Harry Partch: A Biography - Hardcover

Gilmore, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300065213 ISBN 13: 9780300065213

Publisher: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998

Synopsis

This engaging book is the first biography of one of the great ""originals"" of American classical music. It provides a full portrait of Harry Partch (1901-1974) a composer theorist and creator of musical instruments whose life and works were marginalized and unconventional yet who had an enormous influence on later experimental composers.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Visionary composer, theorist, and creator of musical instruments, Harry Partch (1901-1974) was a leading figure in the development of an indigenously American contemporary music. A pioneer in his explorations of new instruments and new tunings, Partch created multimedia theater works that combine sight and sound in a compelling synthesis. This book is the first to tell the complete story of Partch's life and work. Drawing on interviews with many of Partch's associates and on the complete archives of the Harry Partch Estate, Bob Gilmore provides a full and sympathetic portrait of this extraordinary creative artist.

Reviews

Harry Partch (1901^-74) believed in natural order, which led him to formulate musical scales, based on just intonation, whose "octaves" contained 43 intervals. He captured real speech patterns in his vocal compositions; his Oedipus, based on the poetry of Yeats, greatly rewritten, is an example of this. To realize his music, he built stringed instruments, keyboards that operated reeds, and tuned percussion; the shipping of his often immense instruments hindered public performances. Dance and staged movement were an integral part of most of his later music. Employed at odd jobs or living off grants, friends, and sponsors, Partch was wary of academic institutions. Bitter Music, recalling his days as a hobo, and Genesis of a Music, describing his musical theories, are his major writings. Few recordings gained commercial release in his lifetime, and his music remains recondite today. Gilmore's loving biography of an isolated, often bitter man depicts him as being ahead of other contemporary composers while on a track parallel to theirs and as being unique in his belief in predetermined, rhythmic, tone-centered music. Alan Hirsch

Harry Partch (1901-74) was one of this country's most iconoclastic, visionary, and courageous composers, and it is a measure of his controversial status in the world of American arts and letters that it has taken nearly a quarter-century for a detailed, well-researched biography to be written. Gilmore, a British lecturer in music, has done an outstanding job in piecing together the scanty documentary evidence of Partch's life and conducted numerous interviews with friends and associates, resulting in a superbly written, captivating work. Partch's copious travels, hand-to-mouth existence during the Depression, tumultuous formal music education, and relentless pursuit of an alternative to traditional European art music are carefully and lovingly chronicled. Gilmore writes well for the lay reader; even the section on Partch's idiosyncratic approach to intonation is eminently readable. One might wish for a more generous collection of photographs, since Partch's battery of homemade instruments are stunning visual?as well as acoustic?creations. All in all, though, this is an outstanding achievement. Highly recommended for all collections.?Larry A. Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300065213
• ISBN 13: 9780300065213
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 483