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Harry Partch is a huge figure in experimental music and instrument invention. He was a prolific instrument maker, building instruments to play his unique style of microtonal music. He is one of the most widely known experimental musical instrument builders. | Harry Partch is a huge figure in experimental music and instrument invention. He was a prolific instrument maker, building instruments to play his unique style of microtonal music. He is one of the most widely known experimental musical instrument builders. | ||
+ | ====Chronology==== | ||
+ | Here is a breakdown of the major locations Partch lived and stayed while building his instruments. \\ | ||
+ | \\ | ||
+ | 1925 Los angels, Partch began making microtonal marked paper covers for violin and viola fingerboards and began drafting a new music theory in 1928. \\ | ||
+ | 1930 moved to New Orleans and burned all of his prior scores as part of his efforts to break from the European tradition. Built the Adapted Viola while in New Orleans in 1932. \\ | ||
+ | 1932 Moved back to Los Angeles, performed in San Francisco \\ | ||
+ | 1933 Traveled to to New York and received a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to study in England \\ | ||
+ | 1934 Traveled England studying speech patterns, a copy of a Greek Kithara, ancient Greek music theory | ||
+ | 1935 Returned to United States, lived as a Hobo intermittently for 9 years during the Great Depression. \\ | ||
+ | 1938 Partch is in Big Sur where he takes woodworking lessons and builds the first Kithara \\ | ||
+ | 1942 He is in Chicago, where he builds the first Chromelodeon \\ | ||
+ | 1943 Living on East Coast of US when he receives a Guggenheim grant \\ | ||
+ | 1944 Partch moved to the University Of Wisconsin where he put together his first ensemble, lectured and finished Genesis of Music in 1947 \\ | ||
+ | 1949 Moved to Blue Mounds, Wisconsin and worked out of a converted forge at the Gunnar Johansen ranch where he composed and recorded works. \\ | ||
+ | 1951 Moved to Oakland and worked at Mills college \\ | ||
+ | 1953 Moved to Sausalito, California and founded his studio Gate 5 at an abandoned ship yard where he built more instruments and staged performances. \\ | ||
+ | 1957 University of Illinois, staged a number of large scale works and was in teaching staff. \\ | ||
+ | 1962 Moved to Petaluma, California and made a studio an an former chick hatchery \\ | ||
+ | 1964 Left Petaluma moved to various places \\ | ||
+ | 1965 Moved to Venice Beach, California at an abandoned laundromat at 1110 West Washington Blvd. \\ | ||
+ | 1967 Left Venice Beach moved to various places \\ | ||
+ | 1973 Moved to San Diego until his death in 1974 \\ | ||
- | ===Instruments=== | + | ====Instruments==== |
List of instruments on Wikipedia, which also features some great photos of each instrument ((https:// | List of instruments on Wikipedia, which also features some great photos of each instrument ((https:// | ||
I have presented Partch' | I have presented Partch' | ||
There are multiple replica sets of the instruments needed to play various compositions by Partch. The original instruments are mostly located at Montclair State University ((https:// | There are multiple replica sets of the instruments needed to play various compositions by Partch. The original instruments are mostly located at Montclair State University ((https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
== Adapted Viola, Adapted Guitar I, Adapted Guitar II, Adapted Guitar III == | == Adapted Viola, Adapted Guitar I, Adapted Guitar II, Adapted Guitar III == | ||
- | Adapted Guitar I 1934 \\ | + | Adapted Viola (also called a Monophone) 1930-1933\\ |
- | Adapted Guitar II before | + | Made from a cello neck attached to a viola and built by violin maker Edwin Bentin in New Orleans in 1930. Had 29 notes per octave marked with small dots. \\ |
- | Adapted | + | |
+ | Adapted Guitar I 1934-1942 \\ | ||
+ | In just intonation, the guitar has high stainless steel frets that were attached to a brass plate that sits on the fretboard. \\ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Adapted Guitar II 1945 \\ | ||
+ | This version had small pin added to the fretboard that were smoothed down to make the instrument nearly fretless. The instrument has additional strings added and the fingerboard widened to fit a total of 10 strings. Had an embedded microphone to allow the instrument to be amplified. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Adapted | ||
+ | Same instrument as Adapted Guitar 1 but the frets were removed and marking made instead and the instrument was played using a stainless steel rod that was slide to different positions, similar to the Kithara. \\ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Chromatic Organ (Ptolemy)== | ||
+ | Built in 1934, considered | ||
== Kithara I & II == | == Kithara I & II == | ||
- | Kithara I was built 1938 \\ | + | Kithara I was built 1938 and continuously modified until 1959. The instrument has 72 string divided into 12 series of 6 strings. The instrument is large, harp shaped and is played using pyrex glass rods that are moved against the strings to shift their pitch. Only the top halves of each string are exposed and the string continue vertically into the bass of the instrument where they connect to the soundboard. The design is inspired by the ancient Greek Kithara, which is also harp shaped and has vertical strings, in this case each string has been replaced with a bank of strings. |
- | Kithara II was built 1954 \\ | + | |
+ | New Kithara I is a duplicate of Kithara I built in Encinitas, CA in 1972 but with some minor improvements in the frame and structure of the instrument. Strings sections that were previously inside the resonating chamber are now exposed to allow further percussive use of the strings. Partch considers the sound profile of this instrument to be superior to the prior one and essential for newer parts he wrote that require the strings exposed for the percussive elements. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Kithara II was built 1954 in Sausalito, CA after Partch attempted to retune the Kithara I and found the new tuning to be lacking in bass. He constructed Kithara II to accommodate the new bass heavy tuning and returned Kithara I to its original tuning. The Kithara instrument are very large and place players on a riser where they can easily be seen. Partch considers the choreography of players moving while playing to be a kind of embodied dance.\\ | ||
