Daphne of the Dunes

Daphne of the Dunes, by Harry Partch, is here recorded for the first time live. Originally the sound track for Madeline Tourtelot’s film Windsong, Partch recorded it alone, by the process of overdubbing. The film, a modern rendering of the ancient myth of Daphne and Apollo, is a classic of the integration between visuals and sound. Partch explains his approach to the score:

“The music, in effect, is a collage of sounds. The film technique of fairly fast cuts is here translated into musical terms. The sudden shifts represent nature symbols of the film, as used for a dramatic purpose: dead tree, driftwood, falling sand, blowing tumbleweed, flying gulls, wriggling snakes, waving grasses.”

Melodic material is short, haunting, and reoccurs motivically. Arpeggiated harmonic texture contrasts melodic sections. Meter is ever changing, almost measure for measure, with pulse sub-divisions of five, seven, and nine common. A trio of the Bass Marimba, Boo. and Diamond Marimba written in 31/16 meter is structured with 5 unequal beats per measure, the beats sub-divided into sixteenths of 5-5-7-9-5. A duet of the Boo and Harmonic Canon is written in a polymeter of 4/4-7/4 over 4/8-7/8. – Notes by Danlee Mitchell

The instruments heard in this recording:

DAPHNE OF THE DUNES

Adapted Viola
Spoils of War
Kithara II
Gourd Tree
Surrogate Kithara
Diamond Marimba
Harmonic Canons II and III
Boo (Bamboo Marimba)
Chromelodeon I
Bass Marimba
Cloud-Chamber Bowls
Pre-recorded Tape
(Note: No more than four instruments are used simultaneously.)

AGP 57

The AGP57 is a transcription of the classic LP “The World of Harry Partch”. The three compositions on this LP are available on CD in other recordings, but these are the recordings that introduced a generation of music lovers to the strange sounds of Harry Partch’s instruments and compositions. Normally, AGP steer clear of compositions that are currently available on CD in other recordings, but a transcription of this long out-of-print LP was specially requested, so here it is. The copy is in excellent condition with only the hiss of the analog recording and very light pressing noise typicaly of an American pressing. The transcription preserves the spacious sound of the original recording.

Format is loseless compression FLAC.

Delusion of the Fury

We have already written about Harry Partch on these pages. A very personal artist, between the historical and contemporary 20th century (1901-1974), able of conceiving and building his own instrumentation which is not based on equal temperament. For this reason Partch has always been isolated, but nevertheless he was always present to himself and aware of his being a composer (remember that during the great depression he wandered like a homeless and yet was able to publish a little magazine entitled Bitter Music). Partch has always carried out his challenge to current aesthetics, whatever it was.

With his music, not tonal, not atonal, but rather completely external to this dualism, (developing that purely American attitude that we already find in Ives and others), Harry Partch reaches levels of great power, as in this last work from 1965 -66, performed only once while he was still alive.

Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual Of Dream And Delusion, for 25 instruments (never played all together), 4 singers and 6 actors/dancers/mimes, combines a Japanese drama in the first act with an African farce in the second, realizing that concept of total theater that integrates music, dance, scenic art and ritual that has always been important for the author.

The opera does not have a real libretto, in the narrative sense of European opera. All the action is danced and/or mimed.
In Partch’s words, the first act is essentially an exit from the eternal cycle of birth and death represented by the pilgrimage of a warrior in search of a sacred place in which to serve penance for a murder, while the murdered appears in the drama as ghost, first to relive and make his killer relive the torment of the murder, finally finding reconciliation with death in the words “Pray for me!”.
The second act is instead a reconciliation with life that passes through the dispute, born from a misunderstanding, between a deaf hobo and an old woman looking for her lost son. In the end, the two are dragged in front of a confused, deaf and almost blind judge who, misunderstanding himself, mistakes them for husband and wife and orders them to return home, while the choir sings an ironic hymn in unison (“How could we go forward without justice?”) and the dispute dissolves into the absurdity of the situation.
The opera ends with the same invocation as the finale of the first act (“Pray for me, again”), launched from off stage.

Look at the original video here

Harry Partch: Castor & Pollux

Castor & Pollux (1952) è un balletto strutturato in due grandi sezioni, la prima intitolata Castor e la seconda Pollux (i due dioscuri, figli di Zeus e di Leda, identificati con la costellazione dei Gemelli).
La strumentazione è quella tipica dei lavori di Partch, progettata e costruita da lui stesso e accordata sulla scala naturale. Qui abbiamo: kithara, surrogate kithara, harmonic canon, diamond marimba, cloud chamber bowls & bass marimba. Tutti gli strumenti si possono vedere e ascoltare qui.
Proprio la strumentazione caratterizza le due sezioni. Ognuna di esse, infatti, è divisa in quattro parti: tre duetti e un tutti. In entrambe le sezioni, i duetti sono intitolati:

  1. Leda and the Swan (insemination)
  2. Conception
  3. Incubation
  4. Il tutti finale si intitola Chorus of Delivery From the Egg.

