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Harry Partch


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He Is Legend

The Japan Society remounts Harry Partch's "total theater"

by Andy Beta, Village Voice

November 27th, 2007 6:18 PM

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Only the second staging ever: Delusion of the Fury's Partch, circa 1970

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Iconoclast composer Harry Partch—in discussing his late masterwork, Delusion of the Fury—stated in his notes: "Words cannot proxy for the experience of knowing—of seeing and hearing." Indeed, had you not been in attendance for Fury's lone staging (in 1969), the experience of Partch's singular music would be but half-formed. Through the concerted efforts of the Japan Society, director-designer John Jesurun, composer and Partch expert Dean Drummond, choreographer Dawn Akemi Saito, and a cast of 24 musicians and 10 dancers, Delusion of the Fury's second staging will take place December 4, 6, 7, and 8 at the Japan Society. Needless to say, it's a once-in-a-lifetime concert.

Fury was the culmination of Partch's five decades of composition, microtonal theory, instrument-building, theatrics, modern dance, and ancient chorale, a piece of "total theater" that incorporates Japanese Noh, Ethiopian folk tales, and mime into its 70-minute duration. Born in Oakland in 1901 (he died in 1974), Partch lived an iconic life: He met poet William Butler Yeats (setting his verse to viola), hoboed cross-country, chucked 12-tone Western intonation for one of his own creation (his most famous being a 43-tone scale), and turned snatches of Depression-era graffiti—as well as the Chinese poetry of Li Po—into musical compositions. Partch also created the first artist-run record label to release his music, and crafted instruments out of bamboo, Pyrex bowls, and artillery-shell casings, their presence as sculptures matched by the startling sounds that emanate from them. "I remember thinking that it sounded like nothing I ever heard before," Jesurun says about first encountering Partch's music. "I thought it was pretty out there."

In the nearly 40 years since Fury premiered, it has remained far out there. Percussive, bewildering, salient even amid the 20th-century avant-garde, Partch's prickly music has stymied and entranced listeners for decades, yet far too often the visual and theatrical are excised from the experience. Even Drummond, who performed as a student in the original staging of Fury (and who now maintains Partch's instruments at Montclair State University), finds that the music retains its enigma, despite his intimacy with the material: "His theatrical intents, with how he incorporated the Japanese legend . . . are extremely mysterious, surreal, strange, and not really explained. I'm kind of curious."

Running through rehearsals leading up to the premiere, Jesurun feels that he's still discovering nuances in Delusion of the Fury, too. "I've been struck by the continuing depth of the music. Physically, the vibration of it . . . there's a real power emanating from the music and the instruments. It continues to resonate. The more you're around Partch's music, the deeper you go. Right now, we're in the middle of the ocean."

http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0748,beta,78457,11.html

Edited by 7/4
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December 6, 2007

Music Review

Dreams (and Instruments) of a Visionary Tinkerer

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI, NY Times

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Harry Partch instruments used for “Delusions to the Fury.”

Almost every composer is part inventor. But Harry Partch, the eclectic, visionary and self-taught California-born composer who died at 73 in 1974, was primarily an inventor, in the most creative sense of the term.

Discontent with standard Western conceptions of tuning and intonation, Partch grew fascinated with alternative approaches, especially Asian systems. He was a pioneer in microtonal music, which broke down the 12-note chromatic scale into smaller divisions, exposing notes in between the standard pitches that convey hauntingly beautiful gradations of flatness and sharpness.

But to play his microtonal music Partch had to invent and build his own instruments. The work that brought him wider attention was “Delusion of the Fury,” a continuous 90-minute music-theater piece conceived for dancers and instrumentalists who could also sing, and scored for a large ensemble of Partch’s homemade instruments, many adapted from Asian models. Yet the premiere at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1969 was the work’s only performance.

Until now. The Japan Society in New York commissioned a production team — the director and video designer John Jesurun, the choreographer Dawn Akemi Saito and the musical director Dean Drummond — to restage “Delusion of the Fury.” The first of four performances took place on Tuesday night, an engrossing presentation of a fascinating and tender work adapted from Japanese Noh plays and an African folk tale.

To produce it the Japan Society worked closely with the Harry Partch Institute at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where the composer’s instruments are maintained. Assembled onstage, the mostly wood instruments — with rows of bells, dangling chamber bowls, unconventional marimbas and such — were more beautiful to look at than most theater sets.

The names of the instruments almost suggest what they sound like: Blow Boy, Eucal Blossom, Cry Chord. And the two dozen accomplished members of Newband, an ensemble in residence at Montclair, devoted in particular to Partch, gave a sensitive, nuanced and compelling performance.

