The Harry Partch Instrumentarium
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- UPDATE October 3, 2023:
The Partch residency at UW has concluded. Since 2020, the Partch Instrumentarium has been in storage, with occasional events presented In the Pacific Northwest by Charles Corey and the Harry Partch Ensemble. For updates, visit www.harrypartch.com and subscribe to the mailing list.
Harry Partch (1901-1974) was an iconoclastic American composer and instrument inventor with a passion for integrating musicians, actors, and dancers in large-scale works of total-theater. He was "seduced into carpentry" by his interest in just intonation and his need to have an orchestra tuned to this system. The instruments are more than just producers of tone, however - each one has an evocative name and dramatic physical presence, and each one puts unique physical demands on the performer. In Partch's book, Genesis of a Music, he writes that the performer of the Marimba Eroica should at times "convey the vision of Ben Hur in his chariot," while a musician playing his Kithara must not "bend at the waist, like an amateur California prune picker," but instead should move with grace and athleticism in a "functional dance."
Charles Corey, curator of the instruments which (were then [edited 2022]) housed at the University of Washington in Seattle, gives a tour of the instruments and the unique sounds they make and iconoclastic musical notations which Partch invented for the performers to be able to play his compositions.
This event was presented on May 30, 2017, by the Pacific Northwest Section of the Audio Engineering Society in the Studio Theater at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington in Seattle. Sincere thanks to their staffs and management for allowing us to be there.
![Harry Partch and his Microtonal Carpentry [Harry Partch, Pt. 1/2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KPTBRFnc8_w/mqdefault.jpg)
![Harry Partch and his Microtonal Carpentry [Harry Partch, Pt. 1/2]](/img/tr.png)
![จบจนได้ ! | Black Myth: Wukong #007 [ตอนจบ?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DSqvWndF0sw/mqdefault.jpg)
2:53 Chromelodeon 1
7:57 Diamond Marimba (tonality diamond)
17:07 Marimba Eroica
19:55 Bass Marimba
21:02 Kithara 2
22:55 Gourd Tree
23:45 Cone Gongs
24:44 Surrogate Kithara
25:48 Harmonic Canons
30:30 Cloud-Chamber Bowls
34:23 Adapted Viola
36:39 Adapted Guitars
Nice
Harry Partch was truly an original American phenomenon, and Charles Corey does a great job of describing each of these instruments and their capabilities.
Yes, Corey is really on top of these instruments, nice to see there is still intense interest in Partch
What a labor of love. It makes me happy to see this level of enthusiasm
Charles Corey does an excellent job of explaining these instruments. At one time, Harry Partch's many of Partch's instruments were housed in a Quanset hut on the campus of the University of California San Diego and a friend of my sisters was in charge of them. I did get to see them and actually play some of them. I remember the 22 Hz Marimba.
I think Partch’s Two Studies on an Ancient Scale is approachable for people not use to listening to microtones. I like the Kronos Quartet arrangement of it, and heard some dreamy arrangements for flute and vibraphones.
For those interested in technical details:
Video and one audio track were recorded on a Canon HFG-30 camera with 20x zoom, and cam-mounted Shure VP83 mini-shotgun mic. Camera and mic were mounted at the end of a Benro boom that's about 8' long overall.
The other audio track was a Shure ULX-D wireless receiver and Shure 185(?) cardioid lav mic with massive outdoor windscreen that I could have dialed back to make less visible on Chuck's chest but I didn't. That was recorded onto one track of a Tascam DR-60DMkII audio recorder.
There is a 16 second audio dropout at 00:36 which was caused by me being confused about the DR60's recording settings, and resolved by scrolling Chuck's commentary for that gap.
Interestingly to me, the camera mic recording had a horrendous buzz, which I was afraid was inherent in the system as set up (although I had used them before and not heard the buzz). This was further indicated by the fact that there was no buzz in the lav mic. While editing this video, I got our Secretary's separate archival audio recording that he makes using room mics to assist his note-taking.
When amplified to be the equivalent volume of this audio track, it had the same buzz.
None of us were aware of it during the event.
From time to time you'll see a video jump when I take advantage of the 20x zoom to get close in. The camera boom turned out to be noticeably wiggly in this application, so I used Final Cut Pro X's video stabilization feature for those close up shots, and there's a jump between stabilized shots and unstabilized shots.
November 2020 Update: Sad to say, the University of Washington did not continue its commitment to the Partch Collection and to Chuck (don't know if it reached the end of the agreed term, or what), so both are at loose ends now. I would think that he would welcome any possible situation that would allow both performance and teaching opportunities.
Thanks to all for the good comments and for being so enthusiastic about this video. I'm glad you've enjoyed watching. I hope Chuck will be able to keep this extraordinary collection together.
The interviewer asks about the metal in the cone gongs around 24:30. I have read somewhere that they are actually the front end of drop tanks, for military airplanes, so yes it should be duraluminum.
Wow! I went to Montclair in the 1990s and I actually remember the room crammed with all these instruments. I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at, was completely unaware of the history.
Montclair's loss is Seattle's gain. All the best to you and your stewardship of the instruments.