== Chromelodeons == | == Chromelodeons == | ||
- | Chromelodeon I was built in 1945 and is a 73-key pump organ. \\ | + | Chromelodeon I was built in 1942-1945 from a 73-key pump organ. All 159 reeds were re tuned. A sub bass keyboard was built for the Old Chromelodeon II in 1945, removed and than added to Chromelodeon I in 1949. Later in 1963 the bellows on the instrument were rebuilt with far more spring pressure to fully power the sub bass reeds.\\ |
- | Chromelodeon II was built in 1959 and an 88-key pump organ.\\ | + | |
+ | Old Chromelodeon II, built in 1946 at the University of Wisconsin and abandoned in 1949. The reeds and sub bass section from this instrument were removed and installed in Chromelodeon I in 1949 \\ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Chromelodeon II was built in 1959 from an 88-key pump organ that Partch was gifted in 1950. All 244 reeds were retuned to various degrees. The instrument retained its 5 stops which were renamed to Z, A-Left, 12, X, A-Right. Each of the stops have fractured ranges that only partially overlap but allow for the instrument to play a much larger overall range than the Chromelodeon I.\\ | ||
+ | \\ | ||
== Harmonic Canon I, II & III== | == Harmonic Canon I, II & III== | ||
- | Harmonic Canon I was built 1945 \\ | + | Harmonic Canon I was built 1945 at the University of Wisconsin and heavily modified between 1953 and 1959 at the University of Illinois. The instrument originally had 44 strings and was doubled to have 88 divided into 5 and a half banks. 5 sets of 16 plus one of 8. The strings are tunable using tuners at the ends or by the additional of small bridges that can be positioned under the strings at any point. |
- | New Harmonic Canon I was built as a copy of Canon I to allow for an alternative tuning so that the original would not need to be retuned mid performance \\ | + | |
- | Harmonic Canon II called " | + | New Harmonic Canon I was built as a copy of Harmonic |
- | Harmonic Canon III called "Blue Rainbow" | + | |
+ | Harmonic Canon II, also called " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Harmonic Canon III called "Blue Rainbow" | ||
== Diamond Marimba == | == Diamond Marimba == | ||
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== Surrogate Kithara == | == Surrogate Kithara == | ||
- | The Surrogate Kithara was built 1953 \\ | + | The Surrogate Kithara was built in Sausalito, CA in 1953 to aid in dividing up some Kithara parts that were too difficult to play. The instrument has two banks of 8 strings each (compared to the 12 banks of 6 strings on the Kitharas) and is played horizontally in a seated position. |
== Marimba Eroica == | == Marimba Eroica == | ||
- | Built 1954 | + | {{youtube> |
+ | Originally | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{https:// | ||
+ | Image of Chris Banta in front of the Marimba Eroica Copy that he built for the Partch Ensemble. | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Chris Banta has detailed diagrams for how to construct his copy of the original instrument ((https:// | ||
== Boo I & II (Bamboo Marimba) == | == Boo I & II (Bamboo Marimba) == | ||
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==Crychord== | ==Crychord== | ||
- | Built in 1959 by an unknown student of industrial design at the University of Illinois | + | Built in 1959 by an unknown student of industrial design at the University of Illinois |
== Zymo-Xyl == | == Zymo-Xyl == | ||
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==Koto== | ==Koto== | ||
- | A modefied | + | A modified |
==Garden of Eden== | ==Garden of Eden== | ||
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==Bloboy== | ==Bloboy== | ||
- | A " | + | A " |
- | ===Makers Influenced by Partch === | + | ====Makers Influenced by Partch |
+ | [[Dean Drummond]] was Partch' | ||
+ | [[Dylan Crismani]]- Is a builder working on a new Partch style ensemble in Australia. ((https:// | ||
- | ===Notes=== | + | ====Notes==== |
Partch has had a strong influence on me, and I have a tendency to be a contrarian about his lineage, as I have taken a very different interpretation of microtonal music in my work. I am a huge fan of his instruments and work, and because of encountering his instruments I leaned away from making string and percussion instruments and away from very large instruments (choosing instead primarily woodwinds and small scaled instruments with very simple interfaces). Something about the complexity of playing and performing his instruments and the monumental scale of his instruments leaves me uneasy about his music (in terms of taking influences that lead to making things like it, not in the critical of it sense). I would love to make huge instruments that are difficult to tune and to play, but the exercise is very against the kind of intuitive musical ecosystems I want to make. I hope one day I will at the very least start working larger with adequate space. | Partch has had a strong influence on me, and I have a tendency to be a contrarian about his lineage, as I have taken a very different interpretation of microtonal music in my work. I am a huge fan of his instruments and work, and because of encountering his instruments I leaned away from making string and percussion instruments and away from very large instruments (choosing instead primarily woodwinds and small scaled instruments with very simple interfaces). Something about the complexity of playing and performing his instruments and the monumental scale of his instruments leaves me uneasy about his music (in terms of taking influences that lead to making things like it, not in the critical of it sense). I would love to make huge instruments that are difficult to tune and to play, but the exercise is very against the kind of intuitive musical ecosystems I want to make. I hope one day I will at the very least start working larger with adequate space. |