The American composer Harry Partch (1901–1974) composed in musical tunings not available on conventional Western instruments. Instead, he developed a 43-tone scale and new instruments. His music emphasized monophony and corporeality, in contrast to the abstract, polyphonic music prevalent at the time. His earliest compositions were small-scale pieces to be intoned to instrumental backing; his later works were large-scale, integrated theater productions in which he expected each of the performers to sing, dance, speak, and play instruments.[1]
Partch described the theory and practice of his music in his book Genesis of a Music, which he had published first in 1947,[2] and in an expanded edition in 1974.[3] A collection of essays, journals, and librettos by Partch was published posthumously as Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos 1991. Philip Blackburn edited a collection of Partch's writings, drawings, scores, and photographs, published as Enclosure 3 in 1997.
Partch partially supported himself with the sales of recordings, which he began making in the late 1930s.[4] He published his recordings under the Gate 5 Records label beginning in 1953.[5] Towards the end of his life, Columbia Masterworks released records of his works. Partch scored six films by Madeline Tourtelot, starting with 1957's Windsong, and was the subject of a number of documentaries.[6]
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Transcription
Works
- Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po (1930–1933)
- Two Psalms (1931)
- The Potion Scene (from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) (1931/1955)
- The Wayward
- Barstow: Eight Hitchhikers' Inscriptions (1941/1954/1967)
- San Francisco: A Setting of the Cries of Two Newsboys on a Street Corner (1943)[7]
- The Letter (1943)
- U.S. Highball (1943/1955)
- Yankee Doodle Fantasy (1944)
- Dark Brother (1942–1943)
- Two Settings from Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1944)
- "I'm very happy to be telling you about this..." (1945)
- Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales (1946)
- Eleven Intrusions (1949–1950)[8]
- Plectra and Percussion Dances[8]
- Oedipus (1950/1952–1954/1967)
- Two Settings from Lewis Carroll (1954)
- Ulysses at the Edge (1955)
- The Bewitched (1955/1973)
- Windsong (1955)
- rewritten as Daphne of the Dunes (1967)
- Revelations in the Courthouse Park (1960)
- Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (1961)
- Bless This Home (1961)
- Water! Water!: An Intermission with Prologues and Epilogues (1961)[8]
- And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (1963–66)
- Delusion of the Fury (1965–66)
- The Dreamer That Remains—A Study in Loving (1972)
Books
- Genesis of a Music (1947; revised 1974) Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306801068
- Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos (1991; published posthumously) University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252069130
- Enclosure 3 (1997) Innova. ISBN 0-9656569-0-X
Recordings
Audio
Partch made recordings of his own music; on recordings such as the soundtrack to Windsong, he used multitrack recording, which allowed him to play all the instruments himself. He never used synthesized or computer-generated sounds, though he had access to such technology.[9]
- The World of Harry Partch (Columbia Masterworks MS 7207 & MQ 7207, 1969, out of print) Daphne of the Dunes, Barstow, and Castor & Pollux, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer.
- Delusion of the Fury (Columbia Masterworks LP M2 30576, 1971; CD Innova Recordings 406, 2001) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer and "EXTRA: A Glimpse into the World of Harry Partch", composer introduces and comments on the 27 unique instruments built by him.
- Enclosure II (early speech-music works) (Innova 401)
- Enclosure V ("On a Greek Theme") (Innova 405)
- Enclosure VI ("Delusion of the Fury") (Innova 406)
- Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury. A Ritual of Dream and Delusion (Wergo, 2022) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Heiner Goebbels.[10]
Films
| Title | Year | Length | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windsong | 1958 | 17:38 | Madeline Tourtelot | |
| Music Studio—Harry Partch | 1958 | 17:48 | Madeline Tourtelot | |
| Rotate the Body in All Its Planes | 1961 | 9:00 | Madeline Tourtelot | |
| Revelation in the Courthouse Park | 1961 | 6:50 | Madeline Tourtelot |
|
| The Music of Harry Partch | 1968 | 29:59 |
|
|
| U.S. Highball | 1968 | 24:18 | Madeline Tourtelot | Originally filmed in 1958 |
| Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual Of Dream And Delusion | 1971 | 75:00 | Madeline Tourtelot |
|
| The Dreamer That Remains: A Portrait of Harry Partch | 1973 | 27:00 | Stephen Pouliot | Producer: Betty Freeman A Tantalus Film in Association with Whitelight |
References
- ^ Sheppard 2001, pp. 180–181.
- ^ McGeary 2000, p. xx.
- ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxvi.
- ^ McGeary 2000, p. xix.
- ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxi.
- ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxii.
- ^ Gilmore & Johnston 2002, p. 366.
- ^ a b c d e f Gilmore & Johnston 2002, p. 367.
- ^ Harrison 2000, p. 136.
- ^ Rodríguez Lenin 2022.
Sources
- Gilmore, Bob; Johnston, Ben (2002). "Harry Partch (1901–1974)". In Sitsky, Larry (ed.). Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 365–372. ISBN 978-0-313-29689-5.
- Harrison, Lou (2000). "I Do Not Quite Understand You, Socrates". In Dunn, David (ed.). Harry Partch: An Anthology of Critical Perspectives. Psychology Press. pp. 133–138. ISBN 978-90-5755-065-2.
- McGeary, Thomas (2000). "Introduction". In McGeary, Thomas (ed.). Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos. University of Illinois Press. pp. xv–xxx. ISBN 978-0-252-06913-0.
- Rodríguez Lenin, Jesús (19 September 2022). "Wergo releases, more than fifty years later, a new version of Harry Partch's key work Delusion of the Fury". Minimalismore. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
- Sheppard, W. Anthony (2001). Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520223028.
External links
- Harry Partch Information Center
- "Harry Partch (biography, works, resources)" (in French and English). IRCAM.
- Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch an American Original
- "December 1942", Delusion of the Fury (excerpts), Three Intrusions (audio), artofthestates.org
- Enclosures Series: Harry Partch's archives published as book, film and audio, innova.mu
- "A Son in Search of His Father's Face" (audio) from Delusion of the Fury, acousmata.com
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This page was last edited on 18 September 2023, at 04:32