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Harry Partch

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Not to be confused withHarry Patch.

Harry Partch
portrait of Harry Partch, circa 1952
c. 1952
Born(1901-06-24)June 24, 1901
Oakland, California,U.S.
DiedSeptember 3, 1974(1974-09-03)(aged 73)
Encinitas, California,U.S.
Occupations
  • Composer
  • writer
  • pianist
  • publisher
  • teacher

Harry Partch(June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer,music theorist,and creator of uniquemusical instruments.He composed using scales of unequal intervals injust intonation,and was one of the first 20th-century composers in the West to work systematically withmicrotonalscales, alongsideLou Harrison.He builthis own instrumentsin these tunings on which to play his compositions, and described the method behind his theory and practice in his bookGenesis of a Music(1947).

Partch composed with scales dividing the octave into43 unequal tonesderived from the naturalharmonic series;these scales allowed for more tones of smallerintervalsthan in standard Western tuning, which uses twelveequal intervalsto the octave. To play his music, Partch builtmany unique instruments,with such names as the Chromelodeon, the Quadrangularis Reversum, and the Zymo-Xyl. Partch described his music as corporeal, and distinguished it fromabstract music,which he perceived as the dominant trend in Western music since the time ofBach.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.Ancient Greek theatreand JapaneseNohandkabukiheavily influenced hismusic theatre.

Encouraged by his mother, Partch learned several instruments at a young age. By fourteen, he was composing, and in particular took to setting dramatic situations.[clarification needed]He dropped out of theUniversity of Southern California's School of Music in 1922, dissatisfied with the quality of his teachers. He took to self-study in San Francisco's libraries, where he discoveredHermann von Helmholtz'sSensations of Tone,which convinced him to devote himself to music based on scales tuned injust intonation.In 1930, he burned all his previous compositions in a rejection of the European concert tradition. Partch frequently moved around the US. Early in his career, he was a transient worker, and sometimes ahobo;later he depended on grants, university appointments, and record sales to support himself. In 1970, supporters created the Harry Partch Foundation to administer Partch's music and instruments.

Personal history

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Early life (1901–1919)

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A black-and-white photograph of a couple. On the left is a seated man with a moustache weraing a dark suit. Standing on the right is a woman in a white dress, body facing left. Both face the camera.
Partch's parents, Virgil and Jennie (1888).

On June 24, 1901, Partch was born inOakland, California.His parents were Virgil Franklin Partch (1860–1919) and Jennie (née Childers, 1863–1920). ThePresbyteriancouple weremissionaries,serving in China from 1888 to 1893, and again from 1895 to 1900, when they fled theBoxer Rebellion.[1]

Partch moved[when?]with his family to Arizona for his mother's health. His father worked for theImmigration Servicethere, and they settled in the small town ofBenson.It was still theWild Westthere in the early twentieth century, and Partch recalled seeing outlaws in town. Nearby, there were nativeYaqui people,whose music he would hear.[2]His mother sang to him inMandarin Chinese,and he heard and sang songs in Spanish. His mother encouraged her children to learn music, and he learned themandolin,violin, piano,[1]reed organ,andcornet.His mother taught him toread music.[3]

In 1913, the family moved toAlbuquerque, New Mexico,where Partch began to study the piano seriously. He obtained work playing keyboards forsilent filmswhile he was in high school. By 14, he was composing for the piano. He developed an early interest in writing music for dramatic situations,[clarification needed]and cited his lost compositionDeath and the Desert(1916) as an early example.[1]

In 1919, Partch graduated from high school[which?].[3]

Early experiments (1919–1947)

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A black-and-white photograph. Enclosed in an oval, the face of a young man in a suit and tie faces leftward.
Partch in 1919

The family moved to Los Angeles in 1919 following the death of Partch's father. There, his mother was killed in atrolleyaccident in 1920. He enrolled in theUniversity of Southern California's School of Music in 1920, but was dissatisfied with his teachers and left after the summer of 1922.[1]He moved to San Francisco and studied books on music in the libraries there and continued to compose.[4]In 1923 he came to reject the standard twelve-toneequal temperamentof Western concert music when he discovered a translation ofHermann von Helmholtz'sSensations of Tone.The book pointed Partch towardsjust intonationas an acoustic basis for his music.[5]Around this time, while working as an usher for theLos Angeles Philharmonic,he had a romantic relationship with the actorRamon Novarro,then known by his birth name Ramón Samaniego; Samaniego broke off the affair when he started to become successful in his acting career.[6]

