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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”.
The Letter — A depression message from a hobo friend (1943/55)
Scenes from Huxley’s Last Trip, live at REDCAT, June 2024
Notes
“LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip,” an opera with music by Anne LeBaron and a libretto by Gerd Stern, Ed Rosenfeld, and Anne LeBaron, charts the powerful cultural, political, and spiritual forces ignited by Albert Hofmann’s discovery of lysergic acid diethylamide. Represented by three sopranos, the LSD Trio (Love, Sex, and Death) embarks on a journey, encountering a diverse cast of characters influential in science, literature, entertainment, national security, and politics. The four scenes on this video represent about half of the opera. (For the remaining scenes, see “LSD: The Opera” on this YouTube channel.)
Performances took place at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles on June 14-15, