Musicatlas
Music
The purpose of all of Dr. Todd Harris’s theory and music is to provide both the modern composer and listener with a compass to guide him/her and to ensure that he/she will not be left unguided when he wanders from the familiar world of tonality to the new families of notes that make up today’s aesthetic. Modulation is controlled by new and more complete rules, and its underlying principles reborn into the world of modern consonances and dissonances.
The New World of today’s sound is as unfamiliar and unexplained as the sounds of Bach’s time, before counterpoint was truly formalized — where formally there were no guides through the wilderness of note mixes which were undefined by traditional or conventional means, Bach brought order and rules to work in his sonic world. Centuries later, faced with a new sound crisis, Schoenberg spoke of his rules as providing an emancipation for dissonance.
Today Dr. Harris speaks of rebirth and salvation and even re-incarnation of modulation through his writings and music. Our new freedom comes in a time of post-post chromatic, and serial practice. Todd goes beyond, but includes, memes such as traditional scales and church modes. His theory explains musical anomalies of the past, while providing directions for the future. His music uses recent advances in Brain theory, the discovery of what makes something sonorous versus chaotic or discordant. This understanding gives the composer the ability to govern and control his materials so that he can retain sonorousness without losing personal identity.
There is no sacrifice of personal uniqueness — these rules are not stone-dwelling. Rather, the uniqueness simply sounds more controlled and less haphazardly experimental. Composers will understand how to shape their Modulations so that they become a matter of inclusion, and where exclusion is necessary to preserve a desired direction of motion. Todd is also a published poet and his Subito grant winning sonophonetic poem/music pairings are found on his website.
Life
Dr. Todd Harris has written music and poetry since his childhood. He lives and works in California, with his family and wife, Svetlana, a Russian concert pianist. Dr. Harris is a commissioned composer and a research scientist, Director/Physicist at the Pacific Institute For Advanced Studies. He is completing his book on Sonology. His poems have been published on the web and in several countries. Dr. Harris has pioneered in the development of contemporary composition. He developed the Modular Tonal system of composition and has written ten piano concertos, a flute and piano concerto, and several orchestral and chamber works using his new system. His works have been performed by major artists and concert orchestras. His mentor was composer Peter Fricker, for whose guidance he will always be grateful.