Corporealism vs. Abstraction

I've been re-reading Partch's 'Genesis' as a prelude to some musical
theatre work for 2003, in particular the opening essay on Corporealism
vs. Abstraction. I also dug up from my files an excellent article by Jon
S. on his adventures in Corporealism.

Have there been any substantial contributions to the Corporealism vs.
Abstraction discussion since Partch's essay and if so are they in print
or online?

Eager to get to the tuning and instrument chapters I glossed over the
essay on my first reading. On a second, deeper reading I am impressed
with the microtonal musical possibilities that Partch sets out and seem
to recall that some on this list and elsewhere have taken his ideas on
intoned speech seriously enough to put pen to paper.

As my work this year will involve soloists, chorus and microtonal
instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most helpful.

Happy new Year

a.m.

Hi Alison,

>I've been re-reading Partch's 'Genesis' as a
>prelude to some musical
>theatre work for 2003, in particular the
>opening essay on Corporealism
>vs. Abstraction. I also dug up from my files
>an excellent article by Jon
> S. on his adventures in Corporealism.

>Have there been any substantial contributions
>to the Corporealism vs.
>Abstraction discussion since Partch's essay
>and if so are they in print
>or online?

It's not very *substantial*, but when Partch's "Enclosures" series came out I wrote a review in the Village Voice, May 7, 1996, headlined "Composing the Lingo," claiming that corporeality was the central idea in Partch's work, and that everything else, the tuning and the instruments, were subordinated to that and symptoms of it. I no longer have a computer file of the article, and I don't think it's accessible on the web, but it will appear this spring (keeping fingers crossed) in a book of my VV articles titled Music Downtown. If you're too curious to wait, perhaps I can Xerox a copy to send you.

Yours,

Kyle

Alison and Kyle,

Alison: I'll get an electronic copy of the presentation we did a year ago on the corporealism and ritual theatre in Partch's work. This was a multi-media presentation based around a paper/script written by Danlee Mitchell. I think it may have interest to you.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> It's not very *substantial*, but when Partch's "Enclosures" series
> came out I wrote a review in the Village Voice, May 7, 1996,
> headlined "Composing the Lingo," claiming that corporeality was the
> central idea in Partch's work, and that everything else, the tuning
> and the instruments, were subordinated to that and symptoms of it.

Yeah, and the best part is that you are virtually the only person I've ever seen voice that viewpoint! No surprise that Partch performances of the last couple of decades have been decidedly, um, un-Partch-like in this respect.

> If you're too curious to wait, perhaps I can Xerox a copy to
> send you.

I'm going to check my archives, and if I find that I don't have the article (which I don't think I do), could I impose upon you for a copy as well?

Cheers,
Jon

>

Hello Alison!

As much as i feel Partch's concept of Corporealism important, i feel
his placing it as
"vs. Abstraction" has problems. Abstraction can mean more things that he
would not be opposed to.
Abstraction can be the most concise way in which something is conveyed.
If we take a painter who
which to illustrate a given motion , they must take some point in the
action to represent the
whole action. All theater including the Greek Drama he so loved extracts
points and parts of the
total action to represent the story. This is an abstraction and he used
it himself. I can't quite
collect on my thoughts on this
His use of intoned speech we must acknowledge as not being the only
way to use the voice. The
whole act of singing or modifing the voice is ways differing from speech
occurs it in many
cultures as representing voices from the beyond, or the voice of "truth".
The swahili sing there cases before judges. We find such use of voice in
Delusion for the ghost.
Corporealism on the other hand calls upon us to use our entire
"inner commune" in our our
artistic work, our total being. That neuroscientist are finding that
different artistic
disciplines activate the same areas points truly that we have possibly
lost something by
separating them. But different parts of an individual in their youth
grow at different speeds as
well as aspects of their mind, giving them that akwardness that comes at
that age, so it might
have been with our different disciplines so that later they can all be
reintegrated together as we
ripen as a people.

>
> From: Alison Monteith <alison.monteith3@which.net>
> Subject: Corporealism vs. Abstraction
>
> I've been re-reading Partch's 'Genesis' as a prelude to some musical
> theatre work for 2003, in particular the opening essay on Corporealism
> vs. Abstraction. I also dug up from my files an excellent article by Jon
> S. on his adventures in Corporealism.
>
> Have there been any substantial contributions to the Corporealism vs.
> Abstraction discussion since Partch's essay and if so are they in print
> or online?
>
> Eager to get to the tuning and instrument chapters I glossed over the
> essay on my first reading. On a second, deeper reading I am impressed
> with the microtonal musical possibilities that Partch sets out and seem
> to recall that some on this list and elsewhere have taken his ideas on
> intoned speech seriously enough to put pen to paper.
>
> As my work this year will involve soloists, chorus and microtonal
> instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most helpful.
>
> Happy new Year
>
> a.m.
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

Hi Jon,

>>--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann
>><kgann@e...> wrote:
>> It's not very *substantial*, but when Partch's
>>"Enclosures" series
>> came out I wrote a review in the Village Voice,
>>May 7, 1996,
>> headlined "Composing the Lingo," claiming that
>>corporeality was the
>> central idea in Partch's work, and that
>>everything else, the tuning
>>> and the instruments, were subordinated to that
>>and symptoms of it.

>Yeah, and the best part is that you are virtually
>the only person I've ever
>seen voice that viewpoint!

Thanks, Jon, it's good to get confirmation from someone who worked with Partch and knows his music a lot more intimately than I do.

>No surprise that Partch performances of the last
>couple of decades have been decidedly, um, un-Partch-like in this respect.

I know just what and whom you're talking about. We've had this conversation off-off-off-line before. I suppose no more can be done about it now than was possible then.

>I'm going to check my archives, and if I find that I don't have the article
>(which I don't think I do), could I impose upon you for a copy as well?

>Cheers,
>Jon

Absolutely.

Yours,

Kyle

Alison,

>As my work this year will involve soloists,
>chorus and microtonal
>instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most helpful.

Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of Tony Twining's Chrysalid Requiem that was recently recorded on the Canteloupe label? It's an astonishing hour-long vocal work in extremely extended JI, with sometimes more than 20 (!) Johnston accidentals on each note. Incredibly complex and very beautiful, and his group recorded it (had to) by listening to a computer tape over headphones that gave them the pitches as they were singing. It's by far the most amazing tuning feat I've ever heard in a vocal composition. The score is unbelievably complex, but the music doesn't give any hint of the amount of work. I notice there was a litle buzz on the list about the piece some months ago, but no one seems to have heard it at the time.

Cheers,

Kyle

Kyle,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of Tony Twining's
> Chrysalid Requiem that was recently recorded on the Canteloupe
> label? ... I notice there was a litle buzz on the list about the
> piece some months ago, but no one seems to have heard it at the
> time.

I think I may have been the one that asked about it and got tepid responses. I'll order the CD and decide myself this time!

Cheers,
Jon

Kraig Grady wrote:

> >
>
> Hello Alison!
>
> As much as i feel Partch's concept of Corporealism important, i feel
> his placing it as
> "vs. Abstraction" has problems. Abstraction can mean more things that he
> would not be opposed to.
> Abstraction can be the most concise way in which something is conveyed.
> If we take a painter who
> which to illustrate a given motion , they must take some point in the
> action to represent the
> whole action. All theater including the Greek Drama he so loved extracts
> points and parts of the
> total action to represent the story. This is an abstraction and he used
> it himself. I can't quite
> collect on my thoughts on this
> His use of intoned speech we must acknowledge as not being the only
> way to use the voice. The
> whole act of singing or modifing the voice is ways differing from speech
> occurs it in many
> cultures as representing voices from the beyond, or the voice of "truth".
> The swahili sing there cases before judges. We find such use of voice in
> Delusion for the ghost.
> Corporealism on the other hand calls upon us to use our entire
> "inner commune" in our our
> artistic work, our total being. That neuroscientist are finding that
> different artistic
> disciplines activate the same areas points truly that we have possibly
> lost something by
> separating them. But different parts of an individual in their youth
> grow at different speeds as
> well as aspects of their mind, giving them that akwardness that comes at
> that age, so it might
> have been with our different disciplines so that later they can all be
> reintegrated together as we
> ripen as a people.
>

I agree.

I think the force of Partch's standpoint comes from having the courage to separate the two,
corporal and abstract. I don't think that Partch has a problem with abstract music (in fact he
does at one point state that there is nothing wrong with Abstraction), more with the presentation
of abstract art as the one true way, and being Partch he doesn't hold back from polarising. The
most astonishing (depressing) truth in reading Partch again is that you add 53 or so years to the
date of publication and whole pages of what he writes still apply today. The gauntlet is still
down.

Partch writes and of course lived with such conviction that it becomes tempting to immerse oneself
in his ideas. Personally I would find it very difficult to set aside abstract music as so much of
my emotional/psychological/musical makeup had its development in abstract music. But for theatre,
and especially with young actors and an enlightened producer, I am greatly tempted to see how far
I can press Partch's ideas, not out of any desire to get an edge on other musical directors but to
see where the ideas lead. Add to that my belief that they go hand in glove with justly intoned
voice and instruments in which I have a vested interest.

Kind Regards
a.m.

Kyle and Jon

thanks for the replies. Yes I would be interested in any of the
literature you mention in any format. No hurry though. Many thanks.

Best Wishes
a.m.

Kyle Gann wrote:

> Alison,
>
> >As my work this year will involve soloists,
> >chorus and microtonal
> >instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most helpful.
>
> Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of Tony Twining's Chrysalid
> Requiem that was recently recorded on the Canteloupe label? It's an
> astonishing hour-long vocal work in extremely extended JI, with
> sometimes more than 20 (!) Johnston accidentals on each note.
> Incredibly complex and very beautiful, and his group recorded it (had
> to) by listening to a computer tape over headphones that gave them
> the pitches as they were singing. It's by far the most amazing tuning
> feat I've ever heard in a vocal composition. The score is
> unbelievably complex, but the music doesn't give any hint of the
> amount of work. I notice there was a litle buzz on the list about the
> piece some months ago, but no one seems to have heard it at the time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kyle

I remember talk of this on the list. Must look it up on Amazon. Thanks for the reference.

Kind Regards
a.m.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> Alison,
>
> >As my work this year will involve soloists,
> >chorus and microtonal
> >instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most helpful.
>
> Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of Tony Twining's Chrysalid
> Requiem that was recently recorded on the Canteloupe label? It's an
> astonishing hour-long vocal work in extremely extended JI, with
> sometimes more than 20 (!) Johnston accidentals on each note.

This sort of thing can easily happen with JI; one reason to consider microtempering is simply to keep it under control. I had passages such
as

0 note (102487/18000) 100
0 note (9317/1800) 100
0 note (1331/750) 100
0 note (1331/875) 100
0 note (9317/4000) 100
0 note (1331/600) 100
0 note (1694/375) 100
0 note (2662/875) 100
0 note (102487/18000) 100
0 note (9317/1800) 100

in the score for Sept 11; I wouldn't inflict such a thing on live performers and I don't see why it should be regarded as an achievement to do so, though it is certainly an achievement if someone manages to handle the result.

>> Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of
>>Tony Twining's Chrysalid
>> Requiem that was recently recorded on the
>>Canteloupe label? It's an
>> astonishing hour-long vocal work in
>>extremely extended JI, with
>> sometimes more than 20 (!) Johnston
>>accidentals on each note.

>This sort of thing can easily happen with JI;
>one reason to consider
>microtempering is simply to keep it under
>control.

Actually, I find it fascinating when the notation accurately reflects the composer's compositional thinking, as Ben's notation kind of has to, instead of hiding behind approximations. That's one of the things I love about JI. To each his own.

Cheers,

Kyle

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:

> >This sort of thing can easily happen with JI;
> >one reason to consider
> >microtempering is simply to keep it under
> >control.
>
> Actually, I find it fascinating when the notation accurately reflects
> the composer's compositional thinking, as Ben's notation kind of has
> to, instead of hiding behind approximations. That's one of the things
> I love about JI. To each his own.

However, if you make no particular effort to stay close to the tonic or fail to concern yourself with comma drift, the number of digits in the numerator and denominator of the rational numbers of the score will be proportional to time if harmonic change keeps up at a more or less steady pace. Since accidentals are multiplicative, that means they will also accumulate at a steady rate.

>However, if you make no particular effort to stay close to the tonic >or fail to
>concern yourself with comma drift, the number of digits in the numerator and
>denominator of the rational numbers of the score will be proportional to time
>if harmonic change keeps up at a more or less steady pace. Since accidentals
>are multiplicative, that means they will also accumulate at a steady rate.

*IF*.

Cheers,

Kyle

>
> From: "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>" <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>
>
> .
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> > It's not very *substantial*, but when Partch's "Enclosures" series
> > came out I wrote a review in the Village Voice, May 7, 1996,
> > headlined "Composing the Lingo," claiming that corporeality was the
> > central idea in Partch's work, and that everything else, the tuning
> > and the instruments, were subordinated to that and symptoms of it.
>
> Yeah, and the best part is that you are virtually the only person I've ever seen voice that viewpoint!

I too would like to see this paper!

I for one would support this notion also that his total theater is the focus on which everything else gravitates to.
The tuning exist more than just a set of pitches. it calls back upon the ancient world. The way in which the instrument are to be played causes the players movement to be more important than a conventional array of pitches would have done.
The diamond remains a monumental tuning in all its forms. Few tunings have such power that it occurs spontaneously bubbling up from the human soul in such diverse individuals as Novaro, Meyer, Schlesinger and Barbarba Hero. It has the power of an archetype and although i do not use it , i recognize it for what it is.
His ideas of theater can be paralleled in the works of Eugenio Barba, and possibly Jerzy Grotowski. Also right in New york you have Richard Schechner whose book "the Future of Ritual" I highly recommend. And i imagine Autaud was more than a passing influence. But Partch's source is in the fountain of Greece. Lou Harrison correctly acknowledges him as a Greek revivalist.
There seems to be a great revisionist watering down of his works these days which reflects the climate we find ourselves in.
But the ball has be set in motion and i recomend those whose don't want to get run over to get out the way. Even though the walls of the fortress of the city walls will stand, his uses his 5th gate underneath ( as in the depths) into the center of the city.

>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

Alison, Jon, Kraig,

Well, I should have kept my big mouth shut, a thought that has frequent occasion to float through my mind. But after three requests for my 1996 Partch review it became easier to retype it (as I'm a fast typist, and snowed in today anyway) than to go Xerox the original newspaper and mail it to three addresses. And now that I'm forced to examine it, I'm not so proud of it. It starts off well, but toward the end I go off into one of my usual cantankerous harangues about god knows what. In the old days, the process of merely writing an article would generaly cause me to get some kind of bug up my ass by the end. And I made some points about abstraction that have been intelligently contradicted on the list in recent days. So please don't hold me to any opinions expressed below - that was the 40-year-old Kyle Gann, and he's long gone. Editing at the Village Voice began to decline after 1995. But the article does raise the point about corporeality, and quote Partch's disdain for the number 43, a topical concern. Sorry to arouse all the anticipation for so little reward. But thanks for your interest.

Yours,

Kyle

Village Voice
May 7, 1996

Composing the Lingo
Harry Partch, American inventor
By Kyle Gann

Harry Partch was the central figure of American music. I can't think of another statement more guaranteed to elicit academic contempt from the academic establishment, reproving looks from jazz critics, even raised eyebrows from Cage fans. Ten years ago I would have demurred myself. But I'm more and more drawn to that conclusion as I hear Downtown composers struggle to divest themselves of layer after layer of European brainwashing. The Kerouac of music, Partch molded his aesthetic around the slang of the hoboes he traveled among, and if his music doesn't sound like second nature, it's because we still listen through a German filter. In reality the above opinion says less about Partch than about what constitutes Americanness in music; where we put Partch depends on where we decide to put Europe. My vote is, on the other side of the ocean.

The incredibly well-organized American Composers Forum (formerly the Minnesota Composers Forum) has just released a welcome slew of new Partch materials through the innova label. (They are available from Minnesota Composers Forum, 332 Minnesota Street, #E 145, Saint Paul, MN 55101 1300). Enclosure 1: Harry Partch, as they've titled it, is a video of four films, long rumored but rarely seen, that Partch made in the late '50s-early '60s with Chicago filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Enclosure 2 is a whopping four-CD set of Partch memorabilia, including early performances, interviews, public statements, tuning demonstrations, dramatized extracts from his memoir Bitter Music, and even 46 minutes of friends reminiscing at his wake.

