Re: [tuning] Digest Number 712 - electric Partch

Hi all. Since this is one of the more sensitive topics on the list, I've
kept to myself until now. I am in no way an _expert_ on Partch, but have
studied his scores, read Enclosures as well as Genesis. The main thing that
I got from all of my study is that he was an innovator, a complex man, and a
musical genious worthy enough to bring his music to live performance today.
Last December I organized a performance at the University of Michigan of
Barstow with our Digital Music Ensemble. I worked on it for a full year
researching the piece, studying the score and determining how to perform it.
I built an acoustic version of the Surrogate Kithara working with a wood
sculpture student. I emulated the Chromelodeon with an 88 Key midi
controller running a self-designed TX81Z Chromelodeon patch. The stops were
emulated with switches on top of the keyboard controller run through Opcode
Max. As well a volume pedal controlled an effects processor simulating the
pump action of the Chromelodeon. Yes, the "pain" that Partch shows with the
physical exertion of playing the Chromelodeon in video clips is admittedly
not the same, but at the same time isn't the only point of focus in a piece
like Barstow. For the Diamond Marimba part, I built an electronic DM in the
same layout using force sensors as the bars. The signals were mapped to
MIDI through Max and then triggered specially tuned marimba samples in a
S2000 sampler. The Boo was emulated with 3 MalletKats setup in a pyramid. I
had one 3 octave Kat at the base, a 2 octave Kat behind it and a 1 octave
Kat behind the 2 octave one. The bars were mapped in Max to another S2000
sampler with specially tuned bamboo samples. Only for the Boo did I have to
translate the original score to fit the MalletKat layout. In every case of
the instruments, the playing technique and sounds were kept as similar as
possible to the original instruments. The sculpture student even built a
stand for the DM and the SK inspired after Partch's real instruments to make
the instruments visually compelling as well. I didn't stop there in my
realization of the piece.
For the performance we all dressed up in costume as hobos. I assigned the
non-chorus voice parts to one solo performer who acted out each of scene.
The result was in my opinion a very theatrical and very corporeal
performance of Barstow. Some on this list will damn me, others will support
me. It doesn't matter. Everyone involved and who was in the audience was
extremely moved by the power of Partch's music and will remember it for a
long time. I know I will. This performance of Barstow was so much closer
to a live experience by NewBand or the Partch Ensemble as compared to
listening to a CD which is the way most of the people on this list have
experienced Barstow. I think it was definitely worth the effort.

Alex Ruthmann

> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 09:56:43 EDT
> From: Afmmjr@aol.com
> Subject: Electric Partch
>
> Jon S. wrote:
>> You need to do more reading, because "pioneered the concept of
> electronics" is a > bit of a stretch. IMHO.
>
> Partch wrote in 1967 to Allen Strange (page 410 of Enclosures 3):
> "The winter of 1937-38 I heard both electronic music and common sounds
> music, recorded on acetate records, by a young man in Los Angeles (he later
> became Schonberg's secretary). It was a new, fresh idea, and I was
> enchanted. I think I can say flatly that I was the only musician who gave
> the man any encouragement. But he got nowhere with his ideas. Eighteen
> years later a group in Paris became famous from New York to California for
> doing exactly the same thing, not as well, in my opinion. Then Columbia and
> Princeton wanted to do something similar and went to Rockefeller. They did
> not say: Los Angeles has done it, therefore it must be good. They said,
> Paris and Milan and Cologne have done it, therefore it must be good. When I
> am pointed out as the Anti Man I hope that someone will add that I am
> probably the first musician in the United States of America to give solid
> encouragement to both electronic music and common-sounds music. H.P. "
>
> Since Otto Luening's introduction of electronic music on television in
> 1952 is being celebrated at Lincoln Center in its current electronic music
> festival as the real start for electronic music, it seems increasingly
> reasonable to consider Harry Partch a pioneer in electronic concepts. It
> also may make one reconsider the use of an electronic "chromelodeon" in
> contemporary performance, as well.
>
> Elsewhere (p. 401 of Enclosures 3) Partch further amplified his thoughts
> on the issue of electronics in a San Francisco publication "Truth-In-Music":
> "I'm against total electronic music and I don't believe it will catch on
> totally in the future. Philosophically, there is magic in anything you
> touch, be it a string, a piece of bamboo or an electron tube."
>
>
> Johnny Reinhard
> AFMM