Composer Phil Barish
Whether writing or collaborating on music for its own sake, or to message about social sentiments, Phil Barish is a composer from Chicago who writes music that keeps momentum regardless of speed.
Phil's music is influenced by a variety of genres from 20th Century Orchestral and Chamber Music to Contemporary Classical, Jazz and Rock. Phil studied composition with Thomas Fredrickson, David Liptak, Salvatore Martirano, John Melby, Sever Tipei and Scott Wyatt.
This new website under construction starts with Phil’s latest work:
World Winds (2025)- a modern chamber composition reflecting an impression of the decades leading up to... The Election.
World Winds
... a concise but programmatic motion through the decades culminating in our current condition:
This music reflects on periods of mixed American expression within the context of the greater world. For the last half of the country's age, certain stretches of history can possibly be summarized in sound. This very subjective impression of that expression is what I set out to accomplish in the proportional nanosecond of 7 minutes. While this is a tightening of the overall timeline, the music is structured across 6 time periods (plus the current one) that delineate certain well-known events. These periods could be interpreted in light of a graduated race to "somewhere," with those periods spanning 60 years, then 32 years, then 8 years+8 years+8 years+8 years+Now.
The periods (and the sections of this music) ebb and flow between AND within themselves as impressions of mixed American expression: Sometimes progressing, sometimes regressing, but consistently conflicted and in reaction to the previous periods' (accumulated) mixed American expression.
The score preface outlines the periods as follows:
1901 - 1961: Rehearsal 1-43
1961 - 1993: Rehearsal 43-86
1993 - 2001: Rehearsal 86-116
2001 - 2009: Rehearsal 116-140
2009 - 2017: Rehearsal 140-162
2017 - 2025: Rehearsal 162-217
2025 - A message of hope... with a warning: Rehearsal 217 - 225
Perusal Score
Click to open or download