ft bouncer there will be blokes who want to take him on while
if he were merely 6' 4" he'd be left alone.

[Bryn]

http://www.hcmf.co.uk/Richard-Barrett-a-monumental-CONSTRUCTION

[Alison]

Nethers

[Bryn]

I would just mention that anyone with a genuine interest in coming to grips with this music could find a fair amount about the final stages of the composition process with a bit of creative Googling. I really hope the Ambisonics recording which was made of the performance can be worked into 5.0 surround release.

[Boilk]

Sound of one hand clapping?

I actually enjoyed much of this performance: the influence of Boulez was there texturally at first, and Berio with the various collage-like sprechtgesang interpolations.

Perceived recognisable musical reference points help give meaning to a new piece that might otherwise completely alienate the listener. But supposing those reference points had been Ketèlbey or Léhar rather than Boulez and Berio ... would it have been less enjoyable?

[hackneyvi]

I just wonder why you make these cynical assumptions.

I heard the opening comments about half dozen times because the iPlayer was constantly sticking and the more often I heard Barrett speak, the harder I found him to hear. This is a common experience for me if I have repeatedly to hear a piece of speech. The remark was just a silly rib about Barrett's talk which I found a chore. I'm not sure that 'Live on Stage' chat adds much that's useful on these occasions; on the whole, I prefer the more considered kind of announcer-read intros for the Pre-Hear pieces. But I'm sure, in turn, that's a bore to others.

[hackneyvi]

The length of CONSTRUCTION partly explains its fascination and challenge for me.

I understand that if a nightclub employs a 7ft bouncer there will be blokes who want to take him on while if he were merely 6' 4" he'd be left alone.

Which of you was the winner, Alison?

[Quarky]

composers write lots of stand-alone shortish pieces over several years, and then group them together as a vast cycle of works, presumably to make a more epic statement?....To me these cycles have the whiff of "put all these pieces together, and I'll maybe get taken more seriously". But, heaven forbid, one reviewer cites that Construction (sic.) itself belongs to Barrett's even larger cycle of entitled Resistance and Vision. Der Ring des Nibelungen and Licht, better watch out

This does not appear to be the case in CONSTRUCTION, as has been pointed out.

However even if it were, Barrett would be in good company - Bach and Wagner at least were I believe guilty of the same crime. And there may well be something new, and some synergy created, in juxtaposing/ superimposing previous compositions.

[Trudge]

Of course, this isn't the first cyclical work RB has written, even if it is the longest. (cf Negatives and Opening of the Mouth.)

CONSTRUCTION is rather different from some of the other cycles so far mentioned - including those by Dillon and Ferneyhough. The longer work isn't only made up of a chain of smaller pieces, one after the other – those smaller pieces are also often laid over one another and heard simultaneously. Sometimes three or four at a time. In Opening of the Mouth some of those smaller works have also chopped up and redistributed. (The same may be true of parts of CONSTRUCTION, I don't know.) It's not a question of A + B + C etc. It's more like planets within a solar system or human beings within a society.

If you hear enough of Barrett's music, you can start to pick out the different pieces from the overall texture. Particularly the ones that you might already know. Hearing all these different, self-contained entities orbit around one another, both unified and separate, is one of the joys of the heliocentric movement, for example, and the source of a lot of its expressive energy.

And it can be equally revelatory to hear some of the smaller units on their own if you first knew them from their place within the larger work. I've had this experience with the flute and percussion duo Inward, which comes from Opening of the Mouth.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

CONSTRUCTION is rather different from some of the other cycles so far mentioned - including those by Dillon and Ferneyhough. The longer work isn't only made up of a chain of smaller pieces, one after the other – those smaller pieces are also often laid over one another and heard simultaneously. Sometimes three or four at a time. In Opening of the Mouth some of those smaller works have also chopped up and redistributed.

Yes: it makes following the score of Opening a real blighter!

And it can be equally revelatory to hear some of the smaller units on their own if you first knew them from their place within the larger work. I've had this experience with the flute and percussion duo Inward, which comes from Opening of the Mouth.

For what it's worth, my problem with CONSTRUCTION is that a lot of it sounded on first hearing like an over-long recycling of the magnificent Opening of the Mouth - a work that, the more I hear it, the more convinced I am that it has tremendous significance and power. I have not yet heard CONSTRUCTION enough to hear its individual characteristics. I shall enjoy replaying the broadcast as I'm sure that there are treasures to be discovered and I shall look forward to eating my words on these 'Boards.

Best Wishes.

[Sydney Grew]

. . . a lot that relates closely to 'free jazz' in it . . .

Oh dear - is that really suitable?

[Bryn]

Oh dear - is that really suitable?

Well, I suppose the composed aspect might be seen as detracting from the improvised. To that extent only might the aspect related to 'free jazz' rightly be considered other than suitable.

I feel sure that Eva's spouse will be aware of Mr. Barrett's self proclaimed interest in, and influence by, the music of Anthony Braxton.

[Anna]

Possibly of interest to some, a 20 minute film about CONSTRUCTION with Richard Barrett

http://vimeo.com/35579124