“The music of Charlie Barnett is great. I’ve played his ‘The Far Tortoogas’ twice and it was universally loved by the audience and the orchestra both times. He has a real understanding of what an instrument can do as well as a unique grasp of orchestral colors. His craftsmanship is second to none. We were also fortunate enough to have Charlie visit my university for a week-long residency. His work with students and faculty was invigorating and illuminating. He’s a composer who’s at the top of his game.”
— Patrick Miles
Music Director, Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra
Director of Orchestral Activities, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
“Charlie Barnett’s work is full of melodies ranging from the comic to the sublime. His music is rhythmically compelling and always approachable with a powerful sense of musical storytelling. I find the experience of playing his works to be thoroughly enjoyable for both performers and audience alike.”
— Victoria Gau
Artistic Director/Conductor, Capital City Symphony
Assistant Conductor, National Philharmonic
Adjunct Associate Professor of Opera, George Mason
Conductor, Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
“The Spokane Youth Orchestra played Charles Barnett’s Concerto in Fourths (Brooklyn Concerto) with violinist Janice Martin. It is a compelling and appealing work. It also had the quality of being easy to put together with our Youth Orchestra, while being challenging enough to play that our musicians got great satisfaction from the work. Glad to do it. I'm always sorry I must be so quick to move on that I don't get to luxuriate longer in any concert experience. That one was certainly extra satisfying.”
— Verne Windham
Program Director, KPBX
Music Director, Spokane Youth Symphony
“Charles Barnett was the winner of the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association’s 2008-09 Mid-Atlantic Composition Competition. The Philharmonic performed three of his compositions during this process, and enjoyed all of them. His music is melodic, tonal, uncomplicated, and direct. It also conveys the emotional language of a serious writer. The way he uses sound and individual instruments sets him apart. The result: the audience is entranced with his work. It sounds fresh and new without the dissonance and complication one usually hears with a contemporary work. Not only is he a gifted composer, he is a practical, wise person with an optimistic attitude who is great to work with.”
— Ulysses James
Music Director/Conductor
Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic
2002 - 4 Movements - Duration: 33 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl (picc), 2 ob(EH), 2 cl, 2bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: A musical road trip. My parents used to drive us up Rt. 1 from Virginia to Maine each Summer. This is my memory of that trip. This has been performed as individual movements. Especially “The Detour, the Argument, and Finally, the Map” (movement 3) and “Home” (movement 4).
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
2001 - 4 Movements - Duration: 30 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl (picc), 2 ob (eh), 2 cl, 2 bsn, 2 trp, 3 hrn, 2 trb, tba, 2 perc, timp, harp, strings, solo violin
Description: This piece is a blast to play and to conduct. The violinist Janice Martin knows this piece well and is available to play it.
The Fireman's Carnival
Lyrical modern classical music
2007 - 5 Movements - Duration: 15 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: harp, strings, solo clarinet
Description: Five movements. A misty, romantic piece about going to a tiny carnival in a small town at night. The movements are based loosely on the experiences of the attractions at the carnival: Ferris Wheel, Shooting Gallery, etc. Ben Redwine plays this piece really well and would certainly be available to perform this again. (a shameless plug)
2007 - 3 Movements - Duration: 18 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl, bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 2 perc, timp, harp, strings, solo viola
Description: I wrote this for Osman Kivrak, who is Turkish. And although each movement is named after a town in Turkey the music itself is more of a western tourist’s look at the sights and sounds of Turkey. A postcard, if you will. The middle movement is one of the prettiest pieces of music I have ever written.
2007 - 1 Movement - Duration: 15 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl(bs cl), 2bsn (contra), 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3-4 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: I have always wanted only two things in my film music career: 1. to write a Sweeping Western and 2. to score a pirate movie. This is the pirate movie… without the visuals. It is programmatic, although I have yet to determine how much of that information to share with the audience?
2004 - 1 Movement - Duration: 10 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl, 2bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: This was originally a ballet score written for Natalie Moffet-Smith. It is a very cool piece of very colorful music.
2008 - 7 Movements - Duration: 20 minutes
String orchestra or String quintet
2004 - 5 Movements - Duration: 26 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob, 2 cl, 2bsn, 2 trp, 2 hrn, 1 perc, timp, strings, solo guitar
Description: This was a commission for the guitarist Kasayuki Kato. It has been played and recorded in the US by Peter Fields. The orchestral parts are a snap. The guitarist needs to be a master.
