Barry Truax

Barry Truax (born 1947) is a Canadian composer who specializes in real-time implementations of granular synthesis, often of sampled sounds, and soundscapes. He developed the first ever implementation of real-time granular synthesis, in 1986, the first to use a sample as the source of a granular composition in 1987's Wings of Nike, and was the first composer to explore the range between synchronic and asynchronic granular synthesis in 1986's Riverrun. The real-time technique suites or emphasizes auditory streams, which, along with soundscapes, inform his aesthetic.

Truax teaches both electroacoustic music and acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University. He was one of the original members of the World Soundscape Project. His students include composers Jean Piché, David Monacchi, Michael Vincent, Paul Dolden, Susan Frykberg, Charles Wilkinson, and John Oswald.

Selected compositions

• The Blind Man (1979)
• Riverrun (1986, Wergo WER 2017-50)
• Wings of Nike (1987, Cambridge Street Records CSR CD-9401 and Perspectives of New Music CD PNM 28)
• Tongues of Angels (1988, Centrediscs CMC CD-4793)
• Beauty and the Beast (1989, Cambridge Street Records CSR-CD 9601)
• Pacific (1990, Cambridge Street Records CSR CD-9101)
• Pacific Fanfare (1996)
• Wings of Fire for female cellist and two digital soundtracks including the Joy Kirstin poem "Wings of Fire" read by Ellie Epp (1996)
• Androgyne, Mon Amour for amplified male double bass player and two digital soundtracks including text from Tennessee Williams' book of the same title read by Douglas Huffman (1997)

Further reading

• Interview with Truax by Toru Iwatake (online version), accessed 4 February 2010 Print version: Computer Music Journal, 18(3), 1994, 17-24.
• Asymmetry Music Magazine interview, accessed 4 February 2010

External links

• Barry Truax: Electroacoustic Composer & Acoustic Communication Researcher