Clarence (or Klarenz) Barlow was born in 1945 in Calcutta, India. He studied piano and composition, notably under Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1968-1970) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1971-1973). In 1971, he grew interested in stochastic music and in the use of computers for composition and performance. From 1984-2000, Barlow was a lecturer on computer music at the Cologne Musikhochschule, where he was a part of Feedback Studio, founded by a group of composers that included Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 2006, he was appointed Corwin professor and head of composition at the Music Department of the University of California-Santa Barbara. His work at the IRCAM dealt with problems in tonality and metricism, their analogies and their relationship with each other, as well as with the development of mathematical models designed to stimulate and stimulate these phenomena.