Genesis of a Music: An Account of a Creative Work, Its Roots and Its Fulfillments [Hardcover]

Harry Partch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1974

Among the few truly experimental composers in our cultural history, Harry Partch's life (1901–1974) and music embody most completely the quintessential American rootlessness, isolation, pre-civilized cult of experience, and dichotomy of practical invention and transcendental visions. Having lived mostly in the remote deserts of Arizona and New Mexico with no access to formal training, Partch naturally created theatrical ritualistic works incorporating Indian chants, Japanese kabuki and Noh, Polynesian microtones, Balinese gamelan, Greek tragedy, dance, mime, and sardonic commentary on Hollywood and commercial pop music of modern civilization. First published in 1949, Genesis of a Music is the manifesto of Partch's radical compositional practice and instruments (which owe nothing to the 300-year-old European tradition of Western music.) He contrasts Abstract and Corporeal music, proclaiming the latter as the vital, emotionally tactile form derived from the spoken word (like Greek, Chinese, Arabic, and Indian musics) and surveys the history of world music at length from this perspective. Parts II, III, and IV explain Partch's theories of scales, intonation, and instrument construction with copious acoustical and mathematical documentation. Anyone with a musically creative attitude, whether or not familiar with traditional music theory, will find this book revelatory.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 517 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr; 2 edition (August 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030671597X
• ISBN-13: 978-0306715976
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,244,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most of today's innovators started with this book, January 17, 2005

By 

Charles S. Hubbard Jr. "bad mutha hubbard" (Philadelphia PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Genesis Of A Music: An Account Of A Creative Work, Its Roots, And Its Fulfillments, Second Edition (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

I disagree that you shouldn't start with this book. Most books that even mention the subject of JI gloss over it, insult your intelligence without providing any real data to make your own decisions, because most of the people writing those books consider JI a curiosity. If you ever read more than one reference to JI, you already know most of what most sources tell you.
Partch is certainly bombastic, which gave me many a chuckle. He was very very defensive, with good reason.
He also deals with subharmonic series- minor tonalities- which makes up a full half of his system, and which is explicitly eschewed by Doty's Primer. Doty denies there is any consonance to it and refuses to discuss it, reducing every harmony into least-common-denominators to find some sort of "absolute consonance level", which results in ratios with huge numbers that tell you nothing about the purpose of the chord. For a minor triad, Partch would say "1/4;1/5;1/6" and Doty would say 10:12:15. Partch also backs his ideas up with everyone from Archytas to Ptolemy to Galilei.
Any other book about or by Partch is focused on the novelty of his instruments, his "43 notes!!!" (which sickened him, being that he often used more or less in various pieces- it is not about the number of notes) or his feelings on life and aesthetics. Partch despised concert music- which doesn't mean a thing to me. This book gives you the facts, the background to actually be able to use the innovations Partch gave to the world.
I would recommend, in addition to this, reading George A. Miller's essay "The Magical Number 7, +/- 2" and any resources you can find on Gestalt perception and the Law of Pragnanz. Without these fundamental perceptual ideas, your 10,000-note octaves will sound like chaos.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE desk reference on Just Intonation, November 1, 1999

By 

Bob Lee (Cloverdale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Genesis Of A Music: An Account Of A Creative Work, Its Roots, And Its Fulfillments, Second Edition (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

As a steel guitarist, I find the entire subject of Just Intonation (JI) fascinating. It's a beautiful sound, perfectly aligned with the laws of physics. Partch's book includes tables of all of the JI ratios, translated into cents. This is the ultimate reference book for anyone experimenting with tunings.

Partch's music may not be your cup of tea, but the logic behind it is top notch. With this book and his home-made instuments (there are pictures and descriptions), Partch kicked open the door for the modern micro-tonal movement. The musical universe will never be the same.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You had to be there., January 23, 2005

By 

William B. Loughborough (Goldendale, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Genesis Of A Music: An Account Of A Creative Work, Its Roots, And Its Fulfillments, Second Edition (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

I was a part of Harry's world for a time in the mid 1950s, maybe even a colleague as well as a devotee of sorts. I took a 40 year sabbatical and am again working in the field of musical instrument design/manufacture/performance.

This book is like a bible to me in many ways but what most of the reviews lack is the experience of having "been there, heard/felt that" which is a requirement for really getting it.

All the theoretical/philosophical considerations are mere historical/philosophical blather compared to actually being around the music itself. The implications of "corporeal" in terms of making/experiencing music rather than talking *about* music are very profound. You can get some idea from sound recordings, videos/films, or Web sites but unless you take part in the experience, you have no idea what's happening here.

I'm sure plenty (most?) people who encountered it were isolated from experiencing it fully by their backgrounds (nature or nurture), but for those who were moved, his work was the palpable exemplification of "profound". His picture should appear in the dictionary entry for "genius".

Love.