“Delusion of the Fury” begins with a long instrumental overture, the Exordium. A gently droning main theme on a dulcimerlike instrument sets the mood as other instruments enter with delicate sliding figurations, speckled bursts of percussion and sustained chords that sound entrancingly off-pitch. Eventually the overture breaks into a playfully jerky dance. Then six dancers perform a kinetic ballet until the protagonists in Act I appear.

A pensive young pilgrim (the agile, boyish dancer Steven Reker), who has slain a princely warrior in battle, approaches a temple seeking absolution, conveying his remorse through halting, fitful movements. But his victim, now a restless ghost (Whitney V. Hunter, another dynamic dancer) arrives at the same shrine.

In an unexpected twist the ghost is resentful when his son (the lithe Mina Nishimura) shows up, hoping to see his dead father’s face. Seemingly affronted to have his spiritual space intruded upon, the ghost takes on his son in a wild battle dance. This effort empowers the ghost to live again and rechallenge his slayer. By the end the father learns that clinging to feelings of fury is a delusion. The act ends with his chanted supplication, “Pray for me.”

Act II presents a sardonic tale of a deaf hobo (again Mr. Reker), confronted by an old female goatherd (Rachael Bell), a well-meaning busybody. A quarrel ensues. The villagers take sides in a volatile dance and then drag the combatants before a befuddled, nearsighted judge (Mr. Hunter), who orders a cessation of hostilities and leads an anthem to justice.

The music abounds in myriad colorings, exotic harmonies and percolating rhythmic vitality. The characters sing-speak, mostly in a language Partch made up. When the orchestra chants, “Oh wee oh,” it’s hard not to think of the Wicked Witch’s marching minions in “The Wizard of Oz.” What comes through, finally, are Partch’s inspired musical and theatrical instincts, not to mention his humanity, born of years as a hobo in midlife — a difficult yet enriching experience he never seemed to regret.

“Delusion of the Fury” continues through Saturday at the Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan; (212) 715-1258; japansociety.org.

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edc is still chuckling about "mounting" & "remounting" as 7/4 talks to himself in the corner. seriously tho', Partch is great, rough edges (& rough trade) & all. if i have a chance, stands for decibels, i'll post photos of the stone wall & patio that Harry built way out in Macon County, North Carolina, when he was staying at the house of a friend of mine there (true story). do you have all the Enclosure volumes, etc?

Yes to the Enclosures, book (1st edition), video. And I have a bunch of vinyl, but no Gate 5s. The first round of CRIs also.

were you influenced by Genesis of Music at all or did you come at some of those things from another path?

It's an interesting reference, but my tuning influence comes from more of a Hindustani and minimalism direction.

I've heard NewBand & others perform Partch many times. I've thought about building a Harmonic Cannon, but I just don't have room for it now...

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edc is still chuckling about "mounting" & "remounting" as 7/4 talks to himself in the corner.

If I can turn someone on to Partch, it's a good thing!

There's more to Delusion of the Fury - search youtube for it yourself...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anthony Braxton in "Forces in Motion":

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 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 scientists 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.

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  • 2 years later...

This reminded me of Hal Wilner's meditations on Mingus, Weird Nightmare which makes use of Harry Partch instruments on several tracks.

I have that one...haven't heard it in years. Stars playing the Partch instruments.

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  • 5 years later...

25DELUSION-master675_zpsylfwi6n6.jpg

“Delusion of the Fury,” with re-creations of Harry Partch’s instruments. Credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Review: ‘Delusion of the Fury,’ With New Partch Instruments

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

JULY 24, 2015

"Unfortunately, “Delusion of the Fury,” the unclassifiable music-theater work from the late 1960s by the American maverick composer Harry Partch, was scheduled for just two performances on successive nights. The fantastical, daffy yet affecting production, created by the composer and director Heiner Goebbels for the Ruhrtriennale in Germany in 2013, opened on Thursday at New York City Center. Regardless of the financial and logistical restraints, I bet “Delusion of the Fury” could have drawn solid audiences for a week. At the end of the performance, the audience brought the impressive musicians of the Ensemble Musikfabrik, who doubled as actors and singers in this 75-minute work, back onstage several times during a rousing ovation."

more here

 

 

 

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  • 10 months later...

Misconceptions on Partch

Paul Simon's new album includes unique sessions from Montclair Sate

"Whether blending Western sounds with South African styles on 1986's "Graceland," Brazilian sounds on 1990's "The Rhythm of the Saints," he has always looked for new sounds and textures to broaden his music.

Paul Simon's new album, 'Stranger to Stranger,' explores the unique sounds of Harry Partch's instruments.

So it should come as no surprise that he used the unusual musical scales and instruments of Harry Partch on his new album "Stranger to Stranger," which is being released tomorrow, June 3."

 

 

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