Gli strumenti utilizzati in ogni sotto-sezione sono:

CASTOR
1. Leda and the Swan (Kithara II, Surrogate Kithara, and Cloud-Chamber Bowls)
2. Conception (Harmonic Canon II and High Bass Marimba)
3. lncubation (Diamond Marimba and Low Bass Marimba)
4. Chorus of Delivery From the Egg (All the foregoing instruments)

POLLUX
1. Leda and the Swan (Kithara II. Surrogate Kithara, and Low Bass Marimba)
2. Conception (Harmonic Canon II and Cloud-Chamber Bowls)
3. lncubation (Diamond Marimba and High Bass Marimba)
4. Chorus of Delivery From,the Egg (All the foregoing instruments)

CASTOR & POLLUX is a dance-theater work with a beguiling program. It is structured in two large sections, each section comprised of three duets and a tutti. The first section is entitled CASTOR, the second, POLLUX. The first duet of each section is titled Leda and the Swan (insemination); the second, Conception; the third, Incubation; and the tutti. Chorus of Delivery From the Egg. By its contrapuntal texture. CASTOR & POLLUX shows well the melodic capabilities of the instruments, and the two tutti section grand finales to the glory of birth.

Gli strumenti di Harry Partch

Harry Partch
Sono praticamente sicuro che nessuno di voi ha mai sentito, in concerto, musiche di Harry Partch.
Eppure Harry Partch (1901-1974), compositore americano, è uno dei più innovativi, iconoclasti e individualisti musicisti di tutti i tempi. Per far capire la cosa anche ai cultori del pop, la sua posizione nella musica classica è, in un certo senso, simile a quella di Frank Zappa nel pop. Gli aggettivi utilizzati per definirli sono gli stessi e anche la carica ironica.
A tratti geniale, ma isolato perché la sua musica è impossibile da eseguire con una orchestra tradizionale. Partch, infatti, non utilizza il sistema temperato, ma la scala naturale, strettamente basata sulla serie degli armonici (mentre il sistema temperato fa una serie di aggiustamenti). Per scrivere con questo sistema, Partch, oltre ad utilizzare spesso una notazione non tradizionale, ha costruito da solo i propri strumenti. Ne ha realizzato decine, tali da organizzare una intera orchestra. Le sue creazioni, originali e/o ricostruite, comprendono strumenti a percussione, a corde e vari tipi di organi a canne o ad ancia. Oggi formano la Harry Partch Instrument Collection e vengono utilizzate per le incisioni e per i concerti.
Così, nei suoi pezzi non è raro vedere un ensemble come questo:

Instrumental ensemble: tenor-baritone, soprano, bass, adapted guitar, 2 chromelodeons, 2 kithars, surrogate kithara, 5 harmonic canons, bloboy, koto, crychord, diamond marimba, quadrangularis reversum, bass marimba, marimba eroica, boo, eucal blossom, gourd tree, cone gongs, cloud chamber bowls, spoils of war, zymo-xyl, mazda marimba, ugumbo, waving drums, Bolivian double flute, mbira, ektara, rotating drum, belly drums, gourd drum, 6 bamboo claves, 4 eucalyptus claves & rhythm boat

E proprio questo ensemble strumentale è relativo alla sua opera in due atti “Delusion of the Fury – A Ritual of Dream and Delusion” (1965-66), che potete ascoltare cliccando sui “Related Posts” qui sotto.

Anche la sua vita non è stata molto convenzionale. Musicista precoce (suonava clarinetto, harmonium, viola, piano, chitarra già da bambino e componeva prima dei 20 anni vincendo borse di studio), attraversò un periodo molto duro durante la grande depressione, riducendosi a vivere come un hobo (musicista vagabondo, senza fissa dimora), viaggiando a sbafo sui treni e sopravvivendo con lavori casuali in luoghi diversi.
In tutto questo periodo, durato 10 anni, continuò a scrivere le sue esperienze su un giornale chiamato Bitter Music (musica amara), spesso sotto forma di frammenti di conversazioni udite per caso, notate su pentagramma in base all’altezza delle varie voci.

Esempi dell’ Harry Partch Istrumentarium