John Harle
Encyclopedia
John Harle is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Biography

John Harle - Saxophonist

John Harle is one of the world’s leading saxophonists, and the most significant performer of the saxophone in the concert hall today. With over half a million record sales within the classical genre, he has popularised the classical saxophone, bringing it to the forefront of the public's imagination, whilst inspiring a wealth of new works for the instrument from composers of international recognition.

Creating history at The Royal College of Music, London with a final graduation mark of 100%, and after post-graduate study in Paris with Daniel Deffayet, he quickly developed and established a different sound for the classical saxophone that would lead to it's acceptance and celebration within the general public, based on techniques of breathing and sound production more frequently used in singing. Uniquely vocal and expressive through musical lines of great intensity, his sound was described by Michael Nyman as a 'hard-edged, vocal romanticism'

John went on to win the Concert Artists Guild Amcon Award in New York which launched a major international soloist career encompassing concerto appearances across the globe with the world's most distinguished conductors.

He has had over twenty five concerti written for him, by composers such as John Tavener, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Mark Anthony Turnage, Michael Torke and Sir Harrison Birtwistle. In 1995, his outrageous performance of Birtwistle’s Saxophone Concerto “Panic”, which he premiered at the Last Night of the Proms, propelled him to a level of high international recognition, and in 1996, John followed this performance with his own work,“Terror and Magnificence”, recorded by Decca, and performed with Elvis Costello, culminated in a sell-out concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

He has worked prominently with the conductors Riccardo Chailly, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Neville Marriner and Franz Welser-Most. In recital, John Harle works regularly with Steve Lodder and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

In 1989 John Harle was appointed Professor of Saxophone and Chamber Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and has taught and mentored most significant younger british saxophonists. His teaching continues from 2012 with a personally designed MMus in Saxophone Performance at Canterbury Christ Church University.
John Harle - Composer

John Harle's concert music encompasses Opera, Choral, Symphonic and Chamber music. His music is dramatic, accessible and often otherworldly, gaining inspiration from history, folklore and mythic stories.

He has had four commissions from the BBC Proms, including his first Opera, 'Angel Magick', based on the life of Elizabethan alchemist John Dee. His second opera, 'The Ballad of Jamie Allan' was commissioned by the Sage, Gateshead, and was the story of a rogue Northumbrian piper, horse-thief and army deserter.

'Terror and Magnificence' brought many of these historical influences together with vocalist Elvis Costello in a Grammy-nominated album that reached No.1 in the US Billboard charts, and culminated in sell-out concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

In recent years, he has composed a rich stream of works, including his saxophone concerto 'The Little Death Machine' (BBC Proms), City Solstice (for Kings College Cambridge Choir) and Earthlight (for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra). He is currently writing 'The Keys of Canterbury' a 45 minute Oratorio for performance in Canterbury Cathedral in 2013.

In music for Film and Television, his name is synonymous with new and innovative musical ideas - vividly intermingling the materials of jazz, rock, classical music, electronics and opera. He has composed over 100 scores including major feature films, television drama and documentaries. He won the Royal Television Society award for Best TV Theme Music for his theme for BBC1's Silent Witness, and his first film score 'Prick Up Your Ears', composed with Stanley Myers, won Best Artistic Achievement in a Feature Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

John is also a conductor, musical director and producer in a variety of fields, covering artists as diverse as Sir Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Moondog, Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, Herbie Hancock Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, , Danny Thompson, Stanley Myers, Elmer Bernstein, Ute Lemper, Lesley Garrett and Michael Nyman.

As a conductor, he has worked with the LSO, LPO, BBCSO, BBCPO, RPO, RLPO, RTE, Ulster Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, the Wintherthur, Lahti, and Norrshirping Symphonies, the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

In 1998 he was a castaway on Sue Lawley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ on Radio 4.

"John served his apprenticeship in the late 20th Century context of expanding horizons and a growing willingness for musicians of all backgrounds to share knowledge. But he is also one of its most innovative contributors".
John Fordham - The Guardian

Awards

  • Royal Television Society


RTS Award for best theme for a television programme - 2001 - Silent Witness (BBC1)

RTS Nomination for best music for a television programme - 2009 - The Commander (LaPlante)

RTS Nomination for best music for a television programme - 2005 - Summer in the Suburbs (BBC2)

RTS Nomination for best music for a television programme - 2002 - Defence of the Realm (BBC1)

  • Grammy


Nomination - 1999 - Terror and Magnificence
  • Mercury Music Awards


Nomination - 1999 - Terror and Magnificence
  • Billboard USA


No.1 Crossover Album in the USA - 1999 - Terror and Magnificence
  • Cannes Film Festival


Best Artistic Achievement in a Feature Film - 1988 - Prick Up Your Ears (Zenith) - with Stanley Myers
  • UK Advertising Awards


Nomination for best original music - 1999 - Flying (TBWA/Trevor Beattie/Nissan)
  • UK Dance Charts


No. 1 Position - 1996 - Flying (Remix)

Compositions

  • Foursquare (1980; saxophone quartet)
  • The Golden Demon (1995; saxophone, brass ensemble)
  • The Shadow of the Duke Composed and arranged music for (1992)
  • Angel Magick (1997; opera—libretto by David Pountney
    David Pountney
    David Pountney is a British theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works...

