The Harry Partch Collection, Volume 1

Harry Partch (Performer), Johnston (Composer), Pippin (Performer), Snead (Performer), Schleppe (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Harry Partch, Pippin, Snead, Schleppe
• Composer: Johnston
• Audio CD (September 28, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: New World Records
• ASIN: B0002WZTKC
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,060 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This newly remastered reissue marks a welcome return to the catalog of the first volume of the classic 4-CD collection that was formerly available on the CRI label. The works recorded on this disc span the first six years of what Harry Partch (1901–1974), slightly tongue-in-cheek, called the "third period" of his creative life. They show him moving away from the obsession with "the intrinsic music of spoken words" that had characterized his earlier output (the vocal works of 1930–33 and 1941–45) and towards an instrumental idiom, predominantly percussive in nature. This path was to take him through the "music-dance drama" King Oedipus (1951)—-the culmination of his "spoken word" manner—to the "dance satire" The Bewitched (1954–55), in which his new percussive idiom manifests itself. The three works on this disc show Partch before, during, and after this period of transition. In their quiet, forlorn way, the Eleven Intrusions are among the most compelling and beautiful of Partch’s works. The individual pieces were composed at various times between August 1949 and December 1950, and only later gathered together as a cycle. Nonetheless they form a unified whole, with a nucleus of eight songs framed by two instrumental preludes and an essentially instrumental postlude. Although foreshadowed by the dance sequences of King Oedipus, the Plectra and Percussion Dances (1952) are the first of Partch’s major works to be wholly instrumental in conception. They stand in relation to Oedipus as a satyr play in relation to a Greek tragedy—hence the work’s subtitle, "Satyr-Play Music for Dance Theater." He felt that after the prolonged period of composition and production of Oedipus it was "almost a necessity to give vent to feelings and ideas, whims and caprices, even nonsense, that seem to have no place in tragedy." The final work on this disc is Ulysses at the Edge, written at Partch’s studio at Gate 5 in July 1955. Ulysses, which Partch describes as a "minor adventure in rhythm," is unique among his mature compositions in that, in its original form, it did not call for any of his own instruments. The version recorded here, for alto and baritone saxophones, Diamond Marimba, Boo, Cloud-Chamber Bowls, and speaking voice, is considered the third version of the piece.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now it's possible to get your Partch all in a row, February 19, 2006

By 

Mr. Richard K. Weems "emperor_weems" (Fair Lawn, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Harry Partch Collection, Volume 1 (Audio CD)

Harry Partch is the quintissential mad genius of music--his image of music that was non-Eurocentric led to him devising his own tonal scale based on ancient Greek and Asian methods and then creating his own instruments. This series release of Partch music lets one organize his Partch tastes and get a real sense of his progress through time. This disc is superb for the Intrusions, ghostly little pieces that were my first introduction to this fine composer. I would also highly recommend volume 3, which has Barstow, one of my favorite Partch pieces.

Be prepared. This is classical music you have not been prepared for. If you're already a fan of Partch, aren't you glad SOMEONE is getting all his amazing stuff together in one tightly knit package?