COMPOSER | PIANIST | ORGANIST | CHOIR DIRECTOR | MUSIC THEORIST
Ph.D. Musicology/Music Theory, M.A. Musicology, B.Mus. Organ Performance
harley.konrad@gmail.com
For sheet music of my compositions and arrangements, visit Sheet Music Plus. I post demos of my new sheet music releases on my YouTube channel. Send me a message if you'd like to be added to my email list. Some of my compositions celebrate the beauty of mathematics. I've also done some piano and choral arrangements of pop songs and some organ and choral church music. Most recently, I've been working on arrangements for voice and piano.
Sheet music: Oh! Happy Groves
Sheet music: Still I'm Wishing
Sheet music: The Moon that Lighted Me over the Plain
Sheet music: Flocks Are Sporting
Sheet music (vocal): The Lass of St. Osyth
Sheet music (flute): The Lass of St. Osyth
Sheet music (vocal): The Faithful Shepherdess
Sheet music (flute): The Faithful Shepherdess
Sheet music: The Faded Rose
Sheet music: Let Not a Moonborn Elf Mislead Ye
Sheet music: O Happy Fair
Sheet music: Harmony
Sheet music (vocal): Thou Soft Flowing Avon
Sheet music (flute or oboe): Thou Soft Flowing Avon
Sheet music: Full Fathom Five
Sheet music: I Love My Love in the Morning
Sheet music: Sweet Isle
Sheet music: Gather Your Rosebuds
Sheet music: Orpheus with His Lute
Sheet music: Gai lon la, gai le rosier
Sheet music: Ulican Dubh, Oh
Sheet music: A True Lover
Sheet music: I'll Give My Love an Apple
Sheet music: Proud Nancy
Sheet music: When First I Saw
Sheet music: Charming Moggy
Sheet music: The Morning Dew
Sheet music: A Peaceful Life
Sheet music: The Seeds of Love
Sheet music: I've Got Peace Like a River
Sheet music: Furies
Sheet music: As I Walked
Sheet music: Phillis, My Fairest
Sheet music: Fleeting Glimpses
Sheet music: The Thoughtful Lover
Sheet music: Once I Loved a Maiden Fair
Sheet music: The Crystal Spring
Sheet music: Come, Phyllis
Sheet music: Bird on a Briar
Sheet music: Some Can Flatter
Sheet music: By Dimpled Brook
Sheet music: What Is Power
Sheet music: Begone, Dull Care
Sheet music: Celia in a Jessamine Bower
Sheet music: Trolly Lolly Lo
Sheet music: Contentment
Konrad Harley (1986-) received his ARCT diploma in Piano Performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 2007, his B.Mus. degree in Organ Performance at the University of Toronto in 2008, and his Ph.D. in Music Theory at the University of Toronto in 2014 ("Harmonic Function in the Music of Sergei Prokofiev"). While studying at university, Konrad Harley was the organist and choir director at Christ Church Woodbridge (2006-2013) and the piano accompanist of the Queensmen Male Chorus (2006-2012). In 2016, he presented a paper on Prokofiev's harmonic language at the Symposium on Prokofiev and the Russian Tradition in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. An essay by Konrad Harley on the analysis of Prokofiev's music is included in the book Rethinking Prokofiev (Oxford University Press, 2020). Since 2015, he has been the organist and choir director at St. Barnabas Church in Toronto.
Read my dissertation here (University of Toronto TSpace)
Title: Harmonic Function in the Music of Sergei Prokofiev
Author: Konrad Harley
Advisor: Ryan McClelland
Institution: University of Toronto, Faculty of Music
Keywords: Harmony; Music theory; Prokofiev; Russian music; Soviet music
Issue Date: June 2014
Abstract: This dissertation examines aspects of harmonic function in the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Chapter 1 provides a survey of music theory literature on Prokofiev's music--including many Russian studies--and discusses the theoretical underpinnings of my analytical approach. Chapter 2 deals with Prokofiev's uses of symmetry and inversion in tonal plans and harmonic progressions, emphasizing the importance of perfect-fifth-related harmonic alternatives and long series of perfect fifths in works in what Prokofiev called his "classical line." The central topic of Chapter 3 is sequential harmony. This subdivides into discussions of Prokofiev's characteristic use of brief linking chords that clearly express dominant function; long, structural, but "obscure" dominants; plagal sequential trajectories in which a written-out ritardando seems to compensate for the lack of a culminating D-T relation; and directional changes ("volte-faces") signalling the end of sequential passages. Chapter 4 considers questions of harmonic function in light of ladovaia peremennost' (modal variability) and tonal pairing, which for Prokofiev is typically major-third-based; the discussion extends to a variety of harmonic techniques involving reinterpretation, substitution, or redirection by major third. In Chapter 5, the focus shifts to the semitone. Investigating the harmonic-functional implications of events commonly referred to as chromatic displacements, I suggest that the concept of chromatic substitution is often of limited value and explore some of the ways in which harmonic-functional balance and tonal closure arise in spite of (or in some sense due to) these events. Chapter 6 offers a conclusion and suggestions for future research, emphasizing the value of studying Prokofiev's harmonic practice in relation to nineteenth-century precedents (rather than to the Classical style), highlighting some of the harmonic techniques and tonal strategies that cut across the conventional boundaries of Prokofiev's About and oeuvre, and re-evaluating the ways in which certain traditional tonal principles are relevant even to Prokofiev's idiosyncratic "modern line."