Harry Partch Music Scores
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2005
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
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).
Biography
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.
Preferred Citation
Harry Partch Music Scores. MSS 629. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2007.
OFF-SITE STORAGE
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Related 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
Box 1, Folder 1-2
And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma
1964 - 1966
General
Twenty-three one minute duets and trios which later become ten quartets and quintets and one septet. Explanation of substitute
verse 31 (p.55).
Box 1, Folder 3-4
Barstow - Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California
1941 - 1956
General
Voice parts: originally adapted guitar and voice, 1941; rewritten for two voices, surrogate kithara, chromelodeon, diamond
marimba and boo in 1955.
Box 1, Folder 5-6
The Bewitched
1955
General
Version 1 - A Ballet Satire. Version 2 - A Dance Satire.
Box 1, Folder 7
Bless This Home
1961
General
Poem by Vincenzo Prockelo, written for Gary and Susie Everett.
Box 1, Folder 8
Daphne of the Dunes
1958
General
A re-copying of the score composed for the film
Windsong.
Box 1, Folder 9
Dark Brother
1942 - 1943
General
Text from Thomas Wolfe's essay "God's Lonely Man."
Box 2, Folder 1
Delusion of the Fury - A Ritual of Dream and Delusion
1966
Box 2, Folder 2
The Dreamer that Remains - A Study in Loving
1972
General
Original music commissioned by Betty Freeman to constitute a part of the film
Harry Partch - A Study in Loving.
Box 2, Folder 3
Eleven Intrusions
1949 - 1950
General
Numbers 1 and 2 are
Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales.
Box 2, Folder 4
Eleven Poems by Li Po
1922
General
Texts from the works of Chinese poet Li Po, set to music by Harry Partch.
Box 2, Folder 5
Even Wild Horses - Dance Music for an Absent Drama
1952
General
The French texts at the ends of the five final scenes are from
Une Saison en Enfer, by Arthur Rimbaud. Titles of these scenes are taken from the English translation by Louise Varese, 1945.
Box 2, Folder 6
The Letter - A Depression Message from a Hobo Friend
1972
General
First written in 1943. A special rewriting for the Freeman-Pouliot film.
Box 2, Folder 7
The Lord is My Shepherd
1931
General
Spoken expression by Cantor Reuben Rinder of San Francisco.
Box 3, Folder 1-2
Oedipus
1951 - 1967
General
Dance-drama. The text is an abbreviated version of Sophocles'
Oedipus the King.
Box 3, Folder 3
Plectra and Percussion Dances - An Evening of Dance Theater
1949 - 1952
General
1.
Castor and Pollux - A Dance for the Twin Rhythms of Gemini 2.
Ring Around the Moon - A Dance Fantasm for Here and Now 3.
Even Wild Horses - A Dance for an Absent Drama.
Box 4, Folder 1
Revelation in the Courthouse Park
1960
General
After
The Bacchae of Euripides. A "double-tale" which alternates between
The Bacchae and a modern parallel.
Box 4, Folder 2
Ring Around the Moon - A Dance Fantasm for Here and Now
1949 - 1950
Box 4, Folder 3
Rotate the Body in All Its Planes - Ballad for Gymnasts
1961
General
Music for an exhibition by Charles Pond's gymnasts at the University of Illinois.
Box 4, Folder 4
Six Poems by Li Po
1922
General
Texts from the works of Chinese poet Li Po, set to music by Harry Partch.
Box 4, Folder 5
Sophocles'
King Oedipus
1950 - 1967
General
Music-Dance-Drama. Based on the version by W.B. Yeats. For 4 intoners-actors, other actors, singing voices, dancers, and 11
musicians.
Box 4, Folder 6
Summer 1955
General
A collection of small compositions written or rewritten in summer 1955.
Box 4, Folder 7
Two Settings From Joyce's Finnegan's Wake
1944
General
1. Isobel 2. Annah the Allmaziful. For soprano, kithara, and two flutes.
Box 4, Folder 8
Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales
1946
General
For harmonic canon, bass marimba added.
Box 4, Folder 9
Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World - A Minor Adventure in Rhythm
1955
Box 5, Folder 1
Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World
1955
Box 5, Folder 2
U.S. Highball
1943 - 1955
General
Voice parts, 1943. Originally for voice, adapted guitar, kithara, chromelodeon; rewritten in 1955.
Box 5, Folder 3
Water! Water!
1961
General
An intermission with prologues and epilogues. Includes left and right chorus.
Box 5, Folder 4
The Wayward
1941 - 1955
General
1.
Barstow 2.
San Francisco 3.
The Letter 4.
U.S. Highball 5.
Ulysses at the Edge. A collection of musical compositions based on the spoken and written words of hobos and other characters, 1941-1955. The
result of my wanderings in the Western part of the United States from 1935 to 1941.
Box 5, Folder 5
Windsong
1955
General
For film by Madeline Tourtelot, 1955. Rewritten as
Daphne of the Dunes, 1967.
Box 5, Folder 6
Yankee Doodle Fantasy - On the Words of an Early American Tune
1944