Re: [tuning] Non-revisionist Partch history

Partch's "Revelation in the Courthouse Park" in non-virtuosic. Same with
Barstow, Ulysses Departs..., and others. Jon Szanto implies that anything
different from a particular slant on Partch is somehow inferior. This is
unfortunate.

Johnny Reinhard

Johnny!
Don't you think that when Partch wrote simpler parts it was to leave room for the other
talents necessary for such works such as acting and dancing . If you burden your performers
down with such "Specialization" the other suffers. I think he was interested in another type
of virtuoso, those developed by such theatre directors as Grotowski, Barba and in your own
city Richard Schechner. If his work was so lacking in "virtioso-ness" why it is the
performances of his works seem to fall short of the original Gate 5 versions as unhappy as he
was with these.
(I am not referring to your versions)
Remember all that complex music of multiple subdivisions where all the player can do is
count? The music per se falls apart out of the lack of neglect of the "other parameters"

Afmmjr@aol.com wrote:

> Partch's "Revelation in the Courthouse Park" in non-virtuosic. Same with
> Barstow, Ulysses Departs..., and others. Jon Szanto implies that anything
> different from a particular slant on Partch is somehow inferior. This is
> unfortunate.

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
www.anaphoria.com

There are likely many reasons why Partch preferred a non-virtuoso music.
Kraig makes some good points, as well as Jon's suggestion of a need to get
amateurs to make his music happen.

Perhaps an independent scholar can address Partch's philosophical interest in
non-virtuosity. Sure, there were exceptions, but they indicate a general
rule of needing only a basic technique to perform Partch.

Johnny Reinhard

When I was a student at the University of Illinois (1959 - 1962), I had the
great fortune to see a live production of "Revelation". I believe this was
the premiere of the work. I don't remember all that much about it, although
I do remember the unusual instruments and the fact that I enjoyed it. It
was, as I recall, a work created with the limitations of college student
performers in mind, which I find rather attractive in a work that uses
non-standard instruments and scales. I suspect "Revelation" has been
performed more often than other works of equal novelty. Is it as great a
piece as, say, Stravinsky's "A Soldier's Tale"? I suspect not. But, as I
noted earlier, I think composers need to put more effort into performability
when dealing with unusual timbres, tunings, temperaments, scales and such,
unless they are writing only for themselves and a computer.
--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
znmeb@teleport.com
http://www.borasky-research.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Afmmjr@aol.com [mailto:Afmmjr@aol.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 12:53 PM
> To: tuning@egroups.com
> Subject: Re: [tuning] Non-revisionist Partch history
>
>
>
> Partch's "Revelation in the Courthouse Park" in non-virtuosic. Same with
> Barstow, Ulysses Departs..., and others. Jon Szanto implies that
> anything
> different from a particular slant on Partch is somehow inferior. This is
> unfortunate.
>
> Johnny Reinhard
>
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> [Ed Borasky]
> http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/12325
>
> I suspect "Revelation" has been performed more often than other
> works of equal novelty. Is it as great a piece as, say,
> Stravinsky's "A Soldier's Tale"? I suspect not.

Just a quick comment on this...

I was fortunate to be able to see the 'official' (i.e.,
'professional') world premiere of _Revelation_ in Philadelphia
in 1987, conducted by Danlee Mitchell. (It was later released
on CD on the Tomato label, and the Lincoln Center library
in New York has a video of it that can be viewed in-house.)

The work has been touted by various reviewers as Partch's
'magnum opus', but I don't think I can agree with that.
The *conception* is admittedly broad in scope, but IMO its
realization is not as effective as some other Partch pieces.

The other Partch piece that's often called his 'magnum opus'
is _Oedipus_. I'd be more inclined to agree about this one,
but I've never seen it live, and so will withhold further comment.

That said, I *have* seen a number of Partch pieces live, chiefly
at Johnny Reinhard's AFMM concerts and by Newband. The two
performances that really blew me away were John Schneider's solo
rendition of the original version of _Barstow_, and Newband doing
_U.S. Highball_.

These are the first two pieces Partch gathered together under
the collective title _The Wayward_. The other two, _San
Francisco_ and _The Letter_, I'm only familiar with from Partch's
own recordings.

But I think this is one of those instances where a composer
reached a 'twin peak' of inspiration *and* successful realization
early on in his career, without ever quite attaining it again
later.

So I suppose that my nomination for the 'Partch masterpiece'
would be _The Wayward_.

Of course, the ensemble here is much smaller than that for either
_Revelation_ or _Oedipus_, which probably has some bearing on
the 'magnum opus' business. In fact, my favorite Partch pieces
of all are the earliest and smallest-ensemble, _17 Lyrics by
Li-Po_.

That's just my 2^(2/1200).

-monz
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html