Jeffrey Harrington was born in 1955 in Forest, Mississippi. His mother and father were amateur musicians who played the popular music of the 40's and 50's for fun. In high school he taught himself blues and boogie-woogie piano and built a synthesizer from parts. He began composing when he was 17 and won a composition contest for a serial composition using an isorhythm derived from a Billy Cobham song bass line.

Harrington continued his composition studies at Louisiana State University and at the Juilliard School where he studied in the Master's program with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions. He has also studied with Morton Subotnick, Jacob Druckman, Joan LaBarbara, James Drew, Barbara Jazwinski and Deborah Drattell.

In 1981 he began a series of compositions using the harmonic idiom of the 18th century with rhythms from jazz and African-American music. In 1987 he returned to a more chromatic style of composition while retaining his interest in melody and counterpoint and the dramatic/developmental processes of the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. In 1990 he retracted all but a few of his compositions written to date (approximately 100).

In 1991 he programmed an expert system in C (inspired by a book by Taniiev - Convertible Counterpoint) which assists him in his discovery of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in his melodies. The system takes up to 6 tracks of music and determines (using a pre-selected harmonic guideline) the points at which the melodies mesh to produce effective counterpoint. The system produces music files ready to audition in realtime, so he can simultaneously be developing a transition while he produces the next section of counterpoint.

Harrington currently supports himself as a C++/WWW programmer for Children's Television Workshop where he is finishing his third CDROM title, "Elmo's Building Blocks." He has also been a counselor/computer programmer for Choice in Dying: The National Council for the Right to Die and he set up the WWW pages for the American Music Center. He's also worked in the oil fields of Louisiana as a galley hand and in music libraries atTulane and Loyola University. Harrington's music has been performed around the world (from Siberia to St. Louis).

Discography

• 1993: Musenet CD - Two Movements from the Acid Bach Suite
  
• 1995: IUMA Compilation CD from Germany - Bright and Boundless
  
• 1996: Synchronia Chamber Ensemble - KaleidoPsychoTropos (inpreparation)

If you would like to email Mr. Harrington and express your gratitude for his music, click here: Jeff Harrington.
You may also visit his WWW site: Jeff Harrington's Musical Home Page. He also maintains Net New Music, a listing of contemporary music www pages with midi and/or digital audio files.