Boulanger dismissed the Andante, which Harris had brought to France with him, derisively, but was later sufficiently impressed by a Concerto for Piano, Clarinet, and String Quartet brought to fruition under her tutelage to participate as pianist in its Paris premiere (it even appears to have drawn an approving response from hard-nosed Frederick Delius, for whom Harris and Boulanger read portions of the work during a visit arranged by the latter). It was this composition, far more than the Andante, that established him as one of the more promising young American composers.
While he was in France, Harris's second marriage began to disintegrate, Sylvia (who appears to have had aspirations toward acting) proving increasingly incompatible in outlook with him. In an effort to find him a suitable woman companion, Boulanger appears to have supplemented her role as musical mentor with the duties of matchmaker, first introducing him to a Frenchwoman, Marcelle de Manziarly, to whom he evidently became engaged, then, when this relationship failed, bringing in a young student of architecture, Hilda Hemingway. Although lacking musical training, Hilda nonetheless served as his copyist and assistant for the next several years (he was eventually to marry her back in California c/midl931; her identification in some sources as a relative of George Bernard Shaw has found no documentation in the records of the playwright's estate). It was also evidently during this period that Harris fathered a son, Phillip Barrett, through, he claimed, a liaison with a French woman (it is not known if she was the above-mentioned Marcelle).
At some point during this period, Harris formulated an eight- to ten-year plan of self-study that he communicated to Arthur Farwell in an undated letter which constitutes one of the seminal documents of his career. In it, he expressed the intention of making "a fresh survey of music's resources-that is what can be done in the way of melodic invention-how form can become...an autogenetic unfolding-and organic growth melodically, rhythmically, harmonically-how counterpoint can be used to really suggest the harmony & rhythmic design..." This plan was to comprise "2 years to study only melodic contours-2 years for a contrapuntal substitution of harmonic research-2 years for form and orchestration...And I will undertake about 8 new compositions simultaneously and work each composition out in its phase...Then harmonizing my melodic contours-then a contrapuntal substitution for the harmonic coloring being at the same time further study in melodic augmentation. Then a study of form in relation to climax, rhythmic, tonal, & orchestral fatigue. At the same time I shall examine & keep examples from all early Italian, Flemish, early Spanish & early German & French music that I can gain access to. At the end I shall have gained...such a technique...as does not exist today...and a critique of musical formulas with copious notes & examples toward arousing fresh young talents to a new standard of composition & new values. Then I shall have 20 years left in which to write and teach composers. I shall somehow get a small ranch in California & live on & work the soil, and insist that my pupils do the same part of the time."
