Professor Clarence Barlow releases new CD, "Music Algorithmica"
Professor Clarence Barlow (Music Composition Faculty) released his latest CD
Article by the Department of Music
Professor Clarence Barlow, who serves as the Corwin Chair of Composition at UC Santa Barbara, released his latest CD, Music Algorithmica, last month via the World Edition label. Released as a double CD, the album is made up entirely of Professor Barlow’s music and features renowned contemporary performers such as Ensemble Köln (conducted by Robert HP Platz), the Iceland Symphony Orchestra Reykjavik with soloist Deborah Richards (conducted by Hermann Bäumer), the South-West Radio Orchestra Baden-Baden with soloist Kristi Becker (conducted by Ingo Metzmacher), and Ensemble Modelo62 (conducted by Ezequiel Menalled).
Composer Maria de Alvear, who also manages the World Edition label, noted that the album “is the first release to present such a large number of works by Clarence Barlow. This fascinating spectrum of his life's work, thrown into relief by the complexity of his pieces, illustrates his career as a composer. It is a great honour for us to publish his oeuvre.”
The album is a collection of works spanning Professor Barlow’s career, with pieces ranging from solo works to full orchestra. The first disc contains historical recordings of Im Januar am Nil for chamber ensemble (recorded in 1988 by Ensemble Köln, conductor Robert HP Platz) and of two orchestral works, Orchideæ Ordinariæ (recorded in 1989 by the South-West Radio Orchestra Baden-Baden with soloist Kristi Becker, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher) and Piano Concerto No. 2 (recorded in 2002 by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra Reykjavik with soloist Deborah Richards, conducted by Hermann Bäumer).
In contrast, the second disc was recorded in 2016 by members of Ensemble Modelo62 (The Hague, conductor Ezequiel Menalled), and contains a series of nine pieces for chamber ensemble and soloists, written anywhere from 1966 to 2015. Starting with the dodecaphonic, highly structured Trio for Violin, Mandolin and Piano (1966), which remained unperformed for fifty years, the series includes two versions of ...until... for guitar (1981) and for double bass (2015), Pinball Play for clarinet and three playback tracks (2010), as well as five more works for a core instrumentation of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello, augmented in one or the other piece by a selection of trumpet, marimba, piano, guitar, and double bass: Relationships - Version 1 (1974), Sachets de ciseaux insatiables (2002), Septima de facto (2006), vinte e cinco anéis (2010), and Für Simon Jonassohn-Stein (2012).
Professor Barlow’s album is available for purchase on the World Edition website.
To learn more about Professor Barlow, please visit clarlow.org.