My wife Janet played in the Partch Ensemble at Montclair U. Loved it! I got to try these instruments a few times. I'm very fond of his music.
How wonderful. Two extraordinary musicians: Harry Partch inventing instruments and Charles Corey explaining us why and how to use them. Congratulations and thank you for sharing this wonderful presentation.
42:06 As a composer working in media (who would love to write for these instruments someday), I really do hope that somebody samples these sometime. When you're scoring a movie, everything is sampled (what we call a demo or mockup) up untill the recording so the director can hear what they're getting without imagining it from a piano. I would love to use these in a film project someday, and hope that I can play them in the future :)
I do highly encourage you as a fellow composer to try building your own instruments too! It's a load of fun, and extremely rewarding when you find a beautiful sound. Partch was amazing because he was willing to try something new, so we as composers should follow in his footsteps and be more experimental with our instruments too.
@@btat16 I have definitely thought about it! I've got some ideas for some instruments I could build but I don't really have the time at the moment.
@@TiagoNugentComposer That’s really neat! I have a sick obsession with PVC right now, so that’s my go-to for interesting new instruments haha. Here’s hoping they release a sample pack or VST eventually
I would rather hear a live performance of a composition using these Instruments.
Microtonality, of course, remains challenging from multiple vantages.
Thanks for providing captions for the audio dropout.
14:31 Speaking as someone with perfect pitch, this is very true
thank you ( i am a composer , player, and builder myself) i loved watching this. i m off now, going to listen to some of the music played on these. thank you!!!!) "...that' s just the nature of instruments that were made by some-one who was trying to figure out how to make instruments" that s a world in itself ;-)
Thank you for the upload.
This is super cool! What creativity and thinking outside the box! Great presentation. Thank you so much for recording and uploading this.
Incredibly interesting. I can’t say it all sounds good to my ear but I keep thinking about abstract expressionist painting, the way they differ from a Rembrandt for instance but have their own value.
Great video, thank you for publishing this!
I'm from Baltimore, and so glad I got the opportunity to see these instruments several times when they were in Montclair. Washington is kind of a long road trip.
are they still in Montclair?
No, they're in Seattle.@@CyroBaptistanyc
Was Harry Partch's housekeeper while UCSD discussed making dupe instruments for the Smithsonian Museum, so heard all of his instruments, but he confided to me his hobo vocals were his legacy. I read his Genesis of a Music and listened to Philip Glass derivation of Partch's tonality. I think Glass mocked mainstream also. Do not loiter!
Thank you for this video, it's amazing, and I really respect Mr. Corey. Great job.
Meeting him in Washington was just incredible. He probably knows more about Partch's notation than anyone
I wish I could try some of those instruments one day
still love his work!!
Excellent presentation!
I'm a big fan of Partch, thanks a lot for posting this video.
If the instruments are no longer housed at the University of Washington in Seattle, where are they now?
Love Harry Partch
Awesome video. Also can someone send that knowledgeable guy a better fitting shirt?
Thank you!
I’ve been making a lot of instruments traditional and experimental since 1990 i would love to see that low bass note xylophone goody I might be able to offer some help to make it louder. I would also love a chance to perform with you guys with my ancestral instruments of ancient Mexico, all my ancestral instruments are quite microtonal and they would go along quite well with Mr. Partchs’ instruments. I have a funny feeling that you’re not aware of Julian Carrillo Sonido 13 Because he had some instruments that he had made like this Way back in the early 1900s. You should look him up. Hopefully this year I’ll be playing with one of Mr. Carillo’s protégé on instruments very similar to your Kithara
Oh this is not really my official website. Go to th-cam.com/users/martinespinomusic and click on the playlist called “Martin Espino Composer“ and you’ll see different styles that I do. And “Martin Espino solo performances“. I work with NeuroSciencesInstitute of sound on peoples brains and thus their well-being. Anyway hope to talk to you guys loved presentation loved hearing the instruments.
very interesting and intriguing. I enjoyed this explanation! Thank you. Ad Murck, Rotterdam, Nederland.
no 22hz in TH-cam audio alas :(
The Adapted Viola is really an Upright Viola
Charles Corey, are you playing the nose cone with a Bonger?? I have set of those I bought at a yard sale in Philly. I am a Dane living in Singapore.
have they all been sampled. And if so how can I purchase?
Am I the only one that knew that the first cannon had two Japanese scales but at different pitches
Not anymore I guess
18:59
is that Jordan Peterson
The question about ports on the boxes? That's me.
14:55
19:54 Bass Marimba 😄
Gotta be a bear to tune em..
21:55 Accompanimy
31:00
Did Harry also invent that microphone? 🤣
Very interesting . Not particularly unique or even listenable sounds in our post synth tech era . Completely abstract and useless elitist Universty nut gets carried through a musical Dr Suess epic self journey ... Still kinda wonderful anyway . Great presentation thank you !
Well ... 45 mins in I haven't heard anything I want to hear again ... So that's the experiment data at my end 😬😂
I am really sorry to say this. In my head it’s different from having respect for the man and I respect the dedication he has to inventing new music and instruments. But the result is just unexciting and bad sounding instruments.
The really low one is impossible to hear on a recording.