Barton McLean (born 8 April 1938) is an American composer, performer, music reviewer, and writer.

Life

Barton McLean was born in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

, the son of John and Grace McLean, on April 8, 1938. He graduated from State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam (BS 1960), Eastman School of Music (MM 1965), where he was a student of Henry Cowell, and Indiana University (DMA 1972). He taught music theory and double bass at SUNY (1960–66), while performing on double bass in jazz groups and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1969–76 he taught music composition and theory at Indiana University South Bend. From 1969–76 he directed the Electronic Music Center at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1967 he married fellow composer Priscilla Taylor, and by 1974 they began professional touring as The McLean Mix, presenting their electro-acoustic music, which became a full-time occupation by 1983. Barton McLean setting up bicycle wheel

He created a series of solo instrument and stereo tape pieces, best known of which is ''Dimensions II'' (1974), championed by pianist

David Burge David Russell Burge (March 25, 1930 – April 1, 2013) was an American pianist, conductor and composer. As a performer, he was noted for championing contemporary pieces. The ''New York Times'' called him "one of America's important pianists," and h ...

, who performed it extensively for several years. Another extensively performed set in this series, ''Dimensions III and IV'' for saxophone and stereo tape (1979) was premiered by Albert Regni in concert at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

on November 15, 1979, and recorded by Regni on CRI Records in 1980, and is still actively performed today. Created with a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Composer Grant, McLean's ''Song of the Nahuatl'', an

electronic composition Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means (electroacou ...

for eight channels of sound, was premiered at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

on March 24, 1978. ''The Electric Sinfonia'', an electronic work which uses a 16-tone octave scale, won an award at the International Bourges, France Electro-acoustic Music Festival in June 1983. Along with many electronic works composed over the years, Barton McLean also developed the concept of the audience interacting intricately with instruments and live electronics in several installations. McLean's music is often based upon processes and sounds of the natural world, while using current electronic and recording technology. The result is considered to have both primitive and sophisticated elements. Barton McLean's signature work is the audience-interactive installatio
RAINFOREST
created in collaboration with wife and composer

Priscilla McLean Priscilla McLean (née Taylor; born May 27, 1942) is an American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer. Life Priscilla Taylor was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the daughter of business manager Conrad Taylor and school ...

. It was staged and performed extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia from 1989 until 2013. In a darkened room a taped drone of recorded and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

sounds and continuous projections of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

images provided an atmosphere in which members of the public were invited to perform vocally with microphones and on electronic and

acoustic instrument Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. While all music was once acoustic, the retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the adven ...

s. In 1994, McLean was awarded a New York State Council for the Arts grant to create an installation with a nostalgic

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...

feel, portraying the ancestors of the tiny village of Petersburgh, New York. Using blown-up photographs and stations set up with recorded speaking voices, instruments, and electronic sounds, ''Forgotten Shadows'' was premiered in the Veterans Memorial Hall, Petersburgh, on Oct. 14, 1994. The music was made into a recording that is unique to McLean's style. A new direction in McLean's composing using a computer program written in

Cycling '74 Cycling '74 (also known as "C74" and stylized as '74) is an American software development company founded in 1997 by David Zicarelli, headquartered in San Francisco, California and owned by Ableton. The company employs the digital signal processi ...

software Max/MSP allowed for the creation of ''Magic at Xanadu (MAX)'', inspired by the

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

poem "

Kubla Khan ''Kubla Khan'' () is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to ''Kubla Khan'', the poem ...

" and performed live on keyboards and computer by Barton McLean. ''Magic at Xanadu (MAX)'' was recorded at the Knickerbocker Theatre in Holland, Michigan in 2008 and became a feature of The McLean Mix tours through 2010. Currently, McLean is composing with and developing concepts on the Kyma system provided by

Symbolic Sound Symbolic Sound Corporation was founded by Carla Scaletti and Kurt J. Hebel in 1989 as a spinoff of the CERL Sound Group at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Originally named ''K ...

. The McLean Mix performed from 1974 to 2013, presenting their separate works and collaborations across the USA and internationally; in these concerts he played the piano or synthesizer, plus woodwinds, amplified bicycle wheel, invented instruments, percussion, and digital processors. The McLeans live in Petersburgh, New York.

