Vitautas Barkauskas

Vytautas Barkauskas
(b Kaunas, 25 March 1931). Lithuanian composer. He studied the piano at the J. Tallat-Kelpša Music College in Vilnius (1949–53), at the same time studying mathematics at the Pedagogic Institute in that city.

He then studied with Račiunas at the Lithuanian State Conservatory, graduating in 1959. In 1961, after a brief period as a teacher at the Čiurlionis Art School, Barkauskas began to teach theory at the Lithuanian Music Academy (he was appointed a lecturer in the department of music theory in 1974, and professor of composition in 1989). In 1972 he was awarded the Lithuanian State Prize, and in 1981 he won the title of Honoured Artist of Lithuania. In 1997 he was awarded the State Stipend of Lithuania.

Barkauskas is one of the most productive of modern Lithuanian composers in the field of instrumental music. In his early work (1954–64) he strove to achieve free atonality. The beginning of his second creative period (1964–81) is marked by his interest in the theories of such musicians as Schaeffer and Krenek. In technique, Barkauskas took his guidelines principally from Lutosławski, Penderecki and Ligeti. During the decade from 1965 to 1975, he was one of the most consistent exponents of modern techniques of composition in Lithuania, but at the same time he avoided using them in an orthodox, undiluted manner, instead interpreting them in his own way and seeking natural interactions. This approach is already evident in the composer's first modern works, for instance Poezija (‘Poetry’, 1964, employing a free interpretation of 12-tone technique) and Intymi kompozicija (‘Intimate Composition’, 1968, an interpretation of serialism in terms of aleatory sound). The end of this period in his career is marked by the Viola Concerto (1981), in which the semantic process of confrontations and monologues leads from the clash of soloist and orchestra to a quiet, cathartic culmination. His third creative period, beginning in 1981, which may be described with some qualifications as post avant-garde, is distinguished by more conventional and pluralistic tendencies, a more intuitive method of composition, the search for natural sonic beauty, and by a certain inner intensity, often expressed within traditional genres and forms. In his work of the 1990s his tonal language was simplified, melody and tone colour are more prominent, and a latent tonality is perceptible. Narrative drama is alien to Barkauskas's compositions, which are more inclined to pursue a concertante course.