Enclosure 3, yet to come, will be a tome entitled A Partch Scrapbook. The materials contained in these sets are rough, quirky, unpolished, often recorded under adverse conditions. They will not impress anyone who didn't take Partch seriously in the first place; don't listen to them unless you've heard his masterpieces Delusion of the Fury, The Bewitched, U.S. Highball, Castor and Pollux. But for those of us converted long ago, the lot is a treasure trove of early sketches and intimate moments that invite us to rethink Partch's significance.

And it needs rethinking. Because Partch built his own Dr. Seuss world of flamboyant instruments, invented his own 43-tones-to-the-octave scale, and devised his own notation, his music now rests in the hands of specialists and has spawned a cottage industry jealously guarded by those who performed with him. Scores, except for Barstow and On the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (both published in Source, the 1960s journal of avant-garde music), are nearly impossible to come by. Those who can get access to them have a hell of a time figuring out what pitches are intended. Each instrument - the Spoils of War, the Quadrangularis Reversum, the Diamond Marimba - has its own tablature-like notation, and the info Partch provided in his book Genesis of a Music is not always sufficient for transcription. Despite the fine recordings available, Partch's methods remain hidden from outsiders who would like to study them, and the priests of his cult are in no hurry to change the situation.

The priests swear by the 43-tone scale [not sure whom I meant to calumniate here], but Enclosure 2 allows Partch to make abundantly clear that tuning was only a secondary issue. What he was passionate about was the concept he called corporeality: the "essentially vocal and verbal music of the individual," the ability of music to be "vital to a time and place, a here and now," the exact dead opposite of German classical abstraction. Genesis of a Music's magnificent opening essay, "From Emperor Chun to the Vacant Lot," mentions tuning only in passing as it explores in depth the history of the musically communicating human voice. For Partch, the Christian church wiped out the corporeality of ancient Greek music by insisting on hymns in which the God-praising words were already known and distorted by many notes to each syllable, encouraging a passive, uninvolved listening attitude.

Partch scorned abstract music, devoid of words, dance, or drama. Like so many young people who avoid sitting in concert halls today, he found passive listening a denial of the body. (In one telling story of his childhood, he heaps resentment on the girl who called him naughty for unselfconsciously drawing a male horse as he had seen it, with phallus proudly erect.) Aside from purity of tuning, he devised his scale at least partly to capture the exact inflections of spoken English. He may have written operas, but he was closer to Bob Dylan than to Verdi, and also to the Balinese Monkey Chant, the Korean P'ansori epic, ancient Greek drama, early Florentine opera, the blues, any genre which uses music to enhance, not dominate, a story. He saw his reputation veering toward that of a tuning theoretician, and he tried to head this off at the pass. In the only segment of Enclosure 2 that deals with tuning - a demonstration with musical examples called "A Quarter Saw Section of Motivations and Intonations" - he attempts, in an impatient preface, to put tuning it its place:

"The experiential, ritualistic, dramatic area has constituted a very large part of my belief and work.... I have easily given as much time to this endeavor as to intonation, which is basically the content of this tape.... I shall pass over, with compelling sadness and with no further comment, easily two-thirds of my life's work to discuss and demonstrate intonation.... News stories and even reviews have almost consistently latched onto the number 43 as though this were the touchstone of my life. It is not. It is, in fact, about the one-half truth of the one-fourth factor. It is totally misleading." The examples are invaluable, though, as apparently the only surviving aural document of how Partch thought about harmony, especially for his fascinating concept of tonal flux, in which chords mutate into each other through tiny pitch slides.

The rest of the CD set is obsessed with corporeality, and the early music Partch wrote to advance that concept can be pretty weird. His 1943 setting of Psalm 137 wails dismally, and in a 1947 recording of his Li Po songs (self-accompanied on Adapted Viola), his energy is so astonishing he sounds a little crazy. Put those recordings together with the photo of an amazingly clean-cut young Partch on the cover and you can't imagine how this music could have meant anything to anybody in the context of the 1940s. Use of normal flute and oboe in Y.D. Fantasy (from 1944) shows that he wasn't reluctant to employ conventional tuning, and in Philip Blackburn's rendition of a 1929 pop song (published under the pen name Paul Pirate), we get a rare glimpse of a pre-just-intonation Partch writing for good old badly tuned piano.

What clashes with Partch's reputation is the desire for correct and natural English declamation he speaks of so eloquently in one interview after another. [I have no idea what I thought this sentence meant.] Partly this is the natural result of overspecialization; most composers spend their time among similarly educated colleagues, not among street people, too far from the pulse of America to pick up the lingo. They write music about music theory for the same reason English professors write novels about university life. And so the tuning specialists involved in extending Partch's work [I can only think of one example, sorry for the overgeneralization] show little concern for corporeality. There are a couple of exceptions in Ben Johnston's output: Visions and Spels and Letter from Calamity Jane. Dean Drummond, caretaker for several of Partch's original instruments, has commissioned new works for the Partch ensemble, a noble effort. The results, however, have been as abstract as any Darmstadt serial piece, usually without even a feelable beat.

Today's corporealists don't come from the world of microtones. Robert Ashley and Mikel Rouse wed vernacular phrases to music in ways that I think would have tickled Partch. Otherwise, corporeality has primarily become a woman's movement. Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Laetitia de Compiegne Sonami, Brenda Hutchinson, Eve Beglarian, Elise Kermani, Pamela Z, Maria de Alvear, Susan Parenti - all these women who use their voices in a direct, communicative way come closer to the effect Partch was seeking than any of the tuning purists. [This can only apply to what I had been hearing on the New York scene at the time.] Abstraction remains the favored realm of the ambitious male who would rather get in the history books that connect with the audience in front of him. Even guitarist composers working with rock, that great fortissimo outburst of corporeality, are turning it toward wordless abstraction. [Lord knows what I had just heard that elicited that vague complaint.] Looked at from that angle, the question becomes, not "Is Partch the greatest American composer?", but, "Aside from Partch and a few others, does American music exist at all?"

Sidebar:

Sin More!

"I have never heard anyone play Chopin as well as I do!", crows an audibly drunk Harry Partch after playing a few bars at the piano in 1966, and suddenly, you have to remember that one of the works he burned in an iron stove at age 28 was a piano concerto he had worked on for four years. These CDs fill out our picture of Partch into a life of tremendous complexity. We finally hear Partch's settings of "The Jabberwocky" and passages from Finnegans Wake, plus an overdue recording of U.S. Highball, his unparalleled homage to hobo life. In an early version of Barstow, the rhythmic momentum is oddly submerged beneath the pitch-bending surface of strings and Chromelodeon (43-pitch reed organ); the most infectious aspect of Partch's music, his dancelike percussion momentum, seems to have entered his aesthetic later.

The Tourtelot films of Enclosure 1, 70 minutes' worth in all, don't date as well. They include an abstract film of gymnasts shot from odd angles to an oompah-pahing band accompaniment; a documentary of a pipe-smoking, uptight-looking Partch playing his instruments in his Chicago studio; and the film Windsong, for which Partch wrote the score, an updating of the Apollo and Daphne myth with the protagonists on the beach in shorts. The music survives and the personal glimpses are curious, but there is no hint of the gleeful, nose-thumbing Partch of later documentaries such as The Dreamer that Remains (1972), made after his elevation to a cult figure in the '60s. He seems uneasy that his music will be dismissed as not serious if he so much as cracks a smile.

In audio, though, Partch emerges as a whole human, full of demons and self-contradictions. He praises Mussorgsky as the only Western composer he likes, the John Field Piano Concerto as the best ever written [I'd love to have this straightened out, since Field wrote seven piano concerti], and the overdubbed voice in Stockhausen's Gesang der Junglinge as a brilliant idea. A musician who fell afoul of Partch while staying with him recounts finding an ice pick driven through his pillow. [I didn't have nearly enough space to do justice to this chilling anecdote.] And another friend remembers what Partch called the five most evil words in the English language: "Go and sin no more!" K.G.

Kyle,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> And now that I'm
> forced to examine it, I'm not so proud of it. It starts off well,
> but toward the end I go off into one of my usual cantankerous
> harangues about god knows what. In the old days, the process of
> merely writing an article would generaly cause me to get some
> kind of bug up my ass by the end.

But in advance of reading the article you've already been valuable: I thought I was the only one who cringed at my own writings of less than 10 years age! And here you are, a real Professional Author and Critic, admitting as much. Makes me feel just a tiny bit better as I dive into a long-neglected revamping of the Partch site...

Whatever the causes, in the last couple of months, it's nice to have your voice in the mix around here.

Cheers,
Jon [who was not snowed in today, and in fact had to switch to a short-sleeved shirt as the temps approached the upper 70's :) ]

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41713

> >
>
> Hello Alison!
>
> As much as i feel Partch's concept of Corporealism important, i
feel
> his placing it as
> "vs. Abstraction" has problems. Abstraction can mean more things
that he
> would not be opposed to.
> Abstraction can be the most concise way in which something is
conveyed.
> If we take a painter who
> which to illustrate a given motion , they must take some point in
the
> action to represent the
> whole action. All theater including the Greek Drama he so loved
extracts
> points and parts of the
> total action to represent the story. This is an abstraction and he
used
> it himself. I can't quite
> collect on my thoughts on this
> His use of intoned speech we must acknowledge as not being the
only
> way to use the voice. The
> whole act of singing or modifing the voice is ways differing from
speech
> occurs it in many
> cultures as representing voices from the beyond, or the voice
of "truth".
> The swahili sing there cases before judges. We find such use of
voice in
> Delusion for the ghost.
> Corporealism on the other hand calls upon us to use our entire
> "inner commune" in our our
> artistic work, our total being. That neuroscientist are finding that
> different artistic
> disciplines activate the same areas points truly that we have
possibly
> lost something by
> separating them. But different parts of an individual in their youth
> grow at different speeds as
> well as aspects of their mind, giving them that akwardness that
comes at
> that age, so it might
> have been with our different disciplines so that later they can all
be
> reintegrated together as we
> ripen as a people.
>
>
***Gee, this is an interesting post by Kraig Grady... You know,
frankly, when watching the video of the _Delusion of the Fury_ I
found it very *abstract* as well, certainly in the sense of Greek
drama, which is quite *symbolic* as we all know... I immediately
think of the masks moving around. Those *visual* ideas didn't strike
me as "corporal" in any way...

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41718

> Alison,
>
> >As my work this year will involve soloists,
> >chorus and microtonal
> >instruments any leads on this fascinating trail would be most
helpful.
>
> Are you (or the rest of youse guys) aware of Tony Twining's
Chrysalid
> Requiem that was recently recorded on the Canteloupe label? It's an
> astonishing hour-long vocal work in extremely extended JI, with
> sometimes more than 20 (!) Johnston accidentals on each note.
> Incredibly complex and very beautiful, and his group recorded it
(had
> to) by listening to a computer tape over headphones that gave them
> the pitches as they were singing. It's by far the most amazing
tuning
> feat I've ever heard in a vocal composition. The score is
> unbelievably complex, but the music doesn't give any hint of the
> amount of work. I notice there was a litle buzz on the list about
the
> piece some months ago, but no one seems to have heard it at the
time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kyle

***Hi Kyle!

I was up at the Bang on a Can thingy at Miller for this and I believe
I reported on it on this very list some time back... The headphones
were also used in the performance, but it all seemed quite natural
and, as you mention, easy to navigate (an illusion, obviously...)

Joe Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith <genewardsmith@j...>"

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41725

<genewardsmith@j...> wrote:
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
>
> > >This sort of thing can easily happen with JI;
> > >one reason to consider
> > >microtempering is simply to keep it under
> > >control.
> >
> > Actually, I find it fascinating when the notation accurately
reflects
> > the composer's compositional thinking, as Ben's notation kind of
has
> > to, instead of hiding behind approximations. That's one of the
things
> > I love about JI. To each his own.
>
> However, if you make no particular effort to stay close to the
tonic or fail to concern yourself with comma drift, the number of
digits in the numerator and denominator of the rational numbers of
the score will be proportional to time if harmonic change keeps up at
a more or less steady pace. Since accidentals are multiplicative,
that means they will also accumulate at a steady rate.

***Well, I wasn't going to comment about these posts, but I have to
say I've found Gene's line of reasoning here quite humorous.... (no
deprecation to Gene meant, of course...)

J. Pehrson

Joseph,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@r...>" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> ***Gee, this is an interesting post by Kraig Grady... You know,
> frankly, when watching the video of the _Delusion of the Fury_ I
> found it very *abstract* as well, certainly in the sense of Greek
> drama, which is quite *symbolic* as we all know... I immediately
> think of the masks moving around. Those *visual* ideas didn't strike
> me as "corporal" in any way...

One must bear in mind that this production, in spite of it being the *only* production of Delusion, was far from what Partch had either intended or hoped for; Madeline Tourtelot's film, done as virtually an afterthought when the production closed, pleased him even less:

"Frankly, I do not see how editing can save Madeline's film," he [Partch] told McClure. "How do I tell her?" He found little to recommend the film, and as time passed became almost wholly damning of her inadequate record of the production's "academically static modern dance" and the "nadir" it had reached "in costume treachery."

(from the Gilmore biography of Partch)

Sigh. Life isn't easy for the mavericks...

Cheers,
Jon

>

I would just like to add that knowing the piece as i do , i was quite aware how the film would be 30-45 seconds behind the music
It wads a great dissapointment that only distracts from the piece.

>
>
> From: "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>" <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>
> Subject: Re: Corporealism vs. Abstraction
>
>
>
> One must bear in mind that this production, in spite of it being the *only* production of Delusion, was far from what Partch had either intended or hoped for; Madeline Tourtelot's film, done as virtually an afterthought when the production closed, pleased him even less:
>
> "Frankly, I do not see how editing can save Madeline's film," he [Partch] told McClure. "How do I tell her?" He found little to recommend the film, and as time passed became almost wholly damning of her inadequate record of the production's "academically static modern dance" and the "nadir" it had reached "in costume treachery."
>
> (from the Gilmore biography of Partch)
>
> Sigh. Life isn't easy for the mavericks...
>
> Cheers,
> Jon
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@A...>"

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41742

<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> Joseph,
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@r...>"
<jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> > ***Gee, this is an interesting post by Kraig Grady... You know,
> > frankly, when watching the video of the _Delusion of the Fury_ I
> > found it very *abstract* as well, certainly in the sense of Greek
> > drama, which is quite *symbolic* as we all know... I immediately
> > think of the masks moving around. Those *visual* ideas didn't
strike
> > me as "corporal" in any way...
>
> One must bear in mind that this production, in spite of it being
the *only* production of Delusion, was far from what Partch had
either intended or hoped for; Madeline Tourtelot's film, done as
virtually an afterthought when the production closed, pleased him
even less:
>
> "Frankly, I do not see how editing can save Madeline's film," he
[Partch] told McClure. "How do I tell her?" He found little to
recommend the film, and as time passed became almost wholly damning
of her inadequate record of the production's "academically static
modern dance" and the "nadir" it had reached "in costume treachery."
>
> (from the Gilmore biography of Partch)
>
> Sigh. Life isn't easy for the mavericks...
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

***Thanks, Jon for the info. Well, as a novice Partch enthusiast, I
have to, unfortunately, admit that I still enjoy the film...

But, what's even worse is the fact that my *very* favorite Partch
piece is that *study* for Delusion... which is purely instrumental.
I believe the piece in question is _When the Petals Fell..._,
correct??

best,

Joe Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41744

> >
>
> I would just like to add that knowing the piece as i do , i was
quite aware how the film would be 30-45 seconds behind the music
> It wads a great dissapointment that only distracts from the piece.
>

***Well, in general I agree with Kraig, but here I feel that this
fact adds to a kind of charming "funky" quality of it along with the
horrible, amateurish scene cuts... After all, when was this film done
again? The technology is very dated. Well, regrettably all part and
Partchial of the "fun" in my view...

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@r...>"
> ***Thanks, Jon for the info. Well, as a novice Partch enthusiast, I
> have to, unfortunately, admit that I still enjoy the film...

Yes. I don't mean to spoil your fun! (just making you aware of it's somewhat unrepresentative nature WRT Partch).

> But, what's even worse is the fact that my *very* favorite Partch
> piece is that *study* for Delusion... which is purely instrumental.
> I believe the piece in question is _When the Petals Fell..._,
> correct??

"And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma". It's no problem that you like that piece at all - I do too. But the way things are these days, no one is *ever* likely to experience Partch's work the way he intended, because there isn't a single group out there dedicated to actually staging his works instead of just presenting "concerts of music".

Doesn't, or shouldn't, diminish your enjoyment one iota. Just frustrates the hell out of those who know what could be (in a more perfect world)...

Cheers,
Jon

In a message dated 1/4/03 1:54:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, JSZANTO@ADNC.COM
writes:

> because there isn't a single group out there dedicated to actually staging
> his works instead of just presenting "concerts of music".
>
>

Jon, that isn't true. You'll just have to be patient. Johnny Reinhard

Johnny,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> Jon, that isn't true.

For all intents and purposes, it most certainly is.

> You'll just have to be patient.

I remember getting raked over the coals, more than two decades ago, that there weren't enough stagings of Partch works. Never mind that there were more in that decade than any time in HP's life. And since 1987 I think there has been *one* drammatic/theatrical presentation of any of his works (Newband's "Wayward" staged by Tom O'Horgan (sp?)).

Patient? Oh, sure, I'm patient. Of course waiting this long means an even greater expectation...

Cheers,
Jon

----- Original Message -----
From: <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>

> And since 1987 I think there has been *one* drammatic/theatrical
>presentation of any of his works (Newband's "Wayward" staged by
>Tom O'Horgan (sp?)).

Doesn't Oedipus by Newband count?
Metropolitan Museum of Art: April 24, 1997

* David Beardsley
* http://biink.com
* http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

David,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, David Beardsley <davidbeardsley@b...> wrote:
> Doesn't Oedipus by Newband count?
> Metropolitan Museum of Art: April 24, 1997

Seeing that it hadn't been produced since the very early 50's, in both completely and semi-staged versions (and two different productions), and that the Met version was (as best as it has been both reported and described to me) a "concert staging" (like when they present Wagner at the symphony, with singers standing in a row in front of the orchestra, it is not what one could called a true staging of that piece.

The works intended for stage should be fully staged; other works can be done with dancers, or dramatic presentations.

But I ask too much.

Fair question, though - I hadn't forgotten about the "Oedipus", and just wish (and hope) that they'll do it in the new theatre at Montclair when it's built. Again, I'll have to be patient... :)

Cheers,
Jon

>

I wish to second that!

>
> From: "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>" <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM>
> Subject: Re: Corporealism vs. Abstraction
>
>
> Whatever the causes, in the last couple of months, it's nice to have your voice in the mix around here.
>
> C]
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

Kyle Gann wrote:

> Alison, Jon, Kraig,
>
> Well, I should have kept my big mouth shut,

I enjoyed the article. As a European, though not of the mainland and from a country where music
was virtually destroyed by the Reformation, I try not to think of microtonality and the whole
Partch ethos as being purely American art forms, otherwise I'd be putting myself in an impossible
situation. This tag is nonetheless convenient for the snobbish and fearful hordes in the British
art music establishment. This at times encourages me to continue and at other times irritates me
almost to the point of throwing in the towel.

I prefer to look at the whole issue of microtonality and Corporealism as a heritage available to
all of us, handed down from early Greek and Arab civilisations
( and muddled by medieval Europeans). The authority that this viewpoint carries is the best
leverage I have against those who don't wish to hear of alternatives to German masters.

Thanks Kyle for taking time to post the article.

Kind Regards
a.m.

Hi Alison,

>As a European, though
>not of the mainland and from a
>country where music
>was virtually destroyed by the Reformation, I
>try not to think of microtonality
>and the whole
>Partch ethos as being purely American art
>forms, otherwise I'd be putting
>myself in an impossible
>situation. This tag is nonetheless convenient
>for the snobbish and fearful
>hordes in the British
>art music establishment. This at times
>encourages me to continue and at other
>times irritates me
>almost to the point of throwing in the towel.

Wow, what a great point. I do automatically think of any composer involved in microtonality as being American. The times I've been able to mention microtonality or JI to European composers, they have responded with some of the blankest looks I've ever seen. What in the world am I *talking* about? Of course, I could get similar looks from 7 out of 10 American composers, but that doesn't occur to me. And the few European composers I've heard use microtones, it's like Ferneyhough, an extra decorative layer of pitch-bend complexity to make everything even more difficult and obscure, not for the sake of any sustained enjoyment of new intervals and harmonies. I do think, rather unfairly I guess, of Europe as the continent impervious to microtones, or at least to just intonation. Giacinto Scelsi is, or rather was, a very interesting exception, of course.

But of course, that means: *someday* I'm going to be asked or get a chance, or somebody else will, to write an article on Microtonality in Europe, and the entire article will have to be devoted to - Alison Monteith. So don't throw in the towel. There are advantages to being the only person on a continent doing a particular thing, you just haven't found enough of them yet. For many years I've been the only academic musicologist in the world who gives a damn about Downtown Manhattan music, and it's started to pay off.

Actually, Bob Gilmore teaches at Dartington (in southern England) with a microtonal composer, Frank Denyer I believe his name is - though I think his emphasis is a little more on homemade instruments than on tuning. But he's a Partch fan like Bob.

All the best,

Kyle

>

There also appears to be quite a bit of activity in Australia
these days

and I guess the rest of the world is microtonal by default

>
>
> From: Kyle Gann <kgann@earthlink.net>
>
>
>
>
> Wow, what a great point. I do automatically think of any composer
> involved in microtonality as being American.
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

Kyle Gann wrote:

> Hi Alison,
>
> >As a European, though
> >not of the mainland and from a
> >country where music
> >was virtually destroyed by the Reformation, I
> >try not to think of microtonality
> >and the whole
> >Partch ethos as being purely American art
> >forms, otherwise I'd be putting
> >myself in an impossible
> >situation. This tag is nonetheless convenient
> >for the snobbish and fearful
> >hordes in the British
> >art music establishment. This at times
> >encourages me to continue and at other
> >times irritates me
> >almost to the point of throwing in the towel.
>
> Wow, what a great point. I do automatically think of any composer
> involved in microtonality as being American. The times I've been able
> to mention microtonality or JI to European composers, they have
> responded with some of the blankest looks I've ever seen. What in the
> world am I *talking* about? Of course, I could get similar looks from
> 7 out of 10 American composers, but that doesn't occur to me. And the
> few European composers I've heard use microtones, it's like
> Ferneyhough, an extra decorative layer of pitch-bend complexity to
> make everything even more difficult and obscure, not for the sake of
> any sustained enjoyment of new intervals and harmonies. I do think,
> rather unfairly I guess, of Europe as the continent impervious to
> microtones, or at least to just intonation. Giacinto Scelsi is, or
> rather was, a very interesting exception, of course.
>
> But of course, that means: *someday* I'm going to be asked or get a
> chance, or somebody else will, to write an article on Microtonality
> in Europe, and the entire article will have to be devoted to - Alison
> Monteith. So don't throw in the towel. There are advantages to being
> the only person on a continent doing a particular thing, you just
> haven't found enough of them yet. For many years I've been the only
> academic musicologist in the world who gives a damn about Downtown
> Manhattan music, and it's started to pay off.
>
> Actually, Bob Gilmore teaches at Dartington (in southern England)
> with a microtonal composer, Frank Denyer I believe his name is -
> though I think his emphasis is a little more on homemade instruments
> than on tuning. But he's a Partch fan like Bob.
>
> All the best,
>
> Kyle
>

The most recent Wire magazine ran an article on Frank Denyer (the one before had a piece on Lou
Harrison) so I had a trawl through the net. There were a few performance links but no official
website. I'll just write to him and introduce myself. From the Wire article his path seems to have
been very much one of frustration leading to a tiny glimmer of light as he follows his star.

Another coincidence is that one of the other musicians working with me on a large scale community
arts project, Mike Freeman, was invited to Dartington last year to do workshops using his Junk
Music set-up, the sort of thing that Skip La Plante does. He has no knowledge of microtonality but
he's coming to visit me later this month when I will initiate him into the one true sect. Possibly
my first disciple.

He was honoured to have been invited to Dartington (Stravinsky taught there) and the fact that the
recycled musical instrument field is being taken at all seriously is evidence perhaps of some
change in attitudes. Naturally I'm extremely envious and intend to usurp his position using any
means possible.

Oh - and the title European Microtonalist pleases me greatly... : - )

Kind Regards
a.m.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41710.html#41766

> >
>
> There also appears to be quite a bit of activity in Australia
> these days
>

***This is true, and some of us had the good fortune to meet some of
these folks at the Claremont Microfest last year: Greg Schiemer and
Amanda Cole come immediately to mind... along with our "own" Dave
Keenan, who is a bit more on the theory side...

J. Pehrson

Hi Kraig,

>There also appears to be quite a bit of
>activity in Australia
>these days

>and I guess the rest of the world is
>microtonal by default

Good point... It strikes me, though, that perhaps to feel like a "microtonalist" you have to be in a normative context against which you're being more "micro" than normal, that an oppositional stance might be inherent in the term. Perhaps we can define "microtonal" either as meaning "using intervals smaller than 100 cents" or more contextually as "using intervals smaller than those found in the music pervasive in one's culture."

Or maybe it should just stop snowing here so I can get off the internet, get in the car, go do the things I'm supposed to be doing, and quit responding to everything on the tuning list. Thanks for disagreeing earlier.

I met a bunch of composers in Brisbane over the summer, and they were divided into postminimalists and Ferneyhough-style "new complexity" geeks. The latter style has a strong foothold there, I suppose because of the British connection. The ubiquitous Warren Burt, who was by definition there because He is Everywhere, made the Melbourne scene sound more interesting.

Yours,

Kyle

>I do automatically think of any composer
>involved in microtonality as being American.

What a strange suggestion by Kyle Gann that there are only
a handful of European composers involved in microtonality!
Did you ever cast a glance at the microtonal discography?
No absence of European composers there.

>The times I've been able
>to mention microtonality or JI to European composers, they have
>responded with some of the blankest looks I've ever seen. What in the
>world am I *talking* about?

This is not my experience. When I mention my interest in microtonal
music, the only people who ask what that is are non-musicians.
Maybe you've spoken with people from other parts of Europe than I.

>I do think, rather unfairly I guess, of Europe as the continent
>impervious to microtones, or at least to just intonation.

I wouldn't think so either, but JI is probably more sporadic. Maybe
about half of Fokker's compositions are in JI, and more recently, I
heard a new piece by Calliope Tsoupaki for just tuned harpsichord.

Manuel