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List of works by Harry Partch

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The American composer Harry Partch (1901–1974) composed in musical tunings not available on conventional Western instruments. Instead, he developed a 43-tone scale and new instruments. His music emphasized monophony and corporeality, in contrast to the abstract, polyphonic music prevalent at the time. His earliest compositions were small-scale pieces to be intoned to instrumental backing; his later works were large-scale, integrated theater productions in which he expected each of the performers to sing, dance, speak, and play instruments.[1]

Partch described the theory and practice of his music in his book Genesis of a Music, which he had published first in 1947,[2] and in an expanded edition in 1974.[3] A collection of essays, journals, and librettos by Partch was published posthumously as Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos 1991. Philip Blackburn edited a collection of Partch's writings, drawings, scores, and photographs, published as Enclosure 3 in 1997.

Partch partially supported himself with the sales of recordings, which he began making in the late 1930s.[4] He published his recordings under the Gate 5 Records label beginning in 1953.[5] Towards the end of his life, Columbia Masterworks released records of his works. Partch scored six films by Madeline Tourtelot, starting with 1957's Windsong, and was the subject of a number of documentaries.[6]

Works

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  • Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po (1930–1933)
  • Two Psalms (1931)
  • The Potion Scene (from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) (1931/1955)
  • The Wayward
    • Barstow: Eight Hitchhikers' Inscriptions (1941/1954/1967)
    • San Francisco: A Setting of the Cries of Two Newsboys on a Street Corner (1943)[7]
    • The Letter (1943)
    • U.S. Highball (1943/1955)
  • Yankee Doodle Fantasy (1944)
  • Dark Brother (1942–1943)
  • Two Settings from Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1944)
  • "I'm very happy to be telling you about this..." (1945)
  • Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales (1946)
  • Eleven Intrusions (1949–1950)[8]
  • Plectra and Percussion Dances[8]
    • Ring Around the Moon (1949–1950)[8]
    • Castor and Pollux (1952)[8]
    • Even Wild Horses (1952)[8]
  • Oedipus (1950/1952–1954/1967)
  • Two Settings from Lewis Carroll (1954)
  • Ulysses at the Edge (1955)
  • The Bewitched (1955/1973)
  • Windsong (1955)
    • rewritten as Daphne of the Dunes (1967)
  • Revelations in the Courthouse Park (1960)
  • Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (1961)
  • Bless This Home (1961)
  • Water! Water!: An Intermission with Prologues and Epilogues (1961)[8]
  • And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (1963–66)
  • Delusion of the Fury (1965–66)
  • The Dreamer That Remains—A Study in Loving (1972)

Books

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  • Genesis of a Music (1947; revised 1974) Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306801068
  • Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos (1991; published posthumously) University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252069130
  • Enclosure 3 (1997) Innova. ISBN 0-9656569-0-X

Recordings

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Audio

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Partch made recordings of his own music; on recordings such as the soundtrack to Windsong, he used multitrack recording, which allowed him to play all the instruments himself. He never used synthesized or computer-generated sounds, though he had access to such technology.[9]

  • The World of Harry Partch (Columbia Masterworks MS 7207 & MQ 7207, 1969, out of print) Daphne of the Dunes, Barstow, and Castor & Pollux, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer.
  • Delusion of the Fury (Columbia Masterworks LP M2 30576, 1971; CD Innova Recordings 406, 2001) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer and "EXTRA: A Glimpse into the World of Harry Partch", composer introduces and comments on the 27 unique instruments built by him.
  • Enclosure II (early speech-music works) (Innova 401)
  • Enclosure V ("On a Greek Theme") (Innova 405)
  • Enclosure VI ("Delusion of the Fury") (Innova 406)
  • Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury. A Ritual of Dream and Delusion (Wergo, 2022) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Heiner Goebbels.[10]

Films

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Films scored by Harry Partch
Title Year Length Director Notes
Windsong 1958 17:38 Madeline Tourtelot
Music Studio—Harry Partch 1958 17:48 Madeline Tourtelot
Rotate the Body in All Its Planes 1961 9:00 Madeline Tourtelot
Revelation in the Courthouse Park 1961 6:50 Madeline Tourtelot
  • Excerpts of University of Illinois production filmed April 19, 1961, for WILL-TV (broadcast April 25 and May 3)
  • Producer (stage): Barnard Hewitt
  • Conductor: John Garvey
The Music of Harry Partch 1968 29:59
  • Paul Marshall
  • Paul Steen
  • KEBS-TV documentary.
  • Features a performance of Daphne of the Dunes conducted by Thomas Nee.
U.S. Highball 1968 24:18 Madeline Tourtelot Originally filmed in 1958
Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual Of Dream And Delusion 1971 75:00 Madeline Tourtelot
  • Filmed at UCLA in 1969.
  • Choreography: Storie Crawford
  • Stage director: John Crawford
The Dreamer That Remains: A Portrait of Harry Partch 1973 27:00 Stephen Pouliot Producer: Betty Freeman
A Tantalus Film in Association with Whitelight

References

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  1. ^ Sheppard 2001, pp. 180–181.
  2. ^ McGeary 2000, p. xx.
  3. ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxvi.
  4. ^ McGeary 2000, p. xix.
  5. ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxi.
  6. ^ McGeary 2000, p. xxii.
  7. ^ Gilmore & Johnston 2002, p. 366.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gilmore & Johnston 2002, p. 367.
  9. ^ Harrison 2000, p. 136.
  10. ^ Rodríguez Lenin 2022.

Sources

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