Partch Research

Re: Partch Research

It is easy enough to find out what written sources Partch had and when: he
used the California State Library in Sacramento, which through the 1950s
was perhaps the most important reference library in the state and whose
records should include acquisition dates.

Clearly the most vital sources are Helmholtz/Ellis and Hawkins. Meyer,
Cowell and Barbour were acquired during the development of the contemporary
and historical surveys in his text.

What would be more interesting is, however, to locate Partch�s musical
sources. I have always been struck by the dense harmonic texture offered by
the 6x6 diamond, which Partch makes even more dense through use of
_non-harmonic_ pitches. Besides Protestant Hymns, Yaqui Indian songs, and
Mandarin Lullabies, none of which is particularly rich in harmonic
adventure, what was the _classical_ repertoire that Partch knew (beyond
Chopin)? The other striking feature of Partch�s _system_ is his systemic
symmetry. The other 20th century figure for whom symmetrical structures
were essential was, of course, Sch�nberg, also predisposed to dense
textures, although Sch�nberg derived his symmetries from variation
technique and mapped them neatly into 12tet. (I should also note John
Cage�s warning to me (ca 1981) about the use of symmetry in new music: _too
often, symmetry indicates the absence of an idea_).

Daniel Wolf

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 17:23 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04333; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 17:24:53 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04325
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id IAA10891; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 08:24:49 -0800
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 08:24:49 -0800
Message-Id: <75961111162257/0005695065PK1EM@MCIMAIL.COM>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu

On Mon, 11 Nov 1996, PAULE wrote:
> I don't know how playable the 1796 31-tone instrument really was, but
> Fokker's keyboard certainly solves the problem of making a 31-tone keyboard
> as playable, nay, more playable, than the standard 12-tone keyboard, while
> retaining familiar fingering patterns for diatonic scales. Everyone should
> have one of these keyboards, yet I don't think a single one exists outside
> the Netherlands. What a backwards world we live in.

Actually there's an arcifoon here in St. Louis, thanks to the efforts of
Leigh Gerdine and his connection with the Netherlands 31-tone
contingent. I've played on it some, and while workable it's not the
greatest--the keys are electric-typewriter keys, blech. I'd much prefer
something like the generalized keyboard that Wendy Carlos diagrams in
the 1988 _Computer Music Journal_ Microtonality issue, with keys roughly
the size and shape of standard piano black keys.

In that issue, Wendy mentioned the (pipe-dreamish) possibility of
pressuring some manufacturer to make such a keyboard that could be used
as a front-end to drive MIDI instruments. I'd love it if it could
actually happen, but as far as I've seen the xenharmonic community has
yet to accumulate sufficient clout.

--pH (manynote@library.wustl.edu or http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote)
O
/\ "Well, so far, every time I break he runs out.
-\-\-- o But he's gotta slip up sometime . . . "

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 18:08 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04362; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 18:09:37 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04374
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id JAA12411; Mon, 11 Nov 1996 09:09:33 -0800
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 09:09:33 -0800
Message-Id: <199611111206_MC1-BD1-58E8@compuserve.com>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu