The program includes an instrument “petting zoo”: audiences are encouraged to interact with the instruments on stage after the show.
Three Dances (1952)
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Notes
1. Samba—A DECENT AND HONORABLE MISTAKE
2. Heartbeat Rhythm—RHYTHM OF THE WOMB–MELODY OF THE GRAVE
3. Afro-Chinese Minuet—HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!We begin this evening’s concert with the Three Dances that begin the third section of Partch’s Plectra & Percussion Dances (1952). The composer warned, “It’s an amazing fact that the world of dance music, and of Latin American dance music particularly, has produced an army of purists that is equal of anything that serious classical music can offer. I say this in order to advise you that the first scene, for example, “A Decent and Honorable Mistake,” may not be recognizable to you as a samba. The second scene, “Rhythm of the Womb, Melody of the Grave,” is based on a rhythmically contrapuntal heartbeat. The third scene, “Happy Birthday to You!” begins with an African-sounding marimba and somehow gets involved with a Chinese- sounding guitar in a pentatonic melody, and so I call it an Afro-Chinese Minuet.” This last dance ends with these directions: “Slowly enough that canon TRIADS are distinct,” after which they are to be played “faster than the previous runs so that the triads are NOT distinct.” The harmonies of each of those descending triads are wildly divergent, as if the composer is pausing to reminisce about various years past, but finally admits that as a 51-year old they are, in fact, a blur.
Partch Instruments:
Adapted Guitar III, Adapted Viola, Bass Marimba, Chromelodeon, Cloud Chamber Bowls, Diamond Marimba, Harmonic Canon, Kithara, Marimba EroicaAdditional Instruments:
Percussion
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Partch, Harry
Reið (Raidō)II
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Notes
World Premiere by PARTCH Ensemble at REDCAT, June 2024
“Reið (Raidō) II is the sixth in a cycle of chamber pieces I have been composing for the last several years where each work is associated with a specific ancient Runic symbol. “Reið (Raidō)” directly translates to “ride” or “journey.” A journey on horseback is implied, but this can also be interpreted as an experience which connects this life with the afterlife, or this realm with other realms of existence or consciousness. The repetitive and percussive nature of a galloping horse is often further associated with shamanic drumming that accompanies certain primordial esoteric practices. In my work Reið (Raidō) there are 3 groupings of instruments and players, conveying three types of microtonal tunings: a Chromelodeon, tuned to a 43-note division of the octave based on ratios derived from just intonation; a piano and a harp whose standard equal temperament is tuned apart by the difference of a 7th partial of the overtone series, or approximately in equal tempered 1/6th tones; and 3 percussionists who play a variety of indefinite pitched or noise-based percussion instruments. In this dramatic representation of both an ancient and futuristic ritual, these various tunings and timbres are utilized through a carefully controlled harmonic, motivic, and formal personal language, that unifies structure and architecture with intensity and expression.”
— Jeffrey Holmes
This performance was made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
This performance was also made possible in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
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Holmes, Jeffrey
Progressions
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Notes
Performed by PARTCH Ensemble at REDCAT, June 2024
Progressions
- Intro + Progressions Within One Octave (1942)
- Sonata Dementia: Abstraction & Delusion (1949)
In 1942, Harry Partch gave a lecture-demonstration at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. After introducing the now famous 43-note/octave scale on his newly created Chromolodian (sic), he proceeded to submerse the students in an extraordinary ear-bending sequence of chord Progressions Within One Octave that even today are capable of jarring the most seasoned Modernist sensibilities. Apologizing in advance that these auditory experiments, “…afford a little vision into a new world of musical resources—hardly more than a glimpse through a keyhole,” they turned out to be a peek into the future, as this music would soon become the opening of his Sonata Dementia (1949), exquisitely orchestrated with the addition of six newly built instruments. This performance was made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
This performance was also made possible in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
Partch Instruments:
Adapted Guitar II, Chromelodeon, Cloud Chamber Bowls, Diamond Marimba, Harmonic Canon, Kithara, Marimba EroicaAdditional Instruments:
Voice
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Partch, Harry
Progressions
Five Intrusions (1950)
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Notes
Performed by PARTCH Ensemble at REDCAT, June 2024
- Study #1 Olympos’ Pentatonic
- The Wind (Ella Young, Lao-tze)
- Study #2 Archytas’ Enharmonic
- The Street (Willard Motley)
- The Waterfall (Ella Young)
Those instruments were also explored in Partch’s chimerically titled suite of twelve compositions called Intrusions. This subset of five include his Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales that were originally for solo Harmonic Canon, to which he later added a bass marimba obligatto. Another Canon was strung and bridged in his 43-note octave from C#3-C#4 for The Wind whose hyperchromatic arpeggios hauntingly evoke two moods of that natural phenomenon that can both caress or destroy. The first text comes from the pen of Irish born poet Ella Young who lived in the Bay Area for many years, with the second from 6th century Chinese poet/philosoper Lao Tze that Partch had previously set in his 1935 memoir Bitter Music. In The Street, the chilly wind that blows over the jails and cartracks of Chicago sets the final paragraphs of Willard Motley’s 1947 best seller Knock on Any Door that describes a young Italian immigrant’s downward spiral from altar boy to criminal. And finally, Ella Young—also a Celtic mythologist who believed in fairies, pixies, and praised the benefits of talking to trees— returns to interrogate The Waterfall, curious as to why it would possibly seek oblivion after such a vivacious life in the sunlight.
— JS
This performance was made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
This performance was also made possible in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
Partch Instruments:
Adapted Guitar II, Bass Marimba, Castor and Pollux, Diamond Marimba, Harmonic Canon, Janus Canon IAdditional Instruments:
Voice
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Partch, Harry
— I N T E R M I S S I O N —
LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip—selected scenes ANNE LEBARON
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LeBaron, Anne