    )
  • Silencium Suite (1998; two sopranos, saxophone, orchestra)
  • The Little Death Machine (2002; saxophone, orchestra)
  • The Ballad of Jamie Allan (2004; chamber opera)
  • Terror and Magnificence (1996), which he calls "an extended work joining classical and rock singing (Sarah Leonard and Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

    ), a string quartet, club dance grooves and 14th century French poetry, with his own lyrical sax conversing and improvising with the powerful tenor sax of Andy Sheppard
    Andy Sheppard
    Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.-Biography:Sheppard was born in Warminster,...

    ".
  • A History of Britain Score for Simon Schama's A History of Britain.
  • City Solstice (2009; choir, soprano saxophone, organ)

From roughly 1973 to 1980, his composing methods were driven by a strictly 12-note serial-music system, and by that period's avant-garde, dominated by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Recordings

  • Silencium Harle loves juxtapositions - long, silky saxophone notes against the sound of a classical soprano singer, the toll of a church-bell, African percussion rhythms, - that's the background to Silencium, but it's still an album of songs - it's just that Harle makes you reconsider what a song can be.
  • Terror and Magnificence Shakespeare via Elvis Costello, Gothic mysteries, free-jazz, forty saxes playing at once - Terror and Magnificence is a wonderful splicing of ancient and modern.
  • Spirit Walk Harle seems to appreciate the idiosyncrasies of particular singers and players like a jazz composer does, but he has an overarching vision that sets just the right place for all of it within his scheme of things, - that's why didgeridoos, string orchestras, trip-hop grooves, Andy Sheppard's sax or Sarah Jane Morris's voice can all sound as if they're in a real relationship here, rather than just bolted together.
  • In the Shadow of the Duke With Richard Rodney Bennett, Paul Jones, Sarah Leonard and Stan Tracey. The Shadow of the Duke - John HarleHarle understands both the jazz and classical traditions, and is brilliant at getting musicians of different backgrounds to work creatively together. All that makes Shadow of the Duke a completely different kind of tribute album.
  • The Ballad of Jamie Allan A folk opera with texts by the Newcastle poet Tom Pickard, it tells the story of the 18th century Northumbrian piper, royal musician, deserter and horse thief, Jamie Allan.
  • Elvis Costello - Il Signo Ballet after Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Shaolin Wheel of Life Composed and produced by John Harle Music from the highly successful West End show now touring worldwide.
  • Gavin Bryars - A Portrait A CD to celebrate Bryars' 60th birthday, it includes Harle's performance of The Green Ray.
  • When I'm Gone Harle joins soloists, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and Laudibus to play the music of Richard Allain.
  • John Harle Plays Re-release of the classic Hyperion disc. A contemporary recital disc of music by Phil Woods, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dave Heath, Edison Denisov and Michael Berkeley.
  • John Harle's Saxophone A contemporary recital disc of music by Phil Woods, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dave Heath, Edison Denisov and Michael Berkeley.
  • Songs from a History of Britain Songs written by John Harle for Simon Schama's BBC 'A History of Britain' with sopranos Emma Kirkby, Sarah Leonard and Lucy Skeaping, Dominic Burnham (treble), Willard White (bass) - also featuring Elvis Costello.
  • Illuminare John Harle's highly popular Mrs Beeton's Christmas Plum Pudding featuring the BBC singers conducted by Stephen Cleobury and actors Eleanor Bron and Charles Collingwood in a nostalgic fantasy played on Christmas day 2001 as Radio 4 opened for broadcast.
  • Flying John Harle's award-winning music to Nissan's world-wide advertising campaign which achieved a number six position in the British Dance Charts. With a creative concept from advertising guru Trevor Beattie and mixed by Simon Cotsworth of Soul 2 Soul, it features John Harle's mid 1990's ensemble "Opera House".
  • John Harle's Saxophone Songbook Music by Rachmaninov, Corea, Dowland, Machaut, Prokofiev, Birtwistle and Nyman, with John Lenehan (piano), Sarah Leonard (soprano) - recorded in the beautiful church at Orford near Aldeburgh.
  • Saxophone Concertos Concertos by Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, Villa-Lobos, Richard Rodney Bennett and Dave Heath. Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner with The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. For many, the definitive performances of some of the classics of the saxophone repertoire.
  • Concertos Michael Nyman - Where the bee dances Gavin Bryars - The Green Ray Mike Westbrook - Bean Rows and Blues Shots Three new English works for saxophone and chamber orchestra conducted by Ivor Bolton with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.
  • Sax Drive Saxophone Concertos by John Harle's long time colleague film composer Stanley Myers, the American minimalist Michael Torke, and Richard Rodney Bennett's Concerto for Stan Getz premiered by John Harle at the BBC promenade concerts shortly after Getz's death.
