Warren Barker

Warren Barker has died at the age of 83.
Well known as one of the great composers and arrangers of concert band music, he also was one of those people that everyone loved, and like to tell personal stories of their contacts with him.

A surprising percentage of the music in today's concert band repertoire was arranged by the master, Warren Barker. He was great at producing pieces for band that were medleys of musical selections from different genres, such as "Big Band" or "Show Tunes", or Andrew Lloyd Webber" and the like. He also composed original works. However he actually had such a deep career in music that went well beyond concert band music.

Earlier in is career he was in Hollywood, as arranger and musical director for movie studios and for TV studios as well. This is where he got the fame and credit for the "Bewitched" theme, and was responsible for adding the little ringing sound for the nose twitch (deetle-deetle-deeet). His dramatic style and flare from those days often showed up later in his band medleys and arrangements. You can see many things on the web about him, but here is a starting point.

Here is how "Space Age Pop Music" describes Warren Barker:

Best known for his jazzy score and best-selling soundtrack album from the television series, "77 Sunset Strip", Barker played piano and trumpet in school and then attended UCLA, where he studied under the composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After serving in the Army Air Corps, where he played in a band, he returned to Los Angeles and began a long association with radio, television, and movie studios. He worked as staff director for Warner Borthers Record for nearly a dozen years, leaving in 1960 to focus on television work.

His TV credits include musical direction for the TV series "Hawaiian Eye" and orchestrations for such Nick-at-Night classics as "Bewtiched," "Daktari," "That Girl," and "The Flying Nun"--including that little xylophone thing that plays whenever Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) wiggles her nose to cast a spell. He imprinted a bit of 1970s cultural history into a generation's genetic code with his theme for the "Donny and Marie Osmond Show," "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock-n-Roll." Barker also wrote the scores for the films Strange Lovers and The Zebra in the Kitchen. He retired from the studio scene in the early 1980s and now devotes his time to writing and conducting original compositions for concert bands and wind ensembles.

My own personal story was that when I lived in Richmond Virginia, I was on the board of Richmond Concert Band when we commissioned Warren Barker to write a march for us for our 25th anniversary. He did so, and it turned out to be "Capitol Square March" now distributed nationally. Later he even came to Richmond from his home in South Carolina to guest conduct. I wrote him a letter last may, and his wife responded (by email, but apologized for that medium) telling me that Warren was ill, and was not able to reply himself, but my letter was a morale booster for him. Here is her address if you want to send condolences: Mary Barker 161 Rolling Green Cr Greenville SC 29615

Progress

Well, I am a few weeks out from my last chemo session and still have one main evaluation appointment this week with the docs.

I know I am too impatient a patient, but I want to be back to whatever "normal" will be.

This disease has left me with problems that keep me on the disabled list. I am still out of breath all the time, my legs are still very painful and feel numb and "asleep" and stiffen up so that I walk very slowly and non-nimbly, afraid that I will fall. I also have that tingle and asleep feeling in my hands, and the loss of feeling in my fingertips makes even buttoning up a shirt a harder task than it should be.

I am saying this, not for sympathy, but that I have a hard time celebrating the otherwise successful chemotherapy when I don't feel cured at all, I feel like my body has not recovered from a beating in a burlap bag or something.

However, my hair is starting to return! Little dots of mustache hair and fuzzy dome hair: