TRACKS
1-3: After Clementi (2022)
4-11: After Schumann III (2021)
12-18: Suite for Solo Viola (2020)
19-26: Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin (2019)
27: JSB KMHR (2023)
28-30: After Kuhlau (2023)

Works (2019-2023) is available from:

Axel Strauss: violin (tracks 1-3)
Stéphane Lemelin: piano (tracks 1-3 and 4-11)
Marina Thibeault: viola (tracks 12-18)
Mark Fewer: violin (tracks 19-26)
Kimihiro Yasaka: piano (track 27)
Aysel Taghi-Zada: violin (tracks 28-30)
Michael Murphy: percussion (tracks 28-30)

Chris Paul Harman: executive producer
Martha de Francisco: recording producer
Joshua Stanberry: assistant producer, recording and postproduction engineer
Isabel Castillo: assistant producer, recording and postproduction engineer
Mehdi Rahimdokht: assistant recording engineer

Shinya Kominami: cover art (after Richard Hamilton)

Recorded in Pollack Hall, Schulich School of Music, McGill, University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 20 January 2024 (tracks 1-11) and 16 February 2024 (tracks 12-27) and in Tanna Schulich Hall, McGill University, on 23 June 2024 (tracks 28-30).

TK558 © 2024 Chris Paul Harman

---

NOTES:
I composed the six works on this recording for friends and colleagues who are, or who have been, associated with the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, where I have taught since 2005. The recording sessions were produced by my colleague Martha de Francisco who supervised three of her advanced master’s students in production and engineering capacities. I believe that the results bear witness to the excellence of my school’s faculty and students in both the departments of Performance and Music Research.

These works constitute a type of neo-classicism that is characteristic of my recent practice. Their ordering here displays a certain symmetry as regards source material and/or instrumentation as follows:

• the first and sixth works are re-imaginings of Classical sonatinas (by Bach and Kuhlau, both in C-major) for violin and piano (or percussion)
• the second and fifth are solo piano works (one based on Schumann Lieder, the other based on Bach chorales)
• the third and fourth are solo string works, each based on a solo suite or partita by J.S. Bach

After Clementi and After Kuhlau treat their models as extended paraphrases which retain the original three-movement form and recontextualize the melodies (primarily diatonic) and some of the accompanying gestures in various tonal and chromatic environments. Suite for Solo Viola and Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin likewise retain the multi-movement forms of their models but vary their ordering and subject the melodic material to considerable chromatic alteration and flexible rhythmic reimagining. After Schumann III and JSB KMHR draw from a multiplicity of sources (multiple Lieder or chorales) and fashion these into quasi-continuous single movements displaying diverse processes in the treatment of melody and harmony.

CPH
Montreal
November 8, 2024