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Harris: Complete Works for Guitar on CD

Albert Harris (1916-2005) was an English musician who worked in Hollywood for most of his life as an orchestrator, arranger and composer for several of the big film Studios and for such pop icons as Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack and Cher. He was born in London and studied piano from age 6, becoming also a self-taught guitarist. His knowledge of the guitar enabled him in later years to compose pieces specifically for it (his Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel was recorded by Andres Segovia). In the mid-1930s he began to make a name for himself as a session musician in London where he featured on many recordings, most notably as session guitarist with the Lew Stone band, his delicate but swinging improvisations enhancing many of Stone's records during 1934/35. Harris came to New York in 1938 and started playing piano in big bands across the US then began studying at the NYU College of Music, where he earned a doctorate in 1944. He finished the PhD remotely, having moved to Los Angeles in 1942, where he studied composition with Mary Carr Moore and Eugen Zador and conducting with Richard Lert. He served as professor of orchestration at UCLA and was Assistant Musical Director for broadcaster NBC from 1946 to 1949.

Written in three movements, the Sonatina is one of the most emblematic pieces in Harris's catalogue. Popular elements from his adopted land, linked to graceful writing attentive to melodic construction, make this guitar composition one of his best. The Suite was composed in 1972 and features seven dance movements with modern and elaborate harmonies similar to those of jazz, especially in the Waltz. Homage to Unamuno was written in 1972 in tribute to it's dedicatee, a symbol of Spanish liberal thought and a high representative of Spanish literature. The short Intermezzo was included in a collection of compositions that appeared in the Classic Guitar Society's periodical magazine, Guitar News, in 1952, and despite it's brevity the elegance of Harris's language remains. Perhaps the composer's best-known guitar composition, together with the Sonatina, the Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Handel are dedicated to the great guitarist Andres Segovia, who was the first to record it. The work is highly influenced by the Spanish guitarist's style. In it Handel's theme is treated with highly original variations that rapidly transform the material and it's meaning. The three short Fantastic Dances, commissioned by the Guitar Foundation of America, were written in 1988, and although written in the same tuning they each present clearly different material and characters. The element that binds them is their brilliance and dynamism. They were composed as a compulsory piece for an international competition held that year.

Other information:

- Recording completed in December 2023 in Rome, Italy

- Booklet in English contains liner notes by the guitarist on the composer and the works, and a profile of the artist

- Michele di Filippo plays a guitar by Antonino Scandurra

- Albert Harris (1916-2005) was an English musician who worked most of his life in Hollywood as an orchestrator, arranger and composer for several of the big Film Studios and for such pop icons as Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack and Cher.

- Harris was born in London and studied piano from age 6 and was also a self-taught guitarist; his knowledge of this instrument enabled him in later years to compose pieces specifically for guitar, his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel were recorded by Andres Segovia. In America he won the National Composer's Award for his "Concerto de California" scored for guitar and String Quartet. Among those nominating Harris was Aaron Copland with whom Harris shares a harmonic language that, in the words of Ned Rorem, "sounds like the great outdoors".

- This new recording presents the complete works for guitar solo, consisting of a Suite, a Sonatina, Variations & Fugue on a theme of Handel and 3 Fantastic Dances.

- Played with commitment and feeling for the idiom by Michele Di Filippo.