Richard Baker

@rchrdbkr

Composer based in Ceredigion, Wales, UK. Research Fellow @guildhallschool.bsky.social. Weithiau yn Gymraeg. Profile photo: Claire Shovelton Artist website:

1718 Siguiendo2481 Seguidores1263 Publicaciones

YouTube Website Bluesky

music

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y rchrdbkr.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jul 2

Oh well! I shall have to just stand here in my wrongness and be wrong, and get used to it, I guess…

Automated message alerting me that a bsky user has added me to the “wrong about VR AI Crypto Smart-Glasses GLP2 NFTs or Bitcoin” moderation list.

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jan 28

Fixed it

Screenshot of Guardian headline "Labour risks election wipeout unless is improves Britain's high streets, study finds" with all words after 'Britain' struck out in red pen

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jan 18

IYKYK (apparently stolen from FB, apologies to original artist)

Donald Trump in the robes of a winner of the poetry chair, surrounded by robes members of the Gorsedd of Bards, at an Eisteddfod chairing ceremony

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Dec 25

Even better second time around: #9LC

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Oct 29

Here's a conundrum #poetrysky - I was just looking for Thom Gunn's 'Lines for a book' online, and came across this 1955 publication in Poetry - without the famous couplet about Stephen Spender's rough boys. Was this an early draft? Censored by the editor? Anyone know?

LINES FOR A BOOK

I think of all the toughs through history
And thank heaven they lived, continually.
Their pride exalted some, some overthrew,
But was not vanity at last: they knew
That though the mind has also got a place
It's not in marvelling at its mirrored face
And evident sensibility. It's better
To go and see your friend than write a letter;
To be a soldier than to be a cripple;
To take an early weaning from the nipple
Than think your mother is the only girl;
To be insensitive, to steel the will,
Than sit irresolute all day at stool
Inside the heart; and to despise the fool,
Who may not help himself and may not choose,
Than give him pity which he cannot use.
I think of those exclusive by their action,
For whom mere thought could be no satisfaction-
The athletes lying under tons of dirt
Or standing gelded so they cannot hurt
The pale curators and the families
By calling up disturbing images.
I think of all the toughs through history
And thank heaven they lived, continually.

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Oct 9

Common/Wealth’s Manifesto is also extremely good, and timely:

COMMON/WEALTH
MANIFESTO
→ Fuck capitalism. Fuck theatre. Do it yourself.
→ Make shows unlike anything anyone has seen before. Experiment and play with form.
→ Don't be afraid of being political. Respond to the here and now. Charge the work with emotion.
→ Work with people who have direct experience of the territories you're exploring. They are the creators and editors. Include people new to theatre.
There is wealth in your experience, your history, your knowledge, where you come from, the stories you get told, stories you pass on.
→ Process is as important as form.
• Be an internationalist. Listen and speak beyond borders.
→ Get out of theatre buildings. Sites offer so much - they put you in direct conversation with people you wouldn't otherwise meet.
Work with what you have. Build on what is already there.
Don't wait for permission. DO IT YOURSELF!

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Sep 2

Gosh, if only we had a ‘system’ that exhibited such valuable qualities:

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jun 3

So this was nice: thirteen years after relocating to Wales, the Welsh Music Guild presented me with its Sir Geraint Evans Award for a significant contribution to Welsh music’. A very touching honour for this poor Saes.

A bald man with facial hair presenting another bald man with facial hair with a framed certificate in a handsome Edwardian dining room.

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Feb 21

Gosh, I wonder what might explain the lower than expected rebound in Self-Assessment receipts? I’m told the Treasury believes the arts and culture industries are comprised solely of entitled and loud middle class people addicted to state handouts. Could it be that they are wrong about this economy?

The OBR said a strong rebound in self-assessment receipts, which declined during the coronavirus pandemic, failed to materialise, leaving the Treasury with only a modest gain. Income from corporation tax and capitals gains tax was also below its own predictions.

