Re: Partch

Greetings,

About Partch:

What has become of the instruments?

Also, BTW I will be publishing a brilliant review of Gilmore's book by the
excellent critic Adrian Corleonis in the upcoming newsletter of the Friends
of Gunnar Johansen. I think I might also post it at my web site.

All best wishes,

Gordon Rumson

There are many levels to Harry Partch, perhaps some of them are negative,
most show stark originality and a specific point of view. Dissimilar to
Daniel Wolf, I have a different set of Partch favorites.

Some see Partch for the just intonation harmony, while I see more of the
American English intonation of meaning as more spectacular. I would consider
"U.S. Highball" as both a Partch and an American classic, if not a 20th
century masterpiece. "Dark Brother" is by no means a failure. More failing,
for me, is "Lord is My Shepherd," while I never fully enjoyed "Bewitched."

Yes, the music can sound dated since Partch was an Elvis man, pre-Beatles.
And he had a tough personality to bear (some would say as well as for Bach
and Beethoven), but he was a good person who pioneered much of what music has
become.

Johnny Reinhard

I find you can get into much of Partch from the Frank Zappa angle. If you
like Zappa, you should begin to like some Partch after a few good listens
spread over at least a week -- you need repeated exposures to break down
your mental barriers to the highly unusual tuning, but you'll already be
somewhat accustomed to the odd rhythms and textures from Zappa.