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I wrote 'The Barber’s Timepiece' in the spring of 1986 for the orchestra of the National Centre for Orchestral Studies. The title came to me after the music had been completed; it comes from one of Italo Calvino’s retellings of Italian folk tales. The story tells of a clock that had kept perfect time for centuries without being wound up. “The barber had wound it up just once, and from then on, ticktock, ticktock, ticktock. . .” “. . .People from all over were accustomed to run to his shop to ask the clock things they needed to know.” . . . . . .”Oh clock, oh clock, when will my tribulations end? Tell me, for pity’s sake, when to expect Death?” . . . . . .”TickTock, TickTock, TickTock, For him who sings no song, Life may be very long.”

© John Woolrich