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EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED: RICHARD BARRETT AT 60
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2020
Abstract
Based on email interviews and the recently published book Music of Possibility, this article considers the work of the Welsh composer Richard Barrett, who turned 60 in 2019. A brief overview of Barrett's work since the late 1980s is offered, alongside discussion of the work-cycle currently in progress: natural causes, based on texts by the late Simon Howard. Among the themes considered are Barrett's interest in working in cycles such as these; aspects of his compositional technique, in particular serialism and heterophony; the influence of popular music; environmental art; and the shadow of Schubert.
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References
1 Toop, Richard, of, ‘Four Facets “The New Complexity”’, Contact, no. 32 (1988), pp. 4–50Google Scholar. Toop's article can now be readily appreciated for more than just its provocative title, thanks to the recent digitisation of the complete Contact archive, available at www.contactjournal.gold.ac.uk/.
2 Toop, ‘Four Facets’, p. 31.
3 Richard Barrett (2019), Music of Possibility (Stuttgart: Vision Edition), p. 203.
4 Since negatives, he has composed a large number of solo and ensemble pieces for members of the group, including the composite works Opening of the Mouth (1992–97), DARK MATTER (for ELISION and Cikada, 1990–2002), CONSTRUCTION (2003–11) and world-line (2012–14). In addition to these, he has developed a group improvisation practice through several works in the codex series of pieces. He is currently engaged in a sixth composite work for the group, PSYCHE.
5 Barrett, Music of Possibility, p. 205.
6 Barrett, Music of Possibility, pp. 1–2.
7 HCR21CD. The recording also features subsidence by Timothy McCormack and Roda – The Living Circle by Liza Lim.
8 Richard Barrett and ‘Veronika Lenz’ (2005): ‘NO – programme note and interview’, available at http://richardbarrettmusic.com/NOinterview.html.
9 Richard Barrett, email to the author, 4 December 2019.
10 Richard Barrett, programme note to everything has changed/nothing has changed (2013–16), available at https://richardbarrettmusic.com/s128%20everything%20has%20changed%20score%20v1.3.pdf.
11 This begins at around 14:10 on the HCR recording; the particular moment in question begins at 18:15.
12 Richard Barrett, email to the author, 7 October 2019.
13 It is also in part political: he notes that this particular interest in the music of the past is not nostalgic, but because there were aspects of life, and musical life at that time – such as the funding of university education, for example – that were greatly preferable to today's situation.
14 Richard Barrett, email to the author, 11 October 2019.
15 Richard Barrett, email to the author, 11 October 2019.
16 tkiva's first part is headed ‘… to Cecil Taylor’, its third ‘… to Eric Dolphy’ and its fourth ‘… to Miles Davis’.
17 Barrett, programme note to everything has changed/nothing has changed.
18 See, for example, Barrett, Richard, ‘Notation as Liberation’, TEMPO 68/268 (2014), pp. 61–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, as well as Music of Possibility, passim.
19 Barrett, Music of Possibility, pp. 13–14.
20 Barrett, Music of Possibility, pp. 15–16.
21 Barrett, Music of Possibility, p. 13.
22 To this end, Barrett has devised systems of ‘pitch-focus’ and ‘pitch-vectors’ based upon statistical distributions around a reference pitch or series of pitches; this method is described in Music of Possibility, pp. 12–18.
23 These are: NO for orchestra; dying words for voice, flute, piano and electronics; Mesopotamia for large ensemble; IF for orchestra; nacht und träume and CONSTRUCTION.
24 Barrett, email to the author, 7 October 2019.
26 Barrett, email to the author, 11 October 2019.
27 Barrett, Music of Possibility, p. 288.
28 My analysis is based upon a recording of natural causes I, IV, X, XIV as performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik in 2017 and provided to me privately by the composer.
29 Barrett, Music of Possibility, pp. 106–7.