Partch Centennial at Montclair State University

When I went off list 7/7 I'd seen no posting about the June 24th concert and demonstration. The concert was given twice and well attended. It turned out to be free!
The instrument demonstrations were also well attended. An interesting project by freshman Tricia Galvez was her "Hydronica", a framework with 27 long-necked Snapple bottles, partly filled with varying amounts of colored water and suspended by their caps. Spanning almost an octave, they have a nice, clear resonant tone. She is hoping it will be featured in one of their commercials and is composing for it.
Although lacking the sculptural quality of Partch's instruments, it appears very practical to play and could easily be duplicated or put into a revised framework.
The big news is that MSU is going to build an auditorium with about 500 seats especially for this collection of instruments along with temperature and humidity controlled storage for them. As Dean Drummond pointed out, their wood is very subject to swelling and shrinking. He also said that anything that vibrates tends to work itself out of tune. One of the things Tricia is doing now is retuning all the stringed instruments every day. She told me that her bottles stay in tune for about a month, and that as little as one drop of water affects the tuning.
"Petals" requires six harmonic canons and was performed live for only the third time in concert. Thirteen players were required, most doubling on two or even more instruments.
Because of the large number of instruments, the far larger Memorial Auditorium was used and the stage was crowded. The attendance was good despite the $15 admission, but this much larger hall was nowhere near full.
A Newband recording of "The Wayward", including "San Francisco" (in both the June 24th and September 30th concerts) and "Barstow" (September 30th) is to be released on Wergo this winter. A Newband recording on Innova is also to be released soon.