Harry Partch: A Biography [Hardcover]

Bob Gilmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 1998

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

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.

From Booklist

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (June 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300065213
• ISBN-13: 978-0300065213
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilmore's account of Partch's life reads like a thriller, December 6, 1998

By 

music lover "rdm" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harry Partch: A Biography (Hardcover)

American maverick iconclast composer mythologised his life history in his own lifetime. Astoundingly, there has previously been very little analytical/musicological or biographical information published on this important and unique American composer. McGeary, in Bitter Music, asserted that nothing COULD be known of Partch's early life. We all agreed. We were wrong. Gilmore has, like a private investigator, meticulously followed the trail which has lain below the sand of the American deserts through which Partch trailed. You won't need to be either a music student or particularly interested in Harry Partch to find this book an utterly fascinating account of this still underrated composer, instrument-maker and 'philosophic-music-man'. It stands as a chronicle of the twentieth century American man, a tangent to the mainstream of arts culture, an important contribution to Depression Era art, as well as obviously to contemporary music and just intonation/tuning matters.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars plus 2 thumbs up for Gilmore, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Harry Partch: A Biography (Hardcover)

I recall Bob dropping by my fathers house in the early 90's to collect things for this book. Little did I know how many of my questions would be answered by this novel. Harry had always been that of a surrogate grandpa figure to me. I was 8 when he died, so alot has gone unanswered ever since.

Being a biography only, it fills you in with what drove Harry to do what he did and all the stumbling blocks encountered along the way (things I have always wondered about).

If you are interested in Harry's musical intsruments, corporeal philosophy, or the tuning set-up he put together, I would suggest getting the book he wrote "Genesis of a Music", sold here at Amazon.

In purchasing Bob's book, you will encounter a path in which a true creative mind was once lead down, unmutilated.....Geordan Mitchell