By 1925, Partch was putting his theory into practice by developing paper coverings for violin and viola with fingerings in just intonation, and wrote a string quartet using such tunings. He put his theories in words in May 1928 in the first draft for a book, then calledExposition of Monophony.[5]He supported himself during this time doing a variety of jobs, including teaching piano, proofreading, and working as a sailor.[4]In New Orleans in 1930, he resolved to break with the European tradition entirely, and burned all his earlier scores in apotbelly stove.[4]

Partch had a New Orleans violin maker build a viola with thefingerboardof a cello. He used this instrument, dubbed the Adapted Viola, to write music using a scale with twenty-nine tones to the octave.[4]Partch's earliest work to survive comes from this period, including works based on Biblical verse and Shakespeare, andSeventeen Lyrics of Li Pobased on translations of the Chinese poetry ofLi Bai.[a][7]In 1932, Partch performed the music in San Francisco and Los Angeles with sopranos he had recruited.[4]A February 9, 1932, performance atHenry Cowell's New Music Society of California attracted reviews. A private group of sponsors sent Partch to New York in 1933, where he gave solo performances and won the support of composersRoy Harris,Charles Seeger,Henry Cowell,Howard Hanson,Otto Luening,Walter Piston,andAaron Copland.[8]

Partch unsuccessfully applied forGuggenheimgrants in 1933 and 1934. TheCarnegie Corporation of New Yorkgranted him $1500 so he could do research in England. He gave readings at theBritish Museumand traveled in Europe. He metW. B. Yeatsin Dublin, whose translation ofSophocles'King Oedipushe wanted to set to his music;[8]he studied the spoken inflection in Yeats's recitation of the text.[9]He built a keyboard instrument, the Chromatic Organ, which used a scale with forty-three tones to the octave.[8]He met musicologistKathleen Schlesinger,who had recreated an ancient Greekkitharafrom images she found on a vase at theBritish Museum.Partch made sketches of the instrument in her home,[10]and discussedancient Greek music theorywith her.[11] Partch returned to the U.S. in 1935 at the height of theGreat Depression,and spent a transient nine years, often as ahobo,often picking up work or obtaining grants from organizations such as theFederal Writers' Project.[8]For the first eight months of this period, he kept a journal which was published posthumously asBitter Music.[12]Partch included notation on the speech inflections of people he met in his travels.[9]He continued to compose music, build instruments, and develop his book and theories, and make his first recordings.[8]He had alterations made by sculptor and designer friend Gordon Newell to the Kithara sketches he had made in England. After taking some woodworking courses in 1938, he built his first Kithara[10]atBig Sur,California,[8]at a scale of roughly twice the size of Schlesinger's.[10]In 1942 in Chicago, he built his Chromelodeon—another 43-tone reed organ.[8]He was staying on the eastern coast of the U.S. when he was awarded a Guggenheim grant in March 1943 to construct instruments and complete a seven-partMonophonic Cycle.On April 22, 1944, the first performance of hisAmericanaseries of compositions was given atCarnegie Chamber Music Hallput on by theLeague of Composers.[13]

University work (1947–1962)

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Supported by Guggenheim and university grants, Partch took up residence at theUniversity of Wisconsinfrom 1944 until 1947. This was a productive period, in which he lectured, trained an ensemble, staged performances, released his first recordings, and completed his book, now calledGenesis of a Music.Genesiswas completed in 1947 and published in 1949 by theUniversity of Wisconsin Press.He left the university, as it never accepted him as a member of the permanent staff, and there was little space for his growing stock of instruments.[13]

In 1949, pianistGunnar Johansenallowed Partch to convert asmithyon his ranch inBlue Mounds, Wisconsininto a studio. Partch worked there with support from the Guggenheim Foundation,[13]and made recordings, primarily of hisEleven Intrusions(1949–1950).[14]He was assisted for six months by composerBen Johnston,who performed on Partch's recordings.[15]In early 1951, Partch moved toOaklandfor health reasons, and prepared for a production ofKing OedipusatMills College,[15]with the support of designerArch Lauterer.[11]Performances ofKing Oedipusin March were extensively reviewed, but a planned recording was blocked by theYeatsestate, which refused to grant permission to use Yeats's translation of Sophocles's play.[b][15]

