Barney Childs (February 13, 1926 – January 11, 2000) was an American composer and teacher.
Born in Spokane, Washington, he taught and composed avant-garde music and literature at universities in the United States and United Kingdom.
He was a musical autodidact till his association in the 1950s with Leonard Ratner and Elliot Carter in New York and with Aaron Copland and Carlos Chavez at Tanglewood. He was associated later with double bass player Bertram Turetzky and clarinet player Phillip Rehfeldt. He wrote several pieces for these and other players, often using extended techniques. Much of his music employs improvisation and indeterminacy (see his "Roachville Project," 1967). However, his influences are diverse and include jazz artists, John Cage, Charles Ives, and Paul Hindemith. Childs won the Koussevitzky Award at Tanglewood in 1954.
Trained originally as a literary scholar, Childs earned a Ph.D. in English from Stanford University (1959) and remained active as an editor and writer of poetry (see ...and other poems, 1955). He had previously studied at Deep Springs College, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He taught at the University of Arizona, where he was mentor to the young Joseph Byrd, Deep Springs College, where he served as Dean, Wisconsin College Conservatory, and Goldsmiths, University of London. From 1974 until his death, he was professor of composition and music literature at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. He also taught literature and creative writing at the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, located on the University of Redlands campus.
Childs died with Parkinson's disease in 2000.