by Alex Brooks
Petersburgh Composer Barton McLean’s musical career was celebrated during a recent six day residency at his alma mater, the Crane School of Music, which is at SUNY Potsdam. [private]On Thursday, November 17, the Crane School Symphonic Band performed his “Rondo,” and on Monday, November 21, the Crane Wind Ensemble performed two other pieces that he wrote while he was at the Crane School, including a world premiere of his piece “Legend No. 2.”
The idea for this residency got started when Brian Doyle, the current director of bands at Crane, e-mailed McLean because he was putting together a list of wind pieces composed by Crane faculty, and he wanted to get a copy of those that McLean had written. One thing led to another, and the exchange ended up with an invitation to do the residency.
During the residency, McLean worked with the Crane Symphonic Band and the Crane Wind Ensemble, and led discussions about computer generated music and led electronic composition classes, along with his wife and creative partner Priscilla McLean.
McLean graduated from the Crane School in 1960, but stayed on as a faculty member, teaching classes in music theory and teaching string bass while also studying for his Masters degree at the Eastman School of Music. McLean spent a total of ten years at the Crane School, and it was one of the formative experiences of his career. He said, “They nurtured me and gave me all kinds of opportunities to have my music performed. I have a lot of gratitude to them, and that’s why it was an emotional thing to come back for this residency.”
He later went on to a doctorate in music composition at Indiana University. He has held faculty positions at Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University South Bend, the University of Texas at Austin and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
He is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, he has written extensively and has a large discography of recordings.
McLean said it was very strange working with the Crane musicians on pieces that he wrote over fifty years ago, because the work that he does now is so different, but he also said he is still proud of those pieces, and it was satisfying to have them performed. The work he was doing then was influenced by Sibelius, and Paul Hindemith.
McLean started doing electronic music in 1972 when the equipment became good enough to compose on. He first set up a small studio at home and worked on that, and in 1974 Indiana University at South Bend, where he was working at the time, set up a state of the art studio where he was able to be a pioneer of the art form. A few years later he began working exclusively on electronic music, and by 1983 he left academia to tour full time with his music, along with his composer/performer wife Priscilla, as the McLean Mix, although he still taught occasionally at RPI in the 1980s and early 1990s.
At the Crane School residency, he also did some performances of his most recent work, including a world premiere of his newest experimental piece, which he calls “Kyma Therapy.” Kyma is a piece of equipment he is currently using, a very high powered computer optimized for audio, with extremely sophisticated software.
McLean said the residency was “a wonderful experience.” He said it was “a lovely feeling” to have so many people being so supportive, and appreciating his work in this way.[/private]