Milton Barnes (16 December 1931 – 27 February 2001) was a Canadian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, conductor, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

mer. An associate of the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its As ...

, his music is noted for its frequent use of Jewish themes, its rejection of the

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

in favor of tonality, and its blend of classical, jazz, and pop elements. His music has been labeled by some critics as "eclectic fusion". He was commissioned to write works by Robert Aitken,

Liona Boyd Liona Maria Carolynne Boyd, (born 11 July 1949) is a classical guitarist often referred to as the First Lady of the Guitar. Music career Early years Boyd was born in London and grew up in Toronto. Her father grew up in Bilbao, Spain, and her ...

, Paul Brodie, the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

, Erica Goodman, Joseph Macerollo, the Harbord Bakery, the New Chamber Orchestra of Canada, the

Ontario Federation of Symphony Orchestras Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Cana ...

, John Perrone, and Trio Lyra among others. He remained active as a composer up until his sudden death of a heart attack in 2001. He is the father of singer/songwriter

Micah Barnes Micah Barnes is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He has performed both as a solo artist and with the band the Nylons. Born in Vienna, Barnes is the son of composer, conductor and jazz drummer Milton Barnes (composer), Milton Barnes, and author, ...

, cellist Ariel Barnes, and drummer/producer Daniel Barnes.

Life

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Barnes entered

The Royal Conservatory of Music The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Con ...

(RCM) in 1952 where he was a pupil of

Samuel Dolin Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

(piano),

Victor Feldbrill Victor Feldbrill, (April 4, 1924 – June 17, 2020) was a Canadian conductor and violinist. Early life and education Feldbrill was born in Toronto,Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...

(composition),

Boyd Neel Louis Boyd Neel O.C. (19 July 190530 September 1981) was an English, and later Canadian conductor and academic. He was Dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto. Neel founded and conducted chamber orchestras, and cont ...

(conducting),

Walter Susskind Jan Walter Susskind (1 May 1913 – 25 March 1980) was a Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague, and fled to Britain when Germany invaded the city in 1939. He worked for substantial periods in ...

(conducting), and

John Weinzweig John Jacob Weinzweig, (March 11, 1913 – August 24, 2006) was a Canadian composer of classical music. Weinzweig was born in Toronto. He went to Harbord Collegiate Institute, and studied music at the university. In 1937, he left for the United St ...

(composition). He graduated from the RCM in 1955 after which he entered the Vienna Academy of Music where he earned a master's degree in 1961. He also spent summers during the 1950s studying at the Chigiana School in Siena, Italy and the

Tanglewood Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...

in Lenox, Massachusetts. During the 1960s and 1970s, Barnes was highly active as a conductor in North America, both as a guest conductor and in staff positions. He notably founded the Toronto Repertory Ensemble (TRE) in 1964, a group which commissioned and performed contemporary Canadian music under his leadership through 1973. A number of the TRE's concerts were broadcast on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

and

Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. From 1961-1963 he conducted and composed music for the Crest Theatre in Toronto. In 1964 he was appointed principal conductor of the St Catharines Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (now the Niagara Symphony Orchestra), a post he held until 1972. At the same time he served as conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Niagara Falls, New York from 1965-1973. He also conducted and composed music for the

Toronto Dance Theatre The Toronto Dance Theatre is a Canadian modern dance company based in Toronto, Ontario. Described by ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' as "one of the foremost modern-dance companies in Canada", the company tours nationally and internationally and regula ...

from 1968-1973 and periodically did similar work for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973 Barnes abandoned his work as a conductor in favor of putting his full concentration towards composition. From here on he only conducted performances of his own works, notably doing so for three broadcasts on the

program '' Morningside'' and for several film and television scoress for the CBC. His 1975

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

''Shir Hashirim'' was premiered under his baton in July 1999 in Toronto. His last complete composition, ''Songs of Arrival'', premiered at the Historic Old Toronto Summer Music Festival 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Milton 1931 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Canadian conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian drummers 20th-century Canadian male musicians Canadian composers Canadian male composers Canadian jazz drummers Canadian male drummers Canadian male jazz musicians Composers for harmonica Male conductors (music) Musicians from Toronto Pupils of Ernst Krenek The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna alumni