2004 - 5 Movements - Duration: 42 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl, 2bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: Five movements, each based on a card from the tarot deck. Although it has not been done, I have always thought that it would be cool to have a local luminary draw the cards from the conductor’s hand and then project them behind the orchestra (they are very colorful) and then play the movements in the order they were drawn. The cards are: O, the Fool, the Emperor, the Star, the Hanged Man, and the Magician.
2004 - 1 Movement - Duration: 8 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl (picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl, bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: The Pleiades is a group of seven stars that is part of the Taurus constellation. It is also called the Seven Sisters. Many astronomers say that it is best seen by first finding it and then looking away from it. I love this concept.
2005 - 1 Movement - Duration: 20 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl (picc), 2 ob (EH), 2 cl, bs, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: This is a Suite of the orchestral score to the movie Paper Clips. It includes the song Alison Krauss sang in the film, Jubilee (instrumental).
Paper Clips Orchestral Theme
This is from a wonderful documentary called Paper Clips. It is the story of the people of Whitwell, Tennessee and their junior high school's project designed to to teach their kids about the Holocaust. It is an astonishing little film that makes almost everyone weep - mostly tears of hope and joy. Miramax has picked this up and it has played on HBO. We'll see where it goes from here. Congratulations to Bob Johnson, Joe Fab and Elliot Berlin, the amazing guys who made this film.
Paper Clips (Small Group Cue 1)
There were three sorts of music for Paper Clips - these cues were from the chamber group sessions featuring Janice Martin, again. I just love her playing. Also Greg Watkins is on double Bass with Robert Sullivan on guitar and Lukasz Czyner on cello. I think the sound here perfectly reflects the Appalachian setting with the overtones of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.
Paper Clips (Small Group Cue 2)
The third group of sessions took place in Nashville with Alison Krauss. She sang the end titles and two tunes for the interior of the film. She was not only flawless and inspiring, she was funny. I don't think I have ever worked with such a genuinely funny singer. And as you can imagine, she stole my heart.
February 19, 2010
Email from Mr. Drew Smith
Mr Barnett, I have just finished Paper Clips, and am moved beyond description...don't know when I've seen the visual content, the score, and human content blend into such pure art. thank you so much. real artists can change lives, and I'm ending this day as a different person tonight
2001 - 6 Movements - Duration: 23:14
Minimum orchestra: 1 cl, 1 hrn, 1 percussion, 1 timp, strings, harp
Description: These tracks are from a huge multi screen project at the Newseum when it was in Arlington, VA.
The pieces evoke the Civil War, World War I, and The Korean War respectively. The images are an incredibly powerful anti-war message.
It was a powerful piece aired on a screen that was one hundred and twelve feet long, divided into nine screens at times, three at times, one enormous image at times.
2005 - 1 Movement - Duration: 3 minutes
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl (picc), 2 ob, 2 cl, bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
Description: A miniature that would be a beautiful encore. I would love to have someone play this piece again. (It has only been played once)
1994 - Duration: 8 min
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, bs, 2 trp, 2 hrn, 2 trb, tb, 2 perc, timp, strings
Description: A charming small work for a chamber orchestra.
Duration: 18 min
Minimum orchestra required: 2 fl(picc), 2 ob(EH), 2 cl, 2bsn, 3 trp, 4 hrn, 3 trb, tba, 3 perc, timp, harp, strings
1348 was the worst year of the plague. The population of medieval Europe was nearly cut in half over the course of a few years. There are many strange parallels between the 14th century and our own: a belief that the apocalypse is near, a surge in religious fundamentalism, an unexplained and incurable pestilence. I would just refer the curious to Barbara Tuchman's brilliant history, A Distant Mirror. Why I felt this was something to write music about is something that will have to remain between my therapist and myself.
Are All 4th of July And Other Patriotic Concerts Created Equal?
Not necessarily! Whether it’s Independence Day, Veterans’ Day, Memorial Day or just ANY day, a concert of all music is nice, but here’s something a little different to add to the mix… The Bedford Suite.
This 25-minute piece for orchestra and two actors is both patriotic and emotional. It draws on music scored for the award-winning documentary film BEDFORD: THE TOWN THEY LEFT BEHIND and actual love letters exchanged by two characters in the film: a man and wife separated by WWII after their brief 8-day honeymoon. He was one of the very first to land on the beach on D-Day, while she waited desperately for news of his fate at home in the small town of Bedford, Virginia. The music includes rousing battle motifs, romantic waltzes and a majestic main theme. The premiere performance in Washington, DC received both tears and strong praise from audience and orchestra members alike.
Music and dialogue are fully integrated and simple to coordinate within standard rehearsals. The conductor’s score includes cues for the two readers, who are positioned at music stands with microphones.
