A West coast (short) view on Partch's Oedipus

List (and Joe),

8 hours of flying time later, I get to post about Fridays performance *after* Joe has posted on Saturday's! But no...

I'm tired, jet-lagged, etc, so I'll write more later this week. But what I WOULD urge is that anyone within striking distance of NYC get their bodies over to Montclair State on Sunday (matinee) for the last performance of "Oedipus" by Harry Partch. I was mortified by the small numbers of people, knowing that this is the first full staging of one of Partch's "Oedipus" settings since 1954, and the musical preparation on this was really about as good as it gets. More detail later after I have absorbed and ruminated, but for anyone who can appreciate the artistic and musical goals of Partch, it would be criminal to miss a performance like this. Recommended, by someone who shelled out a trip from one coast to the other...

Cheers,
Jon

>List (and Joe),
>
>8 hours of flying time later, I get to post about Fridays performance
>*after* Joe has posted on Saturday's! But no...
>
>I'm tired, jet-lagged, etc, so I'll write more later this week. But what I
>WOULD urge is that anyone within striking distance of NYC get their bodies
>over to Montclair State on Sunday (matinee) for the last performance of
>"Oedipus" by Harry Partch. I was mortified by the small numbers of people,
>knowing that this is the first full staging of one of Partch's "Oedipus"
>settings since 1954, and the musical preparation on this was really about
>as good as it gets. More detail later after I have absorbed and ruminated,
>but for anyone who can appreciate the artistic and musical goals of Partch,
>it would be criminal to miss a performance like this. Recommended, by
>someone who shelled out a trip from one coast to the other...
>
>Cheers,
>Jon

And what of my loyal army of East-coast slaves, hmm? What am I
to tell them? I hope you can get us more detail by 2pm their
time! :)

-Carl

Carl,

{you wrote...}
>And what of my loyal army of East-coast slaves, hmm? What am I to tell >them? I hope you can get us more detail by 2pm their time! :)

Those slackers? They need no details, save that they shouldn't wait another 50 years for a major Partch piece to be staged again.

And if anyone is lame enough to need an exact reason, I'll offer one: Partch initially had two reasons to examine pitches outside of 12 - and one of them was to have smaller intervals to set speech to. This production has leads (Oedipus, Jocasta, others) that are so adept at the microtonal intervals that they do achieve Partch's desired effect: one cannot tell where spoken word leaves off and intoned speech begins, and then leads into sung text. It is all one.

Cheers,
Jon

Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:

>List (and Joe),
>
>8 hours of flying time later, I get to post about Fridays performance >*after* Joe has posted on Saturday's! But no...
>
>I'm tired, jet-lagged, etc, so I'll write more later this week. But what I >WOULD urge is that anyone within striking distance of NYC get their bodies >over to Montclair State on Sunday (matinee) for the last performance of >"Oedipus" by Harry Partch. I was mortified by the small numbers of people, >knowing that this is the first full staging of one of Partch's "Oedipus" >settings since 1954, and the musical preparation on this was really about >as good as it gets. More detail later after I have absorbed and ruminated, >but for anyone who can appreciate the artistic and musical goals of Partch, >it would be criminal to miss a performance like this. Recommended, by >someone who shelled out a trip from one coast to the other...
>
>Cheers,
>Jon
>
'97 "wasn't" a full staging?

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db

this is exciting news , i hope to hear a recording

Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:

>
>This production has >leads (Oedipus, Jocasta, others) that are so adept at the microtonal >intervals that they do achieve Partch's desired effect: one cannot tell >where spoken word leaves off and intoned speech begins, and then leads into >sung text. It is all one.
>
>Cheers,
>Jon >
>
>
>
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> >
>
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

Yes, the *musical* part of this was exceptionally well done. But, I
found it difficult to concentrate on it with all the visual
razzamatazzz going on... but I'm willing to offer that was perhaps
just my own limitation... (although I don't believe it... :)

JP

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...>
wrote:
> this is exciting news , i hope to hear a recording
>
> Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:
>
> >
> >This production has
> >leads (Oedipus, Jocasta, others) that are so adept at the
microtonal
> >intervals that they do achieve Partch's desired effect: one cannot
tell
> >where spoken word leaves off and intoned speech begins, and then
leads into
> >sung text. It is all one.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Jon
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Kraig Grady
> North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
> The Wandering Medicine Show
> KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

Saturday night was pretty well attended, especially considering a
driving rain throughout the evening...

JP

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> List (and Joe),
>
> 8 hours of flying time later, I get to post about Fridays
performance
> *after* Joe has posted on Saturday's! But no...
>
> I'm tired, jet-lagged, etc, so I'll write more later this week. But
what I
> WOULD urge is that anyone within striking distance of NYC get their
bodies
> over to Montclair State on Sunday (matinee) for the last
performance of
> "Oedipus" by Harry Partch. I was mortified by the small numbers of
people,
> knowing that this is the first full staging of one of
Partch's "Oedipus"
> settings since 1954, and the musical preparation on this was really
about
> as good as it gets. More detail later after I have absorbed and
ruminated,
> but for anyone who can appreciate the artistic and musical goals of
Partch,
> it would be criminal to miss a performance like this. Recommended,
by
> someone who shelled out a trip from one coast to the other...
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

db,

{you wrote...}
>'97 "wasn't" a full staging?

This is a complete theatre piece that needs sets, lighting, costumes, etc. My understanding was that it was similar to a concert-staged opera, with the 'orchestra' backing up the singers on the front of the stage. I also understood that the singers (at least some of them) utilized music, and that the acting of the characters was limited to simple blocking.

I guess above and beyond that, it was thrown together somewhat hurriedly, and Dean Drummond was not happy with much of the results; I can say for a fact that he was far more please with this one, and the preparation of the players and singers was on a very high level.

Cheers,
Jon

Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:

>db,
>
>{you wrote...}
> >
>>'97 "wasn't" a full staging?
>> >>
>
>This is a complete theatre piece that needs sets, lighting, costumes, etc. >My understanding was that it was similar to a concert-staged opera, with >the 'orchestra' backing up the singers on the front of the stage. I also >understood that the singers (at least some of them) utilized music, and >that the acting of the characters was limited to simple blocking.
> >
That's right, they were reading their parts.

>I guess above and beyond that, it was thrown together somewhat hurriedly, >and Dean Drummond was not happy with much of the results; I can say for a >fact that he was far more please with this one, and the preparation of the >players and singers was on a very high level.
>
Sounds good to me, too bad I missed it.
And I hope they record it, maybe even a DVD!

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db