Gerald Barry

The Piano Quartet No.1 was written in 1992 and is in one movement. The composer writes: While writing it I was reminded of painting where blocks of colour meet or where objects intersect, of the myste...

The title of Barry's fourth string quartet refers to a Kafka story of the same name about a trapeze artist who is happy only when aloft. This is striking music, full of fragility, beauty, outbursts an...

A trumpeter is a cavalry or artillery soldier who gives signals with a trumpet. (Gerald Barry, 1998)This piece may be performed on any of the following instruments in different transpositions. If play...

Water Parted is from Barry's opera The Intelligence Park, and tells the story of a composer who has lost the power to write, later rediscovering it through an obsession with a castrato. The work alter...

Written in 1979 after seeing an exhibition of Rothko's paintings in Cologne, Ø is one of Barry's earliest published works. Both piano parts are the same and the composer describes the work as an explo...

This song is a poignant tribute to Barry's teacher, Stockhausen. It was written for the 2008 Aldeburgh Festival programme book and is a setting of an enigmatic letter about friendship, written by Beet...

The opening lines of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time provide the text for Gerald Barry's Long Time. Beginning 'For a long time I used to go to bed early', the work unfolds over gently rising an...

Le Vieux Sourd (The Old Deaf One) was Debussy's nickname for Beethoven. The piece is a setting of Auld Lang Syne which Beethoven also arranged.Gerald Barry (2012)

Triorchic Blues began as a study for Barry's opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, but the developed into this vivacious and rhythmically driven piece for solo piano, which explores the extreme regi...

It is a piece in which the moments of change between sections are as important as the musical content - rather like those points in paintings where objects or areas of colour meet. (Gerald Barry)

It is a piece in which the moments of change between sections are as important as the musical content - rather like those points in paintings where objects or areas of colour meet. (Gerald Barry)

The term Au Milieu - in the centre - is used in ballet to describe exercises performed away from the bar. Abandon, balance, virtuosity, vulnerability and danger are its elements. It is a tribute to th...

When asked what the theme of his play was, Wilde answered 'That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things in life with a sincere and studied triviality. Gerald...

When asked what the theme of his play was, Wilde answered 'That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things in life with a sincere and studied triviality. Gerald...

Gerald Barry's new opera is based on Lewis Carroll's two beloved books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. As with Barry's last opera, the lauded The Importance of Being E...

Year of composition: 2003 I The Rung - II The Potent Rug - III Wigs of Flanders

Text from the well-known Christmas song is merged with a tune from Barry's own 4th String Quartet in this unconventional carol. With Barry's characteristic rich and unexpected harmonies, O Tannenbaum...