Jacobs School professor releases album

IU Jacobs School of Music professor Claude Baker has joined the ranks of recorded Jacobs faculty with the release of his album of chamber music, “Flights of Passage.”

Baker’s compilation contains music he composed during the course of 25 years.
He said the CD has been in the works for a while, as it often takes IU Music a long time to release something under its label.

Now, his work is available at the Jacobs School Marketplace, iTunes and Amazon.com.

Baker recorded the collection of chamber music in collaboration with many Jacobs students and alumnus, including pianists, cellists and violinists, in addition to the IU New Music Ensemble.

He also worked with Konrad Strauss, the chair of the Department of Recording Arts in the Jacobs School.

Baker said he was extremely grateful for the high-caliber work of everyone involved.
“We have one of the finest music schools in the world,” Baker said. “I couldn’t have asked for better players.”

Much of the music on the album pays homage to other composers, such as Johannes Brahms, Nelson Keyes and Béla Bartók, with the exception of the final piece titled “Awaking the Winds,” which has no associations.

“I like to make allusions to existing repertoire,” Baker said.

“Almost all the pieces make reference to existing work.”

The title track was inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman, specifically the collection “Leaves of Grass,” Baker said.

He said he sought to parallel the formal structures of the poems in the music.

“I tried to capture the general words of the poems,” Baker said. “They don’t use rhymes but repeat phrases and words for cohesion. So I tried to follow the repetition of ideas in the music.”

He said that listening to the piece while reading the poems creates a score for Whitman’s words. Overall, Baker said the album aesthetically reflects his life’s work.

“It’s very reflective of what I enjoy doing,” he said. “It’s really a labor of love.”