Accessibility of Partch

Right now, I am busy analysing some music of Harry Partch, and I'm sure
that I am not the first among us to be daunted by the two greatest
obstacles in such a study. It is well discussed that his tablature
notation makes reading a score tedious, but it is not so well discussed
that the scores themselves are relatively hard to get.

I am told that the stop and go process of home-style transcriptions of
Partch's music into Ben Johnston's notation has amassed to encompass
almost the entire repertoire, but the contributors to this project are
scattered and not coordinated.

If you have transcribed or arranged any of Partch's music for his own
instruments or others, I would appreciate
your help by letting me know which pieces you have done, how it is
notated, and for which instruments it is (if not for the originals). I
can then compile and distribute a list, which will simply allow people to
contact others as potential sources for copies.

Adam B. Silverman
asilverm@email.ir.miami.edu

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"Erik Nauman" wrote:

>I'm working on tuning my electric guitar with standard fret
>spacings using just intonation

This seems on its face to be an impossibility. A guitar has its ftets located
to provide a standard ET scale. You need either a movable-fret instrument
like an Indian sitar, or newly located frets.

> ... and I've got nothing but
>questions:
>1. Are there books or other resources out there explaining how
>people have done this?
>2. What tuning tool works best for determining the frequencies?
>3. Where can I find lists or charts of various frequencies'
>relationships to each other? such as Partch's diagram, which I
>still can't quite understand.

The book I like best for that is Murray Barbour's "Tuning and Temperament,"
which is probably out of print but may be in a library you can get to. In
this area it is in the GWU library and some others. There are dozens of other
books, no doubt, with this information, however.

Bruce R. Gilson
brg@netcom.com

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