the singing seas
An ongoing collaboration between The Warden and his great, great uncle: E. Howard Harris.
Since receiving a collection of his writing in 2016 I have set his poems to music, written news songs inspired by his words and also composed hybrid pieces with weave his verse in and amongst my ideas, bridging the creativity between two relatives who lived a century apart.
the apple isle
The first poem by E. Howard Harris that I set entirely to music. The style reflects the more pastoral, folk compositions that I leant towards much more between 2016 and 2020. I read the apple isle as a fictional island, a daydream place set away from life, work, complications, grief and worries.
The lines that struck me most were ‘I have forgotten all of those alien things / we whisper to ourselves with baited breath.”
I loved the way Harris described anxious thoughts as ‘alien things we whisper to ourselves’. The acknowledgement of these doubts contradicted my stereotyped idea of a man born in 1876. The titular apple isle is the place where he escapes these worries. It was a fun challenge finding chords and melodies that had the frivolity of a daydream, but also acknowledged the worries in the words.
about ernest Howard Harris (1876 - 1961)
WORK IN PROGRESS
correspondence between T. S. Eliot and E. Howard Harris regarding a talk at the ‘Association of BOokmen of Swansea and West Wales’.
Courtesy of the archive at TSEliot.com
i said hot words to god
The most recent song to feature his poetry, I Said Hot Words To God is an integral piece of my upcoming debut album.