"Enclosure 5: Harry Partch" available

Tunors,

This is a bit lengthy, but I wanted you all to be aware of the release of
Philip Blackburn's important "Enclosures" series on the life/work of Harry
Partch. I'll have info on Corporeal Meadows shortly, but one reason why I'm
forwarding this is that, especially on the tuning list, Partch's *first*
version of Oedipus, with Yeat's translation (and performed and recorded at
none other than Mills College!) always crops up as a seminal work in modern
microtonal circles.=20

On a personal level, I was once again happy to help with some of the tape
transfers and various 'detective' work, and also pleased that nearly 20
years after the fact people can hear a performance that I still consider a
real high point in my years of playing with the Partch Ensemble, "The
Bewitched", as performed in Cologne. Here's the news:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Composers Forum announces the forthcoming release of the final
part of its series chronicling the life and work of Harry Partch (1901-74),
one of America=B9s most extraordinary, yet central, composers. Partch was a
self-taught musician, eclectic visionary, instrument-builder, microtonal
theorist, gay, sometime-hobo, who conceived and composed a Corporeal,
integrated, ancient ritual theater. Enclosure Five (innova 405), the final
(maybe) installment of this multi-media biography, is a 3-CD set focussing
on Partch=B9s works inspired by ancient Greece. It includes important works
published here for the first time, reissues of out-of-print recordings, and
new performances. With this issue, virtually the entirety of Partch=B9s
recorded ouevre is publicly available for the first time. Taken with the
rest of the Enclosures series and the Harry Partch Collection on CRI, we
can now begin to assess Partch=B9s whole output.

Works include:
- A reissue of Ulysses at the Edge with Jack Logan playing the trumpet
part originally intended for Chet Baker;
- Revelation in the Courthouse Park (after The Bacchae of Euripides), in
its original version recorded at the University of Illinois in 1960 and
excerpted on Partch=B9s own Gate Five records;
- King Oedipus, the culmination of Partch=B9s Speech-Music period, in its
original version using the translation by W.B. Yeats. Although Partch
considered this his most important work (it took 19 years to write) and an
excellent performance (featuring the incomparable Allen Louw as Oedipus and
Rudolphine Radil [pupil of Mahler] as Jocasta), it was never released
because of a permission dispute;
- Miscellaneous short Speech-Music works: By the Rivers of Babylon
(reorchestrated from the version heard on Enclosure Two); Come Away, Death
from the lost collection, December 1942. This work, for voice and guitar,
appears with the work by Douglas Moore that inspired Partch=B9s own setting;
and Minuet, a curious Baroque duet performed by Partch and his
then-student, Ben Johnston;
- The Bewitched (A Dance Satire) in a 1980 recording from Germany featuring
an extraordinary performance and recording of this major Partch work
(produced by Kenneth Gaburo for the Berlin Festival, with Danlee Mitchell,
music director and Isabelle Tercero as The Witch).

Partch=B9s own spoken introductions to two of the works are included as well
as an extensive booklet. The Enclosures series, named after Partch=B9s last
contemplated work and released on the innova Recordings label of the
American Composers Forum, is the culmination of a 13-year endeavor by Dr.
Philip Blackburn, a Minnesota-based composer, performer, administrator and
scholar. Inspired by Partch=B9s pioneering spirit and dearth of published
materials, Blackburn worked with the Harry Partch Foundation, colleague
Kenneth Gaburo, and many others to bring Partch=B9s singular voice to the
public, attempting to "let Harry speak for himself."

Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World=20
(1971 Orion LP, Jack Logan, trumpet)

Revelation in the Courthouse Park
(1960, Gate 5 Records, Issue F)

Introduction to King Oedipus (KPFA-FM, 1954)

King Oedipus=20
(1952, Mills College premiere with W.B. Yeats libretto)

Johann Krieger: Menuet (1950, Partch + Ben Johnston)

Come Away, Death (from December, 1942)
(1997, Didier Aschour and Vincent Bouchot)

By the Rivers of Babylon (137th Psalm)
(1961, Gate Five Records)

Introduction to The Bewitched (1959, WNYC)

The Bewitched (1980, WDR-K=F6ln)

Details on the whole Enclosure series can be found at www.composersforum.org

Telephone orders: 1 (800) 388-4487
Web orders: www.cdemusic.org
or your local music store

Mail order, PO=B9s, wholesale orders to:=20
American Composers Forum
innova Recordings
332 Minnesota Street, E-145
St. Paul, MN 55101-1300
tel: 651-228-1407
fax: 651-291-7978
e-mail: innova@composersforum.org
www: http://www.composersforum.org
----------------------------------------------

..and since there's been so much talk about co-ops and such, you might
find the American Composers Forum website of interest.

Cheers,
Jon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan M. Szanto | Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch, online. . .
jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.corporeal.com/

re: Topic No. 3:

Robin Perry wrote:

>Jimi Hendrix blew us into new realms of thought & emotion in the
>sixties. Microtonalists can do this more subtly, yet every
>bit as powerfully with the instruments that are being developed.

Funny that you should mention Hendrix here...

Are you relatively new to the list, Robin? Sounds like you missed
the big "Jimi Hendrix Chord" debate back in April. My position was
that Hendrix himself was one of the great unsung microtonalists,
albeit without the mathematical/ theoretical angle. He had the
technique and the ear to make audible what was in his head.
(Duane Allman played great microtonal stuff too.)

(Check the Tuning List archives on John Starret's website [around
number 1350], and the program notes and audio examples to my
"Hendrix Chord" piece on my site).

- Joe Monzo
joe_monzo@hotmail.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]