a lot to offer

This is taken from Graham Lock's very entertaining biography/tour
diary of Anthony Braxton and his (Crispell, Dresser, and Hemingway)
Quartet, _FORCES IN MOTION_ (p. 152-3)... It's interesting to note
that Braxton touches on a whole host of ways in which he's been
inspired by Harry Partch, and yet he only indirectly alludes to Partch
and tuning at all.

L: OK. Perhaps we could move on to Sun Ra and Harry Partch?
B: Let me take Harry Partch first. Harry Partch has profoundly
affected me, but I've not been able to demonstrate what I've learned
from this man. For instance, I've always wanted to put out my own
records like Mr Partch did, but I've never had the money. His book{1}
would also be very inspirational, and my move to build instruments
would come from Mr Partch's example. I think he's a great composer
too; he's so underrated in this period it's a damned shame. It's an
indictment of America that there's no understanding of, or respect
for, this man's music.

The fact that he would look back to the ancients to understand better
what music is, and then build a system based on the fundamentals -
this is what connects me to Harry Partch because that's exactly what
I've been doing. And if I'm allowed to do my work in the future that's
exactly what I'll continue to do: go to the ancients and to the
scientist to understand better the route of a given information line
and the transformational potential of music. Harry Partch
short-circuited the whole post-Webern continuum and established a
whole other area for investigation. The dynamic implications of his
music, as well as its actual beauty, affected me and helped me develop
the mind-set to begin looking at my own evolution.

---------------------
{1} _Genesis of a Music_ (1974). Partch (1901-74) devised his own
forty-three-note-to-the-octave scale, designed and built his own
instruments to play this music, and released his first records on his
own Gate 5 label. He followed the ancient belief that music was part
of a composite culture that also included poetry, dance and theater;
many of his own works are music-dramas that attempt to re-create
elements like magic and ritual now generally vanished from Western art
music.

Dan