JP's HP LP question

On a recent posting, Joseph P. mentioned the following:

>Actually, I was thinking about this and wanted to ask you, and some
>others your opinions on it... Some have mentioned that Partch was a
>true pioneer of the "Indie" label... sounds right. Yet, that
>certainly wouldn't totally jive with his dislike of recorded music in
>general... Like many aspects of life, we learn to live in necessary
>contradictions...

Partch released recordings of his music as early as 1945: fifty-five minutes of music on sixteen sides of 78 rpm acetate discs; these were recorded in Madison, WI by Warren Gilson.

Thus began a life-long bi-polar relationship with recordings. It is very true: Partch never, ever wanted the recordings as anything more than a proxy for the experience of a live performance. But while they served to broaden his audience, the reality was that they also generated funds -- meager, but badly needed.

In the early 1950's in Sausalito a Harry Partch Trust Fund was established, whereby interested patrons could 'subscribe' for future recordings. This enabled the first recording of "Oedipus", and later a recording of "Plectra and Percussion Dances". I have in the archives the four-page brochure that was produced for the second effort, and it contains a page that not many artists would have the balls to include: a page of press notices, both positive *and negative*! Nonetheless, the effort was worth it, as he says: "The whole thing has been extremely heartening, because it was made possible by 144 subscribers . . . without a subsidy, without an advertising agency to promote it, and without any assistance whatever from any of the business houses based on music. . . . It is all very time-consuming but right at the moment it seems the only possible path that also involves continuing with my music." [Gilmore, p. 220-21]

Well, we could go on, but most of this is documented in Gilmore, Blackburn, "Genesis", and elsewhere; part of the documentary film "Music Studio" shows Partch preparing records to mail out to subscribers. I'll be putting up on the Meadows, in a few weeks, a series of letters between Partch, the young man (then) who recorded two of the initial Gate 5 recordings, and the head of the company that would press the discs. (It takes a while to type these in, since the typewritten text is too fuzzy for scanned OCR). Here, as elsewhere, you see that in spite of his reluctance to rely on recordings, Partch fought tooth and nail, in every era of recording that he worked, to reproduce his instruments and voices, and hence his music, with the utmost fidelity possible.

And most of the time he wasn't happy. Whatta guy.

Cheers,
Jon
`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
Real Life: Orchestral Percussionist
Web Life: "Corporeal Meadows" - about Harry Partch
http://www.corporeal.com/