In February 1953, Partch founded a studio, namedGate 5,in an abandoned shipyard inSausalito,California, where he composed, built instruments and staged performances. Subscriptions to raise money for recordings were organized by the Harry Partch Trust Fund, an organization put together by friends and supporters. The recordings were sold via mail order, as were later releases on the Gate 5 Records label. The money raised from these recordings became his main source of income.[15]Partch's threePlectra and Percussion Dances,Ring Around the Moon(1949–1950),Castor and Pollux,andEven Wild Horses,premiered on Berkeley'sKPFAradio in November 1953.[14]

After completingThe Bewitchedin January 1955, Partch tried to find the means to put on a production of it.[16]Ben Johnston introducedDanlee Mitchellto Partch at theUniversity of Illinois;Mitchell later became Partch's heir.[17]In March 1957, with the help of Johnston and theFromm Foundation,The Bewitchedwas performed at the University of Illinois, and later atWashington University in St. Louis,though Partch was displeased with choreographerAlwin Nikolais's interpretation.[15]Later in 1957, Partch provided the music forMadeline Tourtelot's filmWindsong,the first of six film collaborations between the two. From 1959 to 1962, Partch received further appointments from the University of Illinois, and staged productions ofRevelation in the Courthouse Park[c]in 1961 andWater! Water!in 1962.[16]Though these two works were based, asKing Oedipushad been, onGreek mythology,they modernized the settings and incorporated elements of popular music.[14]Partch had support from several departments and organizations at the university, but continuing hostility from the music department convinced him to leave and return to California.[16]

Later life in California (1962–1974)

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Partch set up a studio in late 1962 inPetaluma,California, in a former chick hatchery. There he composedAnd on the Seventh Day, Petals Fell in Petaluma.He left northern California in summer 1964, and spent his remaining decade in various cities in southern California. He rarely had university work during this period, and lived on grants, commissions, and record sales.[16]A turning point in his popularity was the 1969ColumbiaLPThe World of Harry Partch,the first modern recording of Partch's music and his first release on a major record label.[18]

His final theater work wasDelusion of the Fury,[16]which incorporated music fromPetaluma,[14]and was first produced at theUniversity of Californiain early 1969. In 1970, the Harry Partch Foundation was founded to handle the expenses and administration of Partch's work. His final completed work was the soundtrack toBetty Freeman'sThe Dreamer that Remains.He retired to San Diego in 1973, where he died after suffering a heart attack on September 3, 1974.[19]The same year, a second edition ofGenesis of a Musicwas published with extra chapters about work and instruments Partch made since the book's original publication.[20]

In 1991, Partch's journals from June 1935 to February 1936 were discovered and published—journals that Partch had believed to have been lost or destroyed.[16]In 1998, musicologistBob Gilmorepublished a biography of Partch.

Personal life

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Partch was first cousins with gag cartoonistVirgil Partch(1916–1984).[21]Partch believed he wassteriledue to childhoodmumps,[22]and he had a romantic relationship with the film actorRamon Novarro.[23]

Legacy

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Partch (center) directing four college students in rehearsal

Partch met Danlee Mitchell while he was at the University of Illinois; Partch made Mitchell his heir,[17]and Mitchell serves as the executive director of the Harry Partch Foundation.[24]Dean Drummondand his groupNewbandtook charge of Partch's instruments, and performed his repertoire.[25]After Drummond's death in 2013, Charles Corey, a former doctoral student of Drummond, assumed responsibility for the instruments.[26]

TheSousa Archives and Center for American Musicin Urbana, Illinois, holds the Harry Partch Estate Archive, 1918–1991,[27]which consists of Partch's personal papers, musical scores, films, tapes and photographs documenting his career as a composer, writer, and producer. It also holds the Music and performing Arts Library Harry Partch Collection, 1914–2007,[28]which consists of books, music, films, personal papers, artifacts and sound recordings collected by the staff of the Music and Performing Arts Library and the University of Illinois School of Music documenting the life and career of Harry Partch, and those associated with him, throughout his career as a composer and writer.

