Microtonality Harry Partch

Music History 20th and 21st Century Music

Microtonality

Music History 20th and 21st Century Music

39 Years Ago in October I Met Harry Partch

Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 - September 3, 1974)

“I happen to think that only in music have truly new directions been found, and that these are two and only two: electronic music and the 43-tone works and instruments of Harry Partch.” -Jacque Barzun in Barzun, Jacques Critical Questions: On Music and Letters, Culture and Biography, 1940-1980. Edited by Bea Friedland.

Harry Partch was an American composer. He was one of the first composers to work with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for instruments he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation and scored using mostly a graphic-type notation of fractions and common-practice rhythmic notation.

Partch was born in Oakland, California. Both his parents were Presbyterian missionaries. He learned to play the clarinet, harmonium, viola, and guitar as a child. He began to compose at an early age using the chromatic scale, normal in Western music, but burned all his early works after becoming frustrated with what he saw as the imperfections of that particular system of musical tuning.

Partch set about building his own instruments with which to realize his musical ideas. Much of his life he lived as a hobo, travelling around on trains and taking casual work where he could find it. He continued in this way for ten years, writing about his experiences in journals that were later collected together under the title Bitter Music.They frequently include snatches of overheard speech notated on musical staves, according to the pitches used by the speaker.This technique (which had been earlier used by Leos Janacek and would be later used by Steve Reich) was to become a standard approach to vocal parts in Partch's work.

Microtonal Music Microtonal music is music using microtones -intervals of less than a semitone, or as Charles Ives put it, the "notes between the cracks" of the piano.The term is also used to refer to any music whose tuning is not based on semitones, such as western just intonation, Indonesian gamelan music and Indian classical music. An alternative term explicitly covering such possibilities is xenharmonic music.

Harry Partch’s music is based upon the harmonic series and intervals of the harmonic series expressed in just intonation fractions.

Learn About Harry Partch’s World of Tuning and Unique Hand-Crafted Instruments

Harry Partch’s Instruments as represented in his descriptive work about hobo life on the railroads of America, U.S. Highball, completed in 1968.

Music Studio - 1958

U.S. Highball - 1968

In 1941, Partch wrote Barstow, a vocal piece that takes as its text eight pieces of graffiti he had seen on a highway railing in Barstow, California.The piece uses his 43-tone scale, and is scored for his custombuilt instruments. This version is by the Kronos String Quartet.

Harry Partch - Trumpet Part to Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World

Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World Originally written for Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan, Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World uses the Bamboo Marimba, Bass Marimba, Cloud Chambers Bowls, Baritone Sax,Trumpet, and Speaker.

The last piece that Partch wrote,The Dreamer That Remains, is a portrait of Partch as an American Artist, filmed in 1972, two years before Partch’s death.

The Dreamer That Remains 1970

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch Memorabilia

Harry Partch - Web Sites

MySpace - Harry Partch

Learn About Harry Partch’s World of Tuning and Unique Hand-Crafted Instruments

Harry Partch on iTunes

Harry Partch Corporeal Meadows

Music History 20th and 21st Century Music

Neoromanticism