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jan 19

See also:

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Dec 14

Image for reference

Cartoon by Steve Bell depicting former British Prime Minister David, Lord Cameron. In Bell’s caricature, Cameron’s head resembles an inflated condom

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Dec 13

Oleana Tyrrell ‘I want her to know it was me’ GIF

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Dec 12

Cymry Llundain ym Mricston

Photo of floodlit Frank Matcham-designed Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, London, UK. Nighttime. Hoarding cleared of usual movie listings, replaced with single line of text in Welsh, which translates as ‘Babs, will you marry me?’

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 27

www.autostraddle.com/for-justin-v...

David Wojnarowicz said many years ago — I’m paraphrasing — that part of why people and artists struggled so much during the AIDS years was to get past the hatred, the horrors of the world, to go back to what we do best and love doing, which is creating beauty and creating joy. You can’t take creating beauty and joy for granted. There is so much ugliness in the world. So many people threatened by beauty and joy can’t create either. The easiest, cheapest way to feel powerful is to destroy, which is the perfect example of Trump and his cadre of fascists. That’s the only way they have power–the only thing they can do is to tear things down because they’re incapable of making anything beautiful, of having ideas that elevate anybody. Our job is to resist that by constantly doing what we do, which is fighting our way to beauty.

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 27

It was quite close!

Spreadsheet detailing the ranked choice voting in the final round of the Oxford Chancellorship Election, showing William Hague beating Elish Angiolini by under 1000 votes

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 21

Post you from a different era. Oxford, sometime in 1993, on a Section 28 Demo. Good to revisit as I’m back in the same street today, some 31 years later

Photo of me with big hair and Arran sweater beneath leather jacket, on good tempered demonstration with other Oxford students, against Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act which penalised the ‘promotion of homosexuality’. A cheery Balliol JCR banner in the background

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 21

En route from Aberystwyth to Oxford (not one of the *great* journeys!) to talk to student composers at New College about my work, thanks to colleague Luke Lewis.

E-flyer advertising seminar series entitled ‘All New Music’ including talks by composers Lisa Illean and me

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 20

Timeline cleanse - view from my window just now:

View from a cottage ground floor window of a sheep grazing in an adjacent field about a metre away, next to a wooden garden bird table

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 17

Obligatory timeline cleanse. This is Begw, our standard dachshund. Named after the narrator of Kate Roberts’ ‘Tê yn y Grug’. Had she been a boy, she was going to be called Raymond Williams.

Shiny Black and Tan Standard dachshund with yellow nylon bone in her mouth

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Nov 12

Lovely Welsh language article by Pwyll ap Siôn in the latest issue of ‘O’r Pedwar Gwynt’ on music, politics and disco, including my new album ‘The Tyranny of Fun’ pedwargwynt.cymru/rhifyn-print...

Photo of double page spread in Welsh language literary magazine O’r Pedwar Gwynt

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Oct 10

Northern Lights in mid Wales tonight

Pink and green-hued northern lights with silhouetted trees

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Sep 18

One of the only times in my life I’ve been an ‘early adopter’

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #514,117!

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· May 11

Oooh good thinking - I'll join you!

Composer pornstache making its debut earlier today

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· May 8

Having just read some very self-satisfied nonsense by a soi-disant 'experimental composer', I remembered this, from Lawrence Dunn. Nobody in theatre would unironically describe themselves as making 'experimental' work. Why do we tolerate it, still, in music? It's meaningless and should be retired.

Highlighted text from doctoral thesis by Lawrence Dunn, quote 'There is a sense that, applied now, the term 'experimental music' might have become a meaningless catchall; or worse, a tribal signifier.'

Richard Baker@rchrdbkr· Jan 1

All wonderful. Nothing quite beats this, from Kingsley Amis in 'Lucky Jim' (1954), often hailed as the greatest description of a hangover in English literature: