Partch's 1/1

Hello to all. While we're on the topic of Partch: A few years ago I ask Dean Drummond why Harry Partch used "G" as his 1/1. He said Partch never really explained this, but he theorized that it might have been because there would've been available a G 392 Tuning Fork as a pre electronic tuning standard, also that he was a baritone, and the G at the bottom of the bass clef was probably a strong note at the bottom of his range. The latter intrigues me, in that this would almost imply that Partch was using this strong vocal G pitch, as a sort of "1/1 Body Pitch" (or the 1/1 of his singing voice) to which he made all of his instruments conform. Are there any other composers that post here, or that any of you know about that use such a "Corporeal" reason for choosing the 1/1 in a just intonation composition? Most of the time, out of convenience, I'll use concert "C" as the 1/1 for pieces. There are also some benefits related to mapping tunings to a "7 white - 5 black" synthesizer keyboard, that make "C" a convenient choice. But when I did some tests of my voice in order to identify what my vocal 1/1 would be (singing with droning sine waves), I found that it was "E" (an interesting thing to find out after playing the guitar for over 20 years, since the 12 TET guitar's low string is E). Another interesting note about this too, is that "C" seems to be a difficult key for me to sing in, and feel natural doing it. But practicing along with a drone on E feels very natural. Any comments about the reasons why you might choose a particular 1/1 for your compositions? Another thing about Harry that I read somewhere, is that he would rarely combine more than 4 of his orchestral instruments together at once in a composition. I've wondered if there could've been some physical or aesthetic reason for this (or both). Perhaps it could've been related to the overtone structures of the percussion instruments would not allow too much layering, or else the combined timbres might have clashed with one another. Any thoughts? Thanks, Jacky Ligon

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