Jonathan Harvey
Composer
British,
1939-
Jonathan Harvey was born in 1939, and studied at Cambridge University. He has held academic positions at Southampton University, University of Sussex and Stanford University.
One of the most influential of Harvey’s diverse interests are the writings of Rudolf Steiner (1861‚Äì1925), especially Steiner’s idea that ‚Äòthe future development of music will ‚Ķ involve a recognition of the special character of the individual note’, which ‚Äòexpands into a melody and harmony leading straight into the world of the spirit’. This interest in timbral exploration led to an exploration of electro-acoustic resources, beginning in the early 1970. He was an early recruit to IRCAM, and he is often seen as aligned with the French Spectralist School and, to a lesser extent with the ‘New Complexity’ composer, though with a more overt interest in meditation and spirituality.
Selected works by Jonathan Harvey:
“A gentleman brought music to his lady's window, who hated him,...and when he persisted, she threw stones at him. Whereupon a friend of his that was within his company, said to him; "What greater honour can you have to your music, than that stones come about you, as they did to Orpheus."”
--Francis Bacon