Partch's notation is an obstacle, as it mixes a sort oftablaturewith indications of pitch ratios. This makes it difficult for those trained in traditional Western notation, and gives no visual indication as to what the music is intended to sound like.[29]

Paul Simonused Partch's instruments in the creation of songs for his 2016 albumStranger to Stranger.[30]

Recognition

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In 1974, Partch was inducted into the Hall of Fame of thePercussive Arts Society,a music service organization promoting percussion education, research, performance and appreciation.[31]In 2004,U.S. Highballwas selected by theLibrary of Congress'sNational Recording Preservation Boardas "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[32]

Music

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Theory

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The11-limit tonality diamond,part of the basis for Partch's music theory

Partch made public his theories in his bookGenesis of a Music(1947). He opens the book with an overview of music history, and argues that Western music began to suffer from the time ofBach,after which twelve-tone equal temperament was adopted to the exclusion of other tuning systems, and abstract, instrumental music became the norm. Partch sought to bring vocal music back to prominence, and adopted tunings and scales he believed more suitable to singing.[23]

Inspired bySensations of Tone,Hermann von Helmholtz's book on acoustics and the perception of sound, Partch based his music strictly onjust intonation.He tuned his instruments using theovertone series,and extended it up to the eleventh partial. This allowed for a larger number of smaller, unequal intervals than found in the Western classical music tradition's twelve-toneequal temperament.Partch's tuning is often classed asmicrotonality,as it allowed for intervals smaller than 100cents,though Partch did not conceive his tuning in such a context.[33]Instead, he saw it as a return to pre-Classical Western musical roots, in particular to the music of the ancient Greeks. By taking the principles he found in Helmholtz's book, he expanded his tuning system until it allowed for a division of the octave into 43 tones based on ratios of small integers.[23]

Partch uses the termsOtonality and Utonalityto describe chords whosepitch classesare theharmonicsorsubharmonicsof a given fixedtone.These six-tone chords function in Partch's music much the same that the three-tonemajorandminorchords (ortriads) do in classical music.[25]The Otonalities are derived from theovertone series,and the Utonalities from theundertone series.[34]

Partch'sGenesis of a Musichas been influential on later generations of composers interested in new intonational systems, suchBen JohnstonandJames Tenney(both of whom worked with Partch in the 1950s).

Style

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The age of specialization has given us an art of sound that denies sound, and a science of sound that denies art. The age of specialization has given us a music drama that denies drama, and a drama that—contrary to the practices of all other peoples of the world—denies music.

Partch, inBitter Music(2000)[35]

Partch rejected the Western concert music tradition, saying that the music of composers such as Beethoven "has only the feeblest roots" inWestern culture.[36]His non-Western orientation was particularly pronounced—sometimes explicitly, as when he set to music the poetry ofLi Bai,[37]or when he combined twoNohdramas with one fromEthiopiainThe Delusion of the Fury.[38]

Partch believed thatWestern music of the 20th centurysuffered from over-specialization. He objected to the theatre of the day, which he believed had divorced music and drama, and he strove to create complete, integrated theatre works, in which he expected each performer to sing, dance, play instruments, and take on speaking parts. Partch used the words "ritual" and "corporeal" to describe his theatre works—musicians and their instruments were not hidden in anorchestra pitor offstage, but were a visual part of the performance.[39]

Rhythmic range

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Partch's approach to rhythm ranged from unspecified to complex. InSeventeen Lyrics of Li Pofor the Adapted Viola, Partch "doesn't bother with rhythmic notation at all, but simply directs performers to follow the natural rhythms of the poem."[2]His rhythmic structures that were specified inCastor and Polluxwere far more structured: "Each of the duets last 234 beats. In the first half (Castor) the music alternates between 4 and 5 beats to a bar, and there's usually a rest on the eighth of the nine beats. In the second half (Pollux) the rhythm's a bit more complicated, with six bars of 7 beats alternating with six bars of 9 beats until 234 beats are reached."[2]

Instruments

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Main article:List of instruments by Harry Partch

Partch called himself "a philosophic music-man seduced into carpentry".[40]The path towards Partch's use of various unique instruments was gradual.[41]He began in the 1920s using traditional instruments, and wrote a string quartet in just intonation (now lost).[7]He had his first specialized instrument built for him in 1930—the Adapted Viola, a viola with a cello's neck fitted on it.[4]

Most of Partch's works exclusively used the instruments he had created. Some works made use of unaltered standard instruments such as clarinet or cello;Revelation in the Courtyard Park(1960) used an unaltered small wind band,[40]andYankee Doodle Fantasy(1944) used unaltered oboe and flute.[42]

In 1991,Dean Drummondbecame the custodian of the original Harry Partch instrument collection until his death in 2013.[43][44]In 1999 Drummond brought the instruments toMontclair State UniversityinMontclair, New Jersey,where they resided until November 2014, when they were moved to theUniversity of Washington, Seattle.They are currently under the care of Charles Corey, Drummond's former PhD student.[26]

In 2012 a complete set of replicas was built by Thomas Meixner under commission byEnsemble Musikfabrikand used in performances of Partch's work includingDelusion of the Fury.[45]

  • A closeup of a keyboard, whose keys are colorfully painted and marked with numbers
    Part of the keyboard of the Chromelodeon
  • Boo II on display at a Harry Partch Institute open house
    Boo II on display at a Harry Partch Institute open house
  • Quadrangularis Reversum
    Quadrangularis Reversum

Works

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Main article:List of works by Harry Partch
The Harry Partch Ensemble (2019).

