Ben Johnston on Partch

From an essay in Elliot Schwartz' book _Contemporary Composers on
Contemporary Music_:

"With pretuned instruments, like most of Partch's, one is held to a
gamut of pitches which is strictly limited, sometimes severly so.
The free soaring in an unlimited world of pitches organized into
otonal and utonal hexachords linked by common tones or by simple
interval relations from one sonority to the next is an idea one gets
from his theories but much less clearly from his music. There is no
doubt the the world he envisioned is there for the taking by anyone
with the courage to leave pretuned instruments to a supporting role
or else use them only in special circumstances in full recognition of
the straitjacked they impose..."

??

jp

Joe,

Partch has been dead for over 25 year; Johnston is still alive. Of the two, whose music, whose creative output exerts the larger effect on our culture? In another 25, 50 years, ask the same question again.

Outside of tuning and 'modern' music circles, Johnston is probably completely unknown, and Partch continues to influence authors, poets, dancers, and musicians. I don't think this proportional division is likely to change.

I think I understand why Ben Johnston feels the need to speak in these terms, and Partch himself (as he stated so well in "Genesis") would ask others to go beyond his works and expand upon similar theories. It is unfortunate that Johnston needs to cast his argument against the backdrop of what he perceives as failures on Partch's part, especially in light of his apparent lack of success in creating a compelling art himself.

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "Jonathan M. Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_2436.html#2438

> Joe,
>
> Partch has been dead for over 25 year; Johnston is still alive. Of
the two, whose music, whose creative output exerts the larger effect
on our culture?
> In another 25, 50 years, ask the same question again.
>

***Well, Partch is a "great" or "nearly-great" 20th Century composer
and Johnston... ummm: well, he's written some nice string quartets!

:)

I never fully appreciated the extent of Partch's artistry until I
listened carefully to _Delusion of the Fury_. That's a true
masterwork... and yet so innovative, even "wacky" at times.

Frankly, I think the "hobo" side of Partch has been a bit over-
emphasized. I mean, I know it's "fun" but that's mostly what I heard
and was introduced to when I first learned about Partch...

But _Delusion of the Fury_ really seems like the full utilization of
his potentialities...

Of course, I'm no *expert* on any of this.... :)

jp

Joe,

Might I suggest we take this thread to the main tuning list?

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "Jonathan M. Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_2436.html#2441

> Joe,
>
> Might I suggest we take this thread to the main tuning list?
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

Sure!

jp