Premiere: February 28, 2007, Montréal / Nouvelles Musiques 2007: Que la voix demeure, Salle Redpath — Université McGill, Montréal (Québec)

Es Ist Genug is a “recomposition” of the choral melody used by J.S. Bach and later immortalized by Alban Berg in his violin concerto. The melody (and its choral harmonization by Bach) had already been incorporated into several of my works, including Procession Burlesque for chamber ensemble, and Mabushii Sora E. for piano and orchestra.

In this choral piece, I worked primarily with the choral melody itself, applying a limited number of pitch couplings, which cumulatively yielded a larger and more complicated pitch field. This effect, coupled with an extremely slow tempo, creates an unusual abstraction between melody, harmony and texture.

The work is dedicated to Peter Schubert.

Chris Paul Harman