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Partch (Harry) Music Scores
MSS 0629
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Table of contents
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Harry Partch Music Scores
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0629
Physical Description:
4.25 Linear feet
(5 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1922-1972
Abstract: The Harry Partch Music Scores consist of facsimiles of musical and theatrical compositions by Harry Partch, written between
1922 and 1972. Compositions include seminal works such as
Delusions of the Fury,
U.S. Highball, and
The Wayward.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Harry Partch Music Scores consist of bound facsimiles of musical and theatrical compositions by experimental composer
and instrument-builder Harry Partch, written between 1922 and 1972. Compositions include seminal works such as
Delusions of the Fury,
Oedipus the King,
U.S. Highball, and
The Wayward.
Scores are arranged alphabetically by title. All materials are housed in oversized flat boxes (17x21x3 inches).
Harry Partch was born in Oakland, CA on June 24, 1901; both his parents had been Presbyterian missionaries in China who endured
the Boxer Rebellion. By the age of 20, he had moved through parts of the Midwest and East Coast, then back through Northern
and Southern California before settling in San Diego in 1964. He began his early musical training playing clarinet, harmonium,
viola, piano, and guitar and composing music using a tempered chromatic scale normal in Western music. He became frustrated
with the musical tuning of Western music and subsequently destroyed all of his early works.
Interested in dramatic speech, Partch began to build his own instruments to reflect the musicality of speech and substantiate
the intoning voice. His first instrument built in 1930 was the "Monophone," later known as the "adapted viola." Soon after,
he was awarded a grant which allowed him to study the history of tuning systems in London and to try to gain permission to
write an opera based on W.B. Yeats's translation of Sophocles'
Oedipus the King. However, his grant money was depleted by the 1930s and he returned to the United States and to travel around on trains,
as a hobo. He recorded his experiences in a journal named
Bitter Music (late 1930s) and subsequently composed
Barstow (1941), a piece originally recorded for voice and guitar; the latter was transcribed several times throughout his life as
his instrument collection grew. Additionally, he composed
U.S. Highball (1943), a musical memoir reflecting his train riding memories.
After receiving a Guggenheim Foundation grant in 1943, he returned to completing
Oedipus, recording from his own translation. In 1949, he published
Genesis of a Music, an account of his own music with discussions of music theory and instrument design, explaining his concept of the fusion
of all art forms with the body as its central focus. He later wrote the 'dance satire'
The Bewitched,
Revelation in the Courthouse Park, and
Delusion of the Fury, the latter recorded by Columbia Records in 1969. In the fall of the same year, Partch taught a course at UC San Diego.
Harry Partch is known for his experimental and conceptual compositions involving the 43-tone scale and his customization
and design of musical instruments using raw materials such as retuned reed organs, glass bowls, bamboo stalks, liquor bottles,
and car light bulbs.
Partch died on September 3, 1974 in San Diego. The majority of his instruments and papers are housed at the Alexander Kasser
Theatre and Sprague Library of Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Harry Partch Music Scores. MSS 629. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Acquired 2007.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
The majority of Harry Partch's instruments and papers are housed at the Alexander Kasser Theatre and Sprague Library of Montclair
State University in New Jersey.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Monologues with music -- Scores
Microtonal music -- Scores
Partch, Harry, 1901-1974 -- Archives
Partch, Harry, 1901-1974 -- Scores