Bebe and Louis Barron: Difference between revisions

SheBebe Barron was born as '''Charlotte May Wind''' in [[Minneapolis]] on June 16, 1925, the only child of Ruth and Frank Wind. She studied piano at the [[University of Minnesota]] and a post-graduate degree in political science. In Minneapolis, she studied composition with [[Roque Cordero]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bebe-barron-co-composer-of-the-first-electronic-film-score-for-forbidden-planet-822755.html|title=Bebe Barron: Co-composer of the first electronic film score, for|date=2008-05-08|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> She moved to New York, and worked as a researcher for [[Time-Life]] and studied [[musical composition]].<ref name=nytobit/> She studied music with [[Wallingford Riegger]] and [[Henry Cowell]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Barry Schrader |author-link=Barry Schrader |title=Electronic Music Pioneer Bebe Barron Dead At 82 |url=http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2008/04/20/electronic-music-pioneer-bebe-barron-dead-at-82/ |quote=Bebe Barron was born Charlotte Wind in Minneapolis, on June 16, 1925. She received an MA in political science from the University of Minnesota, where she studied composition with Roque Cordero, and she also spent a year studying composition and ethnomusicology at the University of Mexico. |work=[[Synthtopia]] |date=April 29, 2008 |access-date=2010-10-01 }}</ref> She married Louis Barron in 1947. They lived in [[Greenwich Village]]. It was Louis who nicknamed her "Bebe".<ref name=nytobit>{{cite news |title=Bebe Barron, 82, Pioneer of Electronic Scores, Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25barron.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 25, 2008 |access-date=2010-10-01 }}</ref> She died on April 20, 2008, in Los Angeles.<ref name="nytobit"/>

HeLouis Barron was born in [[Minneapolis]] on April 23, 1920. As a young man, Louishe had an affinity for working with a [[soldering gun]] and electrical gear. He studied music at the [[University of Chicago]]. He died on 1 November 1989 in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite news |title=Louis Barron; Made Music Electronically |quote=Louis Barron an electronic pioneer who created music from circuitry long before ... Barron who with his first wife fashioned the score for the innovative ... [Louis Barron] and Bebe Barron also collaborated on concerts and on such Broadway productions as "Visit to a Small Planet," "The Happiest Girl in the World" and "The Chinese Wall." |work=The New York Times |date=November 17, 1989}}</ref>

The couple married in 1947 and moved to [[New York City]]. Louis' cousin, who was an executive at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company ([[3M]]), gave the newlyweds their first [[tape recorder]] as a wedding gift.<ref name=npr>{{cite news |author=Susan Stone |author-link=Susan Stone |title=The Barrons: Forgotten Pioneers of Electronic Music |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4486840 |quote=Married in 1947, the Barrons received a tape recorder as a wedding gift. They used it to record friends and parties, and later opened one of the first private sound studios in the United States. |work=[[National Public Radio]] |date=February 7, 2005 |access-date=2010-10-01 }}</ref>{{Ref|hitler}} ItAs wasa earlyrecording medium, it utilized thin [[magnetic tape|plastic recordertape]] technologywith thatan usediron magnetizedoxide plasticcoating tapewhich could be magnetized..<ref name=":0" /> Using their newly acquired equipment, the couple delved into the study of [[musique concrète]].

The first [[electronic music]] for [[magnetic tape]] composed in the United States was completed by Louis andthe BebeBarrons in 1950 and was titled ''Heavenly Menagerie''. [[Electronic music]] composition and production were one and the same, and were slow and laborious. Tape had to be physically cut and spliced together with adhesive “splicingsplicing tape”tape to edit finished sounds and compositions.

The 1948 book ''[[Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine|Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine]]'', by mathematician [[NorbertMassachusetts WienerInstitute of Technology]] from(MIT) mathematician [[MITNorbert Wiener]] played an important role in the development of the Barrons' composition.<ref name=npr/> The science of [[cybernetics]] proposes that certain natural laws of behavior applied to both animals and more complex electronic machines.

Most of the production was not scripted or notated in any way. The Barrons didn't even consider the process as [[music composition]] themselves. The circuit generated sound was not treated as [[Musical note|note]]s, but instead as '"actors'". In future soundtrack composition, each circuit would be manipulated according to actions of the underlying character in the film.

While Louis spent most of his time building the circuits and was responsible for all of the recording, Bebe did the composing. She had toby sortsorting through many hours of tape.<ref name=npr/> As she said, "it just sounded like dirty noise". Over time, she developed the ability to determine which sounds could become something of interest., Tapeand looptape gaveloops the Barrons' soundsprovided rhythm. They mixed the sounds to create the otherworldly and strange electronic [[soundscape]]s required by ''Forbidden Planet''.

Soon after relocation to New York, the Barrons opened a [[recording studio]] at 9 West 8th Street in [[Greenwich Village]] that catered to the [[avant-garde]] scene.<ref name=npr/> This may have been the first electronic music studio in the United States. At the studio, the Barrons used a tape recorder to record everything and everyone.<ref name=npr/> They recorded [[Henry Miller]], [[Tennessee Williams]], and [[Aldous Huxley]] reading their work in a form of early [[audiobook]]. [[File:Anais Nin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Anaïs Nin<hr><small>"[Barrons' music sounds like] a molecule that has stubbed its toes." <br />''[[The Diary of AnaisAnaïs Nin ]]'', Volume 7 (1966-1974)</small>]]

In June 1949, [[Anaïs Nin]] recorded a full version of ''[[House of Incest]]'' and four other stories from ''[[Under a Glass Bell]]''. These recordings were pressed on red [[gramophone record|vinyl]] and released on the Barrons' ''Contemporary Classics'' [[record label]] under the ''Sound Portraits'' series. ([https://barronsoundportraits.com Barron Sound Portraits])

==''Forbidden Planet''==<!-- This section is linked from [[Forbidden Planet]] -->

[[Category:Musical groupsduos from New York (state)]]

[[Category:ExperimentalAmerican experimental composers]]

[[Category:EarlyAmerican Recordingaudio Engineers (1930-1959)engineers]]