Barrie Gavin
Encyclopedia
Early years
He studied history at the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
from 1954 to 1957.
He joined the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as an assistant film editor in 1961. With the opening of BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in 1964 he began to direct principally programmes about music.
In the early years of BBC2 there was regular coverage of chamber music and Gavin learnt his craft with many studio-based productions. His experience in the cutting room led inevitably to the making of film documentaries.
Collaboration with Pierre BoulezPierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
In 1966 his fascination with contemporary music brought him into contact with the French composer and conductor Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
. Over the next 40 years they have collaborated on a series of analytical documentaries on the founding fathers of 20th century music: Schönberg
Schönberg
- Germany :*Schönberg, Lower Bavaria, a town in the district of Freyung-Grafenau in Bavaria*Schönberg, Upper Bavaria, a town in the district of Mühldorf in Bavaria*Schönberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, district Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
, Webern, Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Stravinsky, Ives
Ives
- Surname :* Burl Ives , American singer, author, and actor* Charles Ives , U. S. classical music composer* Clarrie Ives, Australian rugby league footballer* Clay Ives , Canadian-born American luger...
, Varese
Varese
Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...
, Messiaen and of course Boulez himself. There were at least 12 films created together:
- Pierre BoulezPierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
: Portrait – Analysis – Performance, 1966 - The New Language of Music (SchönbergSchönberg- Germany :*Schönberg, Lower Bavaria, a town in the district of Freyung-Grafenau in Bavaria*Schönberg, Upper Bavaria, a town in the district of Mühldorf in Bavaria*Schönberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, district Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, BergAlban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
, Webern) - The New Rhythm of Music (Bartók, Stravinsky)
- Telemarteau (Le marteau sans maîtreLe marteau sans maîtreLe marteau sans maître is a composition by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is a setting of the surrealist poetry of René Char for alto and six instrumentalists. It was first performed in 1955.-Movements:...
) - The Outsiders (Ives, Varese)
- Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
: Vision and Revolution - A Different Beauty (Webern) 1977
- The Doors are Open (conducting master classes in Lucerne)
- In Search of the Future (8Oth birthday portrait for German TV)
- Tomorrow Today (the Boulez years at the BBC) 2005
- Boulez Now (retrospective up to mid 1980s)
- Pierre BoulezPierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
: Living in the Present 2005
Portraits of contemporary composers
From the 1970s until the end of the century Gavin specialised in portraits of contemporary composers: Roberto GerhardRoberto Gerhard
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder was a Catalan Spanish composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Robert Gerhard.-Life:...
, Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
, George Benjamin
George Benjamin (composer)
George William John Benjamin, CBE is a British composer of classical music. He is also a conductor, pianist and teacher....
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...
, Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann is a German opera composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of King Lear was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who sang the title role....
, Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
, Isang Yun
Isang Yun
Isang Yun was a Korean-German composer originally from Korea. According to his official publisher's Boosey & Hawkes biography of him, he was granted political asylum by West Germany, eventually becoming a naturalised German citizen, following his abduction and torture in 1967 by the South Korean...
, Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
, Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage is a prolific English composer of classical music. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller...
, Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
, Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
and many others.
Films on folk music
In 1970 Barrie Gavin began to explore folk music with the writer and musician A. L. LloydA. L. Lloyd
Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....
. Together they travelled across the British Isles and visited Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The death of A. L. Lloyd in 1984 brought this kind of work to an end.
Years in Germany
In 1977 Gavin had been invited to Germany to make a film about Kurt WeillKurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
. This marked the beginning of a long association with German television, resulting not only in many adventurous documentaries (mainly in Frankfurt for the producer Swantje Ehrentreich) but also in a new area of work, directing concerts for television. To date he has been responsible for some 250 relays of concerts and opera.
Collaboration with Sir Simon RattleSimon RattleSir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
In the 1980s Gavin began a collaboration with the conductor Sir Simon RattleSimon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
. They worked on a long series of productions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...
. The list of films created together includes:
- 1911 (a trilogy on a crucial year in music)
- From East to West (a trilogy on the influence of the East on classical music)
- A Symphony in Time of War (Stravinsky – Symphony in three movements)
- Young Apollo (the early works of Britten)
- Carl NielsenCarl NielsenCarl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
: A Life in six Symphonies - Leaving Home (a seven part series on the music of the 2Oth century)
- Sinfonia (Luciano BerioLuciano BerioLuciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
) - The Middle of Life (Hans Werner HenzeHans Werner HenzeHans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
) - A Romantic Imagination (3-part series on Berlioz)
- Stockhausen: Gruppen (documentary and performance)
Collaboration with Gerard McBurneyGerard McBurneyGerard McBurney — British composer, arranger, broadcaster, teacher and writer.Born 20 June 1954, in Cambridge, England. He is the son of Charles McBurney, an American archaeologist, and Anne Francis Edmondstone , who was a British secretary of English, Scots, and Irish ancestry...
