Barney Childs

This remarkable composer of experimental music was born February 13, 1926 in Spokane, Washington. He received early musical incluences at home from his mother, but his original intent was to become an aeronautical engineer, and much of his adolescence was spent building model aircraft. During his time as a student at Palo Alto University he worked at the university library, and it was here he discovered Henry Cowell's New Musical Quarterly, which had a seminal effect in awakening him to the world of 20th-century music. He went on, however to become an aircraft designer, and se...