Gerald Barry (composer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerald Barry (2007)

Gerald Barry (born April 28, 1952 in Clare Hill, Clarecastle, County Clare ) is an Irish composer .

life and work

The young Gerald Barry first attended St. Flannan's College in Ennis . He then studied music at University College Dublin , in Amsterdam with Peter Schat , in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel, and in Vienna with Friedrich Cerha . From 1982 to 1986 he taught at the University of Cork. Growing up in the County Clare countryside, apart from radio, he had little contact with music. Barry relates: “The enlightenment for me, in the sense of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, was probably an aria by Handel , perhaps from Serse , that I heard on the radio. I heard this woman sing this and I felt very different. That's how I discovered music. "

“Barry's world has sharp edges, it consists of precisely defined, yet completely unpredictable musical objects. His music sounds like that of no other composer in its diamond hardness, its humor and occasionally its violence. ”He often uses his sound material independently of the instrumental medium and uses ideas in other compositions. An example are arrangements of the Triorchic Blues from a piece for violin to one for piano and finally an aria for countertenor in his opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit . Some of his works are for the bass part, e.g. B. The Conquest of Ireland and Beethoven (a setting of Beethoven's " Letter to the Immortal Beloved "). His latest opera, The Importance of Being Earnest , proved to be an unusual success after its world premiere in Los Angeles and its European premiere in London.

Draft for the opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant , 2005

“Like Strindberg , he writes 'what he wants' and does not try to characterize his characters, but to let them perform his own peculiarities, his own musical peculiarities. Like Strindberg, where you get the feeling that every sentence stands for itself and the characters are only loaned to say those sentences (loaned to give flesh to the text and not the other way around), borrowed for just one day. In Gerald's opera, the whole apparatus - because that's what it is - takes on a kind of surrealist shape, just as the torso of a person is forced to walk on the legs of another, half operatic and half composer. "

Operas

  • The Intelligence Park , libretto Vincent Deane (1990)
  • The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit , libretto Meredith Oaks (1991-2)
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant , based on the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (2005)
  • La Plus Forte , one-act opera for soprano and orchestra based on Strindberg's The Stronger (2007)
  • The Importance of Being Earnest , libretto Gerald Barry after Oscar Wilde (2010)
  • Alice's Adventures Underground (2014/15)

Other works

  • Things that gain by being painted for soprano, speaker, cello and piano (1977)
  • Things That Gain for piano (1977)
  • '_____' for ensemble (1979)
  • ø for two pianos (1979)
  • Kitty Lie Over Across From The Wall for piano and orchestra (1979)
  • Sur les Pointes for piano (1981)
  • Au Milieu for piano (1981)
  • O Lord How Vain for choir (1984)
  • Five Chorales from The Intelligence Park for two pianos (1985)
  • From The Intelligence Park for orchestra (1986)
  • Swinging Tripes and Trillibubkins for piano (1986)
  • Water Parted from The Intelligence Park for soprano or countertenor and piano (1986)
  • String Quartet No. 1 (1985)
  • Chevaux-de-frise for orchestra (1988)
  • Bob for ensemble (1989)
  • Triorchic Blues for piano (1991)
  • Sextet for Ensemble (1993)
  • From The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit for orchestra (1994)
  • Triorchic Blues for solo trumpet (1994)
  • The Chair for Organ (1994)
  • Piano Quartet No 1 (1994)
  • The Conquest of Ireland for bass voice and orchestra (1995)
  • Quintet for cor anglais, clarinet, cello, double bass and piano (1994)
  • Low for clarinet and piano (1995)
  • Piano quartet No. 2 (1996)
  • Before The Road for four clarinets (1997)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1998)
  • 1998 for violin and piano (1998)
  • The Eternal Recurrence , setting after Nietzsche for soprano and orchestra (1999)
  • The Coming of Winter for choir (2000)
  • Wiener Blut for large ensemble (2000)
  • Wiener Blut for orchestra (2000)
  • String Quartet No. 3 (Six Marches) (2001)
  • Snow is White for piano quartet (2001)
  • God Save the Queen for boy's voice, choir and large ensemble (2001)
  • Dead March for large ensemble (2001)
  • In The Asylum for piano trio (2003)
  • Trumpeter for solo trumpet (2003)
  • Day for orchestra [versions for strings and full orchestra (2005)]
  • Lisbon for piano and ensemble (2006)
  • First Sorrow (String Quartet No. 4) (2006)
  • La Plus Forte for soprano and orchestra (2007)
  • Karl Heinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) for voice and piano (2008)
  • Feldman's Sixpenny Editions for large ensemble (2008)
  • Le Vieux Sourd for piano (2008)
  • Beethoven for bass voice and large ensemble (2008)
  • No other people for orchestra (2009)
  • Schott and Sons Mainz for bass voice and choir (2009)
  • Piano Concerto (2012)
  • O Tannenbaum for choir or voice and piano (2012)
  • No people for ensemble (nonet) (2013)
  • Humiliated and Insulted for piano (2013)
  • Baroness Ritkart for orchestra or any number of instruments (2014)
  • Crossing the Bar for voice, any instruments or orchestra (2014)
  • Canada for voice and orchestra (2017)
  • Organ concert (2018)
  • Viola Concerto (2019)

Sound recordings

  • Gerald Barry: Chamber and solo piano works / Nua Nós, Noriko Kawai (piano), Dáirine Ní Mheadhra (conductor) NMC DO22 (1994)
  • Barry / Orchestral Works / Marco Polo 8.225006 (1997)
  • The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit / Soloists, Composers Ensemble, Diego Masson Largo 5135 (1998)
  • Things That Gain / Music for piano, 2 pianos, chamber and vocal music / Gerald Barry and Kevin Volans , pianos, Xenia Ensemble. Nicholas Clapton, countertenor / Black Box Music BBM 1011 (1998)
  • Snow is White / The Schubert Ensemble / NMC (2001)
  • The Intelligence Park , Almeida Ensemble, Robert Houlihan (conductor) NMC D122 (2005)
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant / Soloists / RTESO / Gerhard Markson / RTÉ 261 (2005)
  • La Jalousie Taciturne / Irish Chamber Orchestra / Black Box
  • In The Asylum / Trio Fibonacci / NMC (2005)
  • Triorchic Blues for Trumpet / Marco Blaauw / BV Haast Records - CD 0406 (2006)
  • Lisbon / Thomas Adès, piano / BCMG / CMC Ireland Volume 8 (2009)
  • Lady Bracknell's song from The Importance of Being Earnest / Gerald Barry, voice & piano / NMC (2009)
  • The Chair for organ / David Adams / CMC Ireland
  • The Importance of Being Earnest / Soloists / Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / Thomas Adès / NMC D197 (2014)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sounds and silence. June 15, 2000, accessed December 21, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Interview with Liam Cagney
  3. ↑ Interview in the Guardian , January 2013
  4. ↑ Interview in the Guardian , June 2013
  5. ^ Paul Griffiths: The Importance of Being Earnest . In: The Times Literary Supplement , May 2012.
  6. ↑ Chris Newman: TIOBE from GB . In: Musik Texte , 138, August 2013
personal data
SURNAME Barry, Gerald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH County Clare , Ireland