In 1989 he worked for the first time with the writer Gerard McBurneyGerard McBurney
Gerard McBurney — British composer, arranger, broadcaster, teacher and writer.Born 20 June 1954, in Cambridge, England. He is the son of Charles McBurney, an American archaeologist, and Anne Francis Edmondstone , who was a British secretary of English, Scots, and Irish ancestry...
. They have produced some ten films, many of them on Russian music, including Think Today, Speak Tomorrow and Giving Voice (two films on dissident composers in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
) 1990 The Fire and the Rose (Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...
) 1990 The Face behind the Face (Shostakovich).
In 2006 he began a collaboration with Gerard McBurney and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
on a series of music documentaries for the internet. They have completed productions on music by Bartók, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Holst
Holst
Holst and von Holst are surnames. In Denmark and Norway it is of Medieval age, meaning Holsatian . It may refer to:-Holst:*Alison Holst , New Zealand food writer and television chef...
Vivaldi, Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
, Sibelius, Dvorak
Dvorák
- Dvořák or Dvorak :* Ann Dvorak , American film actress* Antonín Dvořák , Czech composer of Romantic music* August Dvorak , American psychologist, co-creator of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard...
and Debussy. There were created the following films:
- Bartok – The Miraculous Mandarin 2006
- Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 27, K.595 2007
- Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 2008
- Shostakovich – Symphony No. 4 2008
- HolstHolstHolst and von Holst are surnames. In Denmark and Norway it is of Medieval age, meaning Holsatian . It may refer to:-Holst:*Alison Holst , New Zealand food writer and television chef...
– The Planets: suite 2008 - Vivaldi – The 4 Seasons 2008
- MussorgskyMussorgskyMussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
/Ravel – Pictures from an Exhibition 2008 - Sibelius – Symphony No. 5 2010
- DvorakDvorák- Dvořák or Dvorak :* Ann Dvorak , American film actress* Antonín Dvořák , Czech composer of Romantic music* August Dvorak , American psychologist, co-creator of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard...
– Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) 2010 - Debussy – La Mer 2010
Films on Arts and Literature
The vast majority of Gavin’s work has concentrated on music, but he has also produced in 1967 a series on classic film directors. In addition there have been films on literature and the visual arts. Among them: Sir William in search of Xanadu (Award of Montreal Festival of Films on Art, 1984) and Images - A History of Early Photography (Award of New York Festival of Films on Art, 1989).Recent projects
In 2007 he finished a film set Finding the Music in CroatiaCroatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
on the composer, Nigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne MBE, FRCM is a British composer.He serves as Reid Professor of music at the University of Edinburgh and has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.He studied composition with Kenneth Leighton ,...
. In 2008 he received an award from International Music Publisher’ Association for Services to Contemporary Music. In 2009 he completed a film Towards and Beyond (Jonathan Harvey
Jonathan Harvey (composer)
Jonathan Harvey is a British composer. He has held teaching positions at universities and music conservatories in Europe and the USA and is frequently invited to teach in summer schools around the world.-Life:...
), a portrait of the composer. In 2010 he made 2 short films: A Mind of Winter (George Benjamin
George Benjamin (composer)
George William John Benjamin, CBE is a British composer of classical music. He is also a conductor, pianist and teacher....
) and How Slow the Wind (Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
), using music by these composers. He also started work on a continuing series of archival, unedited interview, mainly with contemporary composers.
Copies of many of Gavin’s films on contemporary music have been deposited in the archives of the Paul Sacher
Paul Sacher
Paul Sacher was a Swiss conductor, patron and impresario.-Biography:He studied under Felix Weingartner, among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra to play works written before the classical period and modern works...
Foundation in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Links
- Biography
- Filmography
- Films (DVDs)
- http://www.sargasso.com/?p=36Jonathan HarveyJonathan Harvey (composer)Jonathan Harvey is a British composer. He has held teaching positions at universities and music conservatories in Europe and the USA and is frequently invited to teach in summer schools around the world.-Life:...
interviewed by Barrie Gavin] - Beyond the Score