Genesis of a Music [Hardcover]

Harry Partch (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: The University of Wisconsin Press; 1St Edition edition (1949)
• ASIN: B0038L9E1E
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Master Work of a Genius December 12, 2000

By Peter Torbay

Format:Library Binding

Rarely, if ever in your life do you come across a masterpiece. Think of Mutiny on the Bounty, Nordhoff and Hall as an example, the works of Eiseley or Bradbury or Joyce. But those are works of mere fiction.

Harry Partch was nothing if non-fiction. He was a scientist of musical theory. I knew the man, knew his instruments and his work. Only later, after he died, did I try to understand his masterwork, Genesis of a Music, and I'm still trying to.

Partch is a Titan in a world that went for Pop. Partch is the Steve Jobs to Bill Gates. His music theory was the genesis for the work of Phillip Glass and John Cage, an attempt, like the masters of old, Kepler and Galileo, to set down a definitive tome on the theory of what music really IS, in the sense of its intervals and temperaments, what is mere dissonance, and what is the voice of god.

Any serious musician who hasn't studied Genesis of a Music is missing the calculus of his art, the holy grail of his study.

This one book defines the universe of melodic and inspirational sound that we call music. If ever there was a work with some meat on its bones, Genesis of a Music is it. You must carry it with you night and day, and only take it out late at night, in your study carel in some dark library, sneaking passages like a secret compact, a cipher schrivened on the papyrus of Isis.

Then if you're lucky enough to find one of his old vinyls, you can say you've heard the bells pealing from heaven above.