Awards

* 1975–95 fifty five

Meet the Composer New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media progra ...

Grants from MTC New York, New England, Midwest, Mid-America, Texas, West, and California during McLean Mix touring * 1976

Media Arts Grant * 1981'' Dimensions III'' chosen as the American representative of the UNESCO- International Music Council-Rostrum International Festival * 1976, 1982 National Endowment for the Arts Composer Fellowships * 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 2002 MacDowell Colony Fellowships * 1983 ''The Electric Sinfonia'' awarded prize at International Bourges, France Electroacoustic Music Festival * 198
Leighton Colony
Banff, Alberta, Centre for the Arts Fellowship * 1986

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

Composer Fellowship * 1990, 1994 NYSCA Decentralization Grants for multimedia installations * 1996 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Research Grant for Borneo media installation * 1996, 200
Virgil Thompson Foundation
(for CRI Recordings) * 1997: Asian Cultural Council (Residency wit
Asian Composers League
in Manila, Philippines) * 2004 American Music Center Composer Award * 2010 NYFA Fellows/Innova Award for complete CD production * 2011

NYSCA The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

Community Arts Grant for audio/video production of ''Peter's People, Creating the Dream''

Discography

* Barton McLean,

Orion Records Orion Records was a primarily classical record label active from the late 1960s until 1988. It grew out of an earlier, Canadian label, Baroque Records, founded by former Everest Records executive Giveon Cornfield.Siskind, Jacob"Record World" ''T ...

ORS 75192, 1973 * American Contemporary—Electronic Music,

Composers Recordings, Inc Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI) was an American record label dedicated to the recording of contemporary classical music by American composers. It was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore, and Oliver Daniel, and based in New York City. ...

SD 335, 1975 * American Contemporary—David Burge and Lois Svard Burge, pianists,

407, 1979 * American Society of University Composers, Advance FGR-25S (LP), 1979 * McLean: Electro-Symphonic Landscapes,

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

(later Smithsonian) FTS 33450 (LP), 1979 * Electronic Music from the Outside In,

(later Smithsonian) FPX 36050 (LP), 1980 * Music of a Timeless Earth.

(later Smithsonian) FTS-33875 (LP), 1980 * American Contemporary—Extended Saxophone — Albert Regni,

431, 1980 * Computer Music from the Outside In,

(later Smithsonian) FSS-37465 (LP), 1983 * Electro-Surrealistic Landscapes,

Opus One Records Max Schubel (April 11, 1932 – February 10, 2010) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is best known for being the founder and owner of Opus One records, a company dedicated to the recording of new music. Schubel mainta ...

Stereo 96 (LP), 1986 * CDCM Computer Music Series Vol. 7, Centaur Records CRC 2047 (CD), 1990 * Rainforest Images,

Capstone Records Capstone Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Richard Brooks in 1986 and was based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has hundreds of releases featuring a w ...

(Parma) CPS-8617 CD, 1993, re-released 2011 * Gods, Demons and the Earth,

(Parma) CPS 8622-CD, 1995 * The McLean Mix & the Golden Age of Electronic Music. Composers Recordings Inc (New World) CD 764. 1997 * The Electric Performer,

(Parma) CPS-8637 CD, 1997 * Forgotten Shadows,

(CRI) CRI 846, 2000 * McLean Mix Live!
MLC Publications
(DVD), 2009 * The McLeans Mix Three—3 Collaborations

(DVD), 2009 * Barton & Priscilla McLean: Electronic Landscapes, EM Records, Japan, EM 1060 CD, 2009 * Soundworlds, Innova Recordings 234 (CD), 2010
Peter's People—Creating the Dream
(DVD), 2011