Partch's later works were large-scale, integrated theater productions in which he expected each of the performers to sing, dance, speak, and play instruments.[39]

Partch described the theory and practice of his music in his bookGenesis of a Music,which he had published first in 1947,[13]and in an expanded edition in 1974.[20]A collection of essays, journals, and librettos by Partch was published as posthumously asBitter Music1991.

Partch partially supported himself with the sales of recordings, which he began making in the late 1930s.[8]He published his recordings under the Gate 5 Records label beginning in 1953.[15]On recordings such as the soundtrack toWindsong,he usedmultitrack 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.[40]Partch scored six films by Madeline Tourtelot, starting with 1957'sWindsong.He has been the subject of a number of documentary films.[16]

References

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^"Li Po" and "Li Bai" are different renderings of the same name: Lý Bạch.
  2. ^A recording with Yeats' translation has since been released, as Yeats's text has passed into thepublic domain.
  3. ^Revelation in the Courthouse Parkwas based onThe Bacchaeby ancient Greek dramatistEuripides.[14]

Citations

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  1. ^abcdMcGeary 2000,p. xvii.
  2. ^abcSchell 2018.
  3. ^abGilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 365.
  4. ^abcdefMcGeary 2000,p. xviii.
  5. ^abMcGeary 2000,p. xviii;Gilmore & Johnston 2002,pp. 365–366.
  6. ^Gilmore 1998,p. 47.
  7. ^abMcGeary 2000,p. xviii;Gilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 366.
  8. ^abcdefghMcGeary 2000,p. xix.
  9. ^abGilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 366.
  10. ^abcHarlan 2007,p. 179.
  11. ^abFoley 2012,p. 101.
  12. ^McGeary 2000,p. xix;Gilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 366.
  13. ^abcdMcGeary 2000,p. xx.
  14. ^abcdeGilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 367.
  15. ^abcdefMcGeary 2000,p. xxi.
  16. ^abcdefgMcGeary 2000,p. xxii.
  17. ^abJohnston 2006,p. 249.
  18. ^Schell 2017.
  19. ^McGeary 2000,pp. xxii–xxiii.
  20. ^abMcGeary 2000,p. xxvi.
  21. ^Williams, Jonathan(2002).A Palpable Elysium: Portraits of Genius and Solitude.David R. Godine.ISBN9781567921496.
  22. ^Johnson, Phil (November 27, 1998)."Music: First, find your hub cap".The Independent.
  23. ^abcRoss 2005.
  24. ^Taylor 2010,p. 251.
  25. ^abGilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 370.
  26. ^abDe Pue 2014.
  27. ^"Harry Partch Estate Archive, 1918–1991 – The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music".
  28. ^Music and Performing Arts Library Harry Partch Collection, 1914–2007,Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
  29. ^Gilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 368.
  30. ^"Harry Partch instruments, now at UW, featured on new Paul Simon album".
  31. ^"Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame".Archived fromthe originalon October 2, 2008.
  32. ^"U.S. Highball, Added to the National Registry in 2004, Essay by S. Andrew Granade"(PDF).Library of Congress.
  33. ^Gilmore & Johnston 2002,pp. 368–369.
  34. ^Madden 1999,p. 87.
  35. ^Partch 2000,p. 179.
  36. ^Yang 2008,p. 53.
  37. ^Yang 2008,pp. 53–54.
  38. ^Yang 2008,p. 56.
  39. ^abSheppard 2001,pp. 180–181.
  40. ^abcHarrison 2000,p. 136.
  41. ^Gilmore & Johnston 2002,p. 369.
  42. ^Gann 2006,p. 191.
  43. ^Kozinn, Allan(July 31, 1991)."Some Offbeat Instruments Move to New York".The New York Times.
  44. ^Kozinn, Allan(April 18, 2013)."Dean Drummond, Composer and Musician, Dies at 64".The New York Times.
  45. ^Cooper, Michael (July 21, 2015)."Reviving a Harry Partch Work With Hubcaps and Wine Bottles".The New York Times.RetrievedMay 27,2023.

General bibliography

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Further reading

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