Steve Forman, a friend and colleague of Harris wrote:
“As it happens I was just starting work on a chamber orchestra piece here when I got the news. I knew that the piece would be inevitably about Harris in some way, and assumed that the logic in that would reveal itself to me as the work took shape as is often the case. But it never did and the piece was extremely difficult to finish because I simply didn’t understand what I was doing. It was clearly not biographical (I didn’t know much about Harris’ past), it had nothing to do with any of the folk music traditions we were both interested in (though it easily could have I suppose.) And it has nothing to the work Harris was doing as an experimental composer. Nevertheless it’s sincere; the reason it was so difficult for me to grasp what the piece was about is because it is an expression of my own inability to fathom what will forever be impossible for me to understand. Like everyone else, I feel privileged to have known Harris, however briefly, and I accept the situation as we all must. But I’ll never sort it out.”
The piece, “Looking for Harris“, will be premiered in Glasgow at Oran Mor on Monday, September 29th by the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Cynfryn Jones.
Steve kindly shares his midi demo:
What a hauntingly beautiful piece of music. Although there are none of the obvious connections to the many musical interests of Harris’ I could feel him in your strong use of strings throughout the composition. Thank you for sharing it with us.