KEY POINTS:
Over the past few years, Ross Harris has become a familiar figure on Auckland's musical scene. As the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's resident composer, he has given us two stunning symphonies, and other lively works include a collaboration with singer Mahinarangi Tocker.
"It's been an exciting time after some fairly quiet years," Harris says. "The residency was encouraging and inspired me to write more." Since retiring from teaching at Victoria University, Harris wonders if going freelance has increased his profile and if "people out in the real world thought I was already being taken care of by the university and wasn't the sort of composer to write anything that would interest them".
This weekend Harris returns for the second of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra's composer workshops. On Saturday he will be with the musicians for a workshop and on Sunday there is the usual early evening concert.
The six works chosen for Sunday, introduced by Lilburn's Wind Quintet, span some of his earliest compositions to his most recent.
They are all pieces which fit Harris' ideals "that almost any kind of listener regardless of background could find some sort of way into them". Even his fairly complex Blood Red Roses Quartet, he says, "starts in the simplest possible way with that terrible tune", while a chamber work, The Sleep of Reason, premiered by 175 East earlier this year, "had a bebop bass that was a reference to other possible worlds".
Three of Sunday's pieces have deep personal associations. The 1973 electronic piece To a Child was inspired by the death of his own child, the orchestral Music for Jonny (2000) and Te Moanupouri (2006) were responses to the deaths of a nephew and a niece.
Jonny was also a way of "poking my nose at 20th-century modernism, signing off from the need not to avoid tonal aspects in my music". This is one of Harris' most popular compositions and is in the NZSO's second Beauty Spot CD.
Moanupouri was written for cor anglais player Madeline Sakofsky, and nods to Wagner, once a bete noire to the composers of Harris' generation.
"I was about halfway through the piece and came across a quote from Tristan in The Wasteland about the empty and desolate sea. I checked the Tristan score. This was a line from the shepherd who is associated with the cor anglais in the opera."
To a Child combines the voice of a child with bells and the music of Mahler's Third Symphony. "This has a kind of innocence about it," Harris says. "It's almost naive, but not in an arch kind of way. I have spent a lot of time doing electro-acoustic music and it's good that it is there."
Harris is now more wary, seeing the electro-acoustic medium as dangerous. "You can spend hours and hours making the most amazing sounds and three weeks later Yamaha puts out a module that does exactly that."
The Wind Quintet is a jazzy offering reflecting his playing horn in a jazz group and To the Memory of I.S. Totska is a 30-minute theatre piece telling the tale of the life and death of a Holocaust victim.
"You bet I do," is Harris' response as to whether works such as this reflect his frustrations at getting his operas staged. "The appeal of opera is reaching people who wouldn't want to hear my sort of music in a concert but who would then be enthralled by the dramatic situation, good singing and acting, interesting costumes, lighting, all things that can draw people into the experience."
Thanks to Auckland Chamber Orchestra, the Ross Harris Experience is in town this weekend.
Performance
What: Ross Harris Composer Portrait
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, Sun 6pm; Saturday workshops, 10am-1pm and 2-5pm
