Abstraction and Delusion (from Sonata Dementia, 1949)

  • Three Dances (1952) by Harry Partch

    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.

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  • Barstow — Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a highway railing near Barstow, California (1941/68)

    Notes
    1. Today I Am a Man
    2. Gentlemen
    3. Considered Pretty
    4. A very Good Idea
    5. Possible Rides
    6. Jesus Was God in the Flesh
    7. You Lucky Women
    8. Why in Hell did you Come?

    Voices ~ Boo ~ Chromelodeon ~ Diamond Marimba ~ Surrogate Kithara

    Program note by John Schneider:

    The legendary 1969 Columbia recording of Barstow imprinted the work in the imaginations of a generation, and like US Highball that followed, it underwent numerous orchestrations. Hitchhiker graffiti is put to music, telling the tale of eight wanderers – some funny, some sad, but always engaging when seen through the lens of Partch’s re-telling. He gives us an earthy and poignant first-hand account that is unique in the world of music, one that is sure to become a permanent part of our American cultural landscape. Taken along with the rest of his Americana from the 1940’s, Partch has created a body of work that places him shoulder to shoulder with the two best-loved storytellers of the era, John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie.

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  • San Francisco (1943/55)

    Notes

    PARTCH Ensemble performing Harry Partch’s San Francisco—A setting of the cries of Two Newsboys on a Foggy Night in the Twenties at REDCAT on June 16-17, 2023.

    “A collection of musical compositions based on the spoken and written words of hobos and other characters—the result of my wanderings in the Western part of the United States from 1935 to 1941.”

    ~ Harry Partch on The Wayward

    Program note by John Schneider:

    Setting the gliding contours of real human voices had partly inspired Partch’s famed microtonal scale, and the opening viola lines of San Francisco do, in fact, wordlessly depict the curbside sales pitch with uncanny accuracy. So accurate, in fact, that when reviewing the 1944 Carnegie Hall premiere for the New York Tribune, Lou Harrison wrote, “Mr. Partch has woven a spell of about the foggiest and dampest music I have ever heard. I got homesick”.

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