""funky suite for quintet" - ballad" genre: Contemporary
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	dramatic / romantic quintet in 3, starts with piano and builds, ending with long chords
	MP3.com CD: Opus Zero - MP3.com pressing - buy it! CD: Opus Zero   Label: Schizophonic Music Credits: Conrad Harris, violin; Boris Deviatov, viola; Grace Lin, cello; Christopher North Renquist, double bass; Noreen Polera, piano
	Story Behind the Song Inspired by the opportunity to play bass in a chamber music setting and with Schubert’s famous "Trout" quintet’s instrumentation in mind, I began sketching this short "funky" suite last summer. Tired of one-movement compositions, the idea of a multi-movement work formed early on. Like Schubert’s quintet, I chose to use ideas from previously composed songs for material. A never performed humorous rock/funk song called "hood" (the chorus being "would you buy a car, without looking under the ...?) that I composed sometime in 1990 in Denton, TX, provided a starting place for the work. The Jimi Hendrix and James Brown influenced song was chock full of the dominant 7 #9 chords and pentatonic lines that permeate this work. A minor pentatonic bass line in 5/4 meter from another song, called "itchy" (on my pop CD "de la sur") provided the obstinato figure in movement bearing the same name. However, the title of this recording’s version refers to my childhood allergy to cats. The itch to which this "itchy" refers is a pleasant itch -- the occasional sensation brought on by my composing companion of the last three years, my cat, lexie – that reminds me of my once hypersensitive condition. Over the last five years, I’ve been listening to and studying the music of Olivier Messaien and Steve Reich, which resulted in the inclusion of the slowed down Texas bird song (specifically found in Big Bend national park) and some "white note" phase music. There are times when the white note music (that is, the B locrian scale or rather the key of C major -- the white notes on the piano -- focusing on B) and pentatonic scales (in most instances Eb minor -- the black notes of the piano) battle it out simultaneously -- a simpleminded 12-tone music, though hardly atonal. In hindsight, the idea of a suite (a term originally associated with dance forms/music) was an ironic choice being that this was the first music for strings I have written that was not for dance.

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