Critical / convulsive — the Music of Roger Redgate / Translation from English, foreword and notes by A.A. Gundorina

Abstract

Translation from English, foreword and notes by A.A. Gundorina.

Richard Barrett's article “Сritical / Convulsive – The Music of Roger Redgate” is one of the first works about a modern British composer

R. Redgate. The publication was included in the first issue of the thirteenth volume of Contemporary Music Review (1995-1996), which focused on a group of British composers. The issue was entitled “Aspects of Complexity in Recent British Music”.

Barrett was Redgate’s colleague and compatriot and witnessed the formation and development of his creativity first-hand. They were in touch for a long time, and their collaboration resulted in a creative project Ensemble Exposé, jointly founded by the composers in 1984. This makes Barrett's article especially valuable, since it provides a critical review and assessment of creativity and the creative process from the professional perspective of his counterpart.

The article examines Redgate's early works written in the 1980s/early 1990s. Barrett focuses on the most important aspects of Redgate's works. He describes their genesis, provides an overview of his compositional techniques, and gives a few remarks on Redgate’s musical notation. Barret declares his approach to the study saying, “I have nowhere quoted or paraphrased the composer's words: it is axiomatic to my approach that it embodies a personal journey through somewhat hazardous terrain, in the hope that the reader will make his or her own.”

The article by R. Barrett, first published in Russian translation, is supplemented with an introduction and notes by the translator.

Keywords: Roger Redgate, Richard Barrett, Genoi Hoios Essi, Ausgangspunkte, Eos, …of torn pathways

For citation: Barrett R. Critical / convulsive — the Music of Roger Redgate (Translation from English, foreword and notes by A. A. Gundorina) [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2020, no. 2, pp. 3–26. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2020-2-003-026