Works

Selected works include: *''Fantasia for Piano,'' 1968
Genesis
electronic, 1973
Spirals
electronic, 1974
Dimensions II
for piano and recorded sound, 1974
Song of the Nahuatl
electronic, 1976
The Sorcerer Revisited
electronic, 1975, rev.1980
Dimensions III and IV
for saxophone and recorded sound, 1979 *''A Lecture'', speech improvisation featuring Trevor Wishart, with electronics, 1982
Etunytude
electronic, 1982 *''In Wilderness is the Preservation of the World'' for live performance, choir, narrators, soloists, taped wolves and eskimos, electronic sounds, audience singing, 1983
Pathways
for symphonic winds and percussion, 1983
Rainforest
collaborative installation with Priscilla McLean for five performance stations, digital processing, recorded sound, and slides/video, 1989
Visions of a Summer Night
electronic suite in 5 movements, 1989
Himalayan Fantasy
electronic, 1992

collaboration with Priscilla McLean, electronic, using rainforest sounds from 3 continents, 1993
Rainforest Images II
collaboration with Priscilla McLean and Hasnul Jamal Saidon, music and video, 1994

live electronics with 2 performers, 1993 *''Jambori Rimba'', collaboration with Priscilla McLean for live performers and electronics, 1997
Happy Days
for live electronics using music boxes, keyboards, flexatones, party instruments, acting,1997
Forgotten Shadows
electronic collage using many old time songs and instruments, 1998
Ritual of the Dawn
for 6 piece chamber ensemble, 1998 *''Rainforest Reflections'' for orchestra, tape, two soloists, 1999 *''Rhapsody on a Desert Spring'' for MIDI violin, live performance with Korg Wavestation, 1999

electronic, 2001 *''MILLing in the ENNIUM'', electronic collage from installation of the same name, 2001
Magic at Xanadu
(MAX) live computer performance with MA/MSP, 2008
Concerto: States of Being
for piano and electronics, 2009
Ice Canyons
for live electronic performance with MAX/MSP, 2010
''Jubilee''
for live computer performance with MAX/MSP, 2010
''Peter's People Suite''
from video of the same name, 2012 ''The International Who's Who in Classical Music 2012'' *''!metaSinfonica'', electronic music produced with the Kyma system, with video enhancement, 2013

electronic music produced with the Kyma system, with video enhancement, 2016
Conjurer''
electronic music produced with the Kyma system, with video enhancement, 2016
Dreams''
electronic and electroacoustic music produced with the Kyma system with video enhancement, 2017

a pulsative and jazzy creation using the Kyma system, with video, 2019
(with selected Sounds & their VCS)''
with diagrams of some of the Kyma Sounds used, 2020
(with Timeline)''
follow the music with a Kyma Timeline, 2020
in the Hollow''
music accompanied by evocative video images of historical Petersburgh, NY, 2020

primeval music using Kyma and moving images of prehistoric birds, 2021

a Kyma-generated musical suite in 5 sections featuring fractal plus images of Stephen Dankner, 2021 *'' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' 2nd edition, Volume 15, title "McLean, Barton (Keith)", editors

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

and John Tyrrell, author Barbara A. Petersen, publisher Macmillan Publishers, place London, year 2001, p. 508. *''New Directions in Music'', 2nd edition, author David Cope, publisher W.C.Brown, place Dubuque, Iowa, year 1971, pp. 124–25. *''Artists and Activists'', author Joseph Dalton, publisher The Troy Book Makers, place New York, year 2008, p. 71. *''Electric Sound: The Past and Present of Electronic Music'', author

Joel Chadabe Joel Chadabe (December 12, 1938 – May 2, 2021) was an American composer, author, and internationally recognized pioneer in the development of interactive music systems.

, publisher Prentice Hall, place Saddle River, New Jersey, year 1997, p. 331. *'' Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'' 8th edition, title "McLean, Barton (Keith)", editor

Nicolas Slonimsky Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Сло́нимский), was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. B ...

, publisher Schirmer Books (Macmillan Publishers), place New York, year 1992, p. 1180. *''Hanging off the Edge-Revelations of a Modern Troubadour'', 2nd edition, author

, publisher iUniverse, place Lincoln, Nebraska, year 2006. *''The Electronic Arts of Sound and Light'', author Ronald Pellegrino, publisher Van Nostrand Reinhold, place New York, year 1983, p 26.

External links

Barton and Priscilla McLean main site
Barton McLean
New Music USA Library
(Enter Barton McLean in search fields)
YouTube Playlist

Innova Recordings page for B. McLean

Cycling '74 web site for B McLeanWorldCat catalog for McLean's scores, CDs, digital files, videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Barton American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American electronic musicians Experimental composers Electroacoustic music composers Composers for piano Musicians from Poughkeepsie, New York People from Petersburgh, New York 21st-century American composers 1938 births Living people 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians