John Harle

Infobox musical artist
Name = John Harle

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Img_capt = John Harle performing in Volker Schlöndorff's "The Michael Nyman Songbook" (1992)
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
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Born = birth date|1956|9|20|mf=y
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Origin = Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Instrument = Saxophone, Keyboards, Clarinet
Genre = Classical
Occupation = Musician
Years_active = 1973-present
Label = Hannibal Records
EMI Classics
Argo Records
Unicorn-Kanchana
Associated_acts = Michael Nyman Band
Notable_instruments =

John Harle (born 20 September 1956 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is an English saxophonist and composer. Attracted to minimalist music, he became a founding member of the Michael Nyman Band, with which he performed from 1981-1999.

Biography

Harle was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and traces his love of history to being taught there by William Feaver, now The Observer's art critic. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980721/ai_n14162092 Arts: Music of the spheres | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] Harle heard alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges perform with Duke Ellington's band in the early 1970s,and this was one of his childhood influences, along with Pink Floyd, Karlheinz Stockhausen, King Crimson and Peter Maxwell Davies.Harle began his musical career as a clarinetist and served as solo clarinetist in the Band of the Coldstream Guards, where he was awarded the Cousins Memorial Medal, Kneller Hall. [ [http://www.johnharle.com/index2.html John Harle - Bauhaus Productions ] ] He studied saxophone, clarinet and composition at the Royal College of Music and graduated with a 100% final mark in 1980. From 1977–1982 he was leader of the Myrha Saxophone Quartet, [ [http://www.johnharle.com/index2.html John Harle - Bauhaus Productions ] ] before forming an avante-garde cabaret ensemble, the Berliner Band,in 1986.Harle premiered Harrison Birtwistle's concerto for saxophone titled "Panic" in the Royal Albert Hall in 1995, and has produced numerous solo recordings, including 525 concertos written for him, among them works by Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Mike Westbrook. He has worked with Sir Paul McCartney on projects such as "Shadow Cycle", "Standing Stone", and "Ecce cor Meum", and has written over 40 film and television scores, as well as 35 concert works. [ [http://www.johnharle.com/index2.html John Harle - Bauhaus Productions ] ]

Compositions

*"Foursquare" (1980; saxophone quartet)
*"The Golden Demon" (1995; saxophone, brass ensemble)
*Composed and arranged music for "The Shadow of the Duke" (1992)
*"Angel Magick" (1997; opera) (Libretto by David Pountney)
*"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), 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"."Fact|date=September 2008
*He wrote the score for Simon Schama's "History of Britain".

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.Fact|date=September 2008

Recordings

*"Mrs Beeton’s Christmas Plum Pudding" [http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2441&State_2934=2&discId_2934=969] - Echo WMEF00632
*"Habañera", with John Lenehan (Bartók, Wall, Gershwin, Villa-Lobos, Vinci, DeRose, Bennett, J.S. Bach, Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Dave Heath)
*"Silencium" [http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2441&State_2934=2&discId_2934=465] - Argo 4583562
*"Terror and Magnificence" [http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2441&State_2934=2&discId_2934=389] - Argo 4526052
*"John Harle's Saxophone Songbook", recorded 22 August 1995 - Unicorn label
*"Saxophone Concertos" [http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=8495] , 7 April 1998, EMI Classics Red Line #72109 (Debussy, Ibert, Glazunov, Villa-Lobos, Bennett, Ted Heath), Orchestra of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, dir. Sir Neville Marriner

References

External links

* [http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2431&State_2905=2&composerId_2905=631 John Harle's homepage at Chester Music]
* [http://www.orchestraoftheswan.org/about/soloists/john-harle.html John Harle biography at Orchestra of the Swan]
* [http://www.smatalent.com]