  • Total Eclipse - John Tavener John Tavener's apocalyptic vision of the crucifixion of St Paul, with the Soprano Saxophone in the role of St.Paul. With conductor Paul Goodwin and the Academy of Ancient Music.
  • The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone - Sally Beamish Sally Beamish's acclaimed soprano saxophone concerto for John Harle, depicting the Summer Solstice at Newgrange, a neolithic burial mound outside Dublin. With The Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ola Rudner.
  • Panic - Harrison Birtwistle Possibly the most controversial piece of new music written in the latter part of the twentieth century Harrison Birtwistle's Panic caused a storm when Harle performed it at the Last Night of the Proms in 1995 with Andrew Davis (conductor) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The media frenzy which followed its performance caused Private Eye to change their front cover and a vociferous Anne Robinson to compare John Harle to a character from the soap opera "Coronation Street"!
  • Frank Martin Ballade Frank Martin's chromatic and challenging Ballade for alto saxophone performed with conductor Riccaro Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.
  • Ingolf Dahl Saxophone Concerto Composition teacher to Michael Tilson Thomas, Ingolf Dahl's Concerto for alto saxophone and symphonic wind band is a highly virtuosic work in a full blooded American style. With Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor) and players from the New World Symphony Orchestra.
  • Dominic Muldowney Saxophone Concerto Commissioned by the late Michael Vyner, the driving force behind the early London Sinfonietta, the concerto was a result of much collaboration between Dominic Muldowney and John Harle in the National Theatre music department in London and includes inflences from composers such as Kurt Weill. With conductor Diego Masson and the London Sinfonietta.
  • Michael Nyman - Double Concerto Nyman's legendary Double Concerto, with John Harle and Julian Lloyd Webber. With The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Michael Nyman.
  • A Finer Truth - James Whitbourne James Whitbourne's 'Son of God Mass', with John Harle on Soprano Sax. Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, conducted by Timothy Brown.
  • Habanera John Harle with John Lenehan (piano) in a recording of music by Bartok, Satie, Gershwin, Villa-Lobos, Richard Rodney Bennett and Poulenc. Produced by the legendary Joe Boyd.
  • Songs for Alexander With the Orchestra of St John's Smiths Square, conductor John Lubbock.
  • Façades - Philip Glass Glass's mesmeric duet for 2 soprano Saxophones and strings, performed with saxophonist Simon Haram, and the London Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Warren-Green.
  • Lost in the Stars - Sting Saxophone solo on Stings version of "Mac the Knife" by Kurt Weill, produced by the legendary Hal Wilmer.
  • Hard Fairy - Graham Fitkin An unsung masterpiece of the contemporary repertoire, Fitkin's electrifying journey through hard edged rhythmic cells and spine-tingling modulations thrills with every listening.
  • Hook - Graham Fitkin - Graham Fitkin Another of Fitkin's hard bop ensemble pieces, with the unusual addition of Jack Brymer playing first clarinet in the John Harle Band!
  • Little Threepenny Music - Kurt Weill London Symphony Brass and Woodwinds play Weill's Suite from the Threepenny Opera, with saxophone solos played by John Harle.
  • Steve Lodder - bout time 2 John Harle features on 'Truly' - composed by long time associate and keyboard player Steve Lodder. Also with Andy Sheppard, Monica Vâsconcelos, Paul Nieman and Mark Ramsden.
  • Piéce en forme de Habanera - Ravel Michael Tilson Thomas conducts John Harle and the London Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's textural and atmospheric masterwork.
  • London Landmarks John Harle, Royal Ballet Sinfonia & Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields/ Gavin Sutherland A musical take on London is long overdue - there are new landmarks to be celebrated by music which captures a fresh spirit and ebullience about the city. Inevitably, this has the feel of a soundtrack to accompany cityscapes and well-known sites around the capital. There's a buregeoning urgency about David Watt's Metropolis and Gunning's Saxophone Concerto, fabulously played by Harle, contrasting with the more traditional styles of Rotten Row and London Fields. The result is a delightful collection. (Classic FM Review)
  • All that Jazz - Ute Lemper Lemper performs 'Careless Love Blues' from the Stanley Myers/John Harle soundtrack album for 'Voyager' starring Sam Shepard.
  • Prick Up Your Ears Soundtrack album to Stephen Frears'/Alan Bennett's film biography of Joe Orton. Featuring John Harle co-composer (with Stanley Myers) /producer/ saxophone and John Harle's Berliner Band.
  • Moondog Big Band 60s' mystic rock guru Moondog's compositions for big band John Harle producer with London Brass and London Saxophonic.
  • Gormenghast - Richard Rodney Bennett John Harle conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Bennett's heroic, lush score to Mervyn Peake's gruesome tale in an extravagent, star filled BBC production, featuring cinema-style colour, very likeable characters, and stereo sound.

External links

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