Chris Paul Harman

By my current standard, the number of sketches for this composition is vanishingly small. Most of the working-out of ideas is contained within ten pages of twelve-stave block pad music manuscript paper of the type sold by International Music Sales in mid-1980s Toronto. The larger format sketches (of which there are only six on 32-stave tabloid folio pages) constitute first attempts (or errors) in scoring for the full ensemble.

Iridescence was premiered on 18 November 1990 at the Palais Montcalm in Québec City by the Orchestre de Musique de Chambre de Radio-Canada à Québec under the direction of Lorraine Vaillancourt as part of the 9th CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers.

Chris Paul Harman
November 17, 2020
Montreal

Ron recognized the song instantly: “That’s Close to You.” “Who recorded it?” “The Carpenters.” I made a mental note of this fact, then quickly forgot it.

Approximately one year later, when Esprit Orchestra commissioned me to write a new orchestra piece, the memory of Bacharach’s tune resurfaced, and I intimately acquainted myself with the 1970 recording by the Carpenters. At the same time, I discovered that the song had a rather longer legacy comprising earlier recordings by Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, and by the American actor Richard Chamberlain (the first to record it).

I composed Coyote Soul, the result of this commission, between December 2009 and April 2011, primarily in Montreal, as well as in Como (Italy) and Sidney (BC, Canada). The long gestation period yielded a large and varied body of rough work as follows:

• 11 pages of sketches contained within a 12-staff music manuscript notebook sold by Archambault Music (Montreal);
• 103 pages of sketches on custom-printed double-sided 12-staff paper;
• 2 pages of sketches on custom-printed 12-staff paper - the staves appear in pink owing to the printer’s depleted supply of black ink);
• 9 pages of sketches on blank letter-size paper including music notated on hand-drawn staves and text-based notes detailing instrumentation, orchestration and form;
• 4 pages of computer-engraved piano reductions of selected sections - these “reductions” often foreshadow register enlargements in the orchestra by way of doubling, and include text annotations referencing instrumentation, orchestration and form;
• 22 pages of sketches on large manuscript paper, including drafts of the orchestral score.

Coyote Soul was premiered May 15, 2011 in Koerner Hall (Toronto) by Esprit Orchestra, conducted by Alex Pauk. Robert Everett-Green, a music critic for the Globe and Mail, predicted that this work would "cement [my] standing as the most entertaining smarty-pants in Canadian contemporary music."

Chris Paul Harman
July 7, 2020
Montreal

Having decided to seek out Bernstein’s music while abroad (in early 2001, I spent much of the winter in Tokyo), there were hurdles to clear in accessing a score. At that time, scores (and recordings) were not readily accessible on the internet as they are today. A full score of the complete musical was available for purchase at the Yamaha music store in Ginza, but prohibitively priced. Because of Japan’s strict copyright laws, it was forbidden to photocopy sheet music in a public library (as I might have done - albeit illegally, but without hindrance - in Canada). Ultimately, the staff of the Toho Gakuen music library permitted me to sit with the score in the library for a period of up to two hours, during which time I hand-copied selected melodies and harmonies.

All of the sketches for what would become my work Amerika (including the Joplin sketches, and the hand-copied Bernstein material) are contained within two twelve-staff music notebooks, the first (with red cover) purchased at the Yamaha music store in Ginza, the second (with light fawn cover) purchased at the Aatman arts and crafts store in Seiseki Sakuragaoka outside of Tokyo. The music is notated in pencil or permanent ink; soft pink and blue crayons were used to highlight important material or to delineate formal (i.e., metrical) relationships. In addition to English annotations hinting at musical processes, instrumentation, orchestration, form, etc., many sketches bear Japanese translations of the original song titles (written in Hiragana and/or Katakana, which I was studying at the time). The covers of both notebooks are daubed with correction fluid used in the preparation of the final score (handwritten in permanent ink, and eventually computer engraved in 2014).

Amerika was premiered in Toronto on May 26, 2001 by the New Music Concerts ensemble, conducted by Robert Aitken. It has since become my most frequently played work, with performances in Toronto, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Montreal, London (ON), London (UK), Sao Paulo, and Vancouver.

Chris Paul Harman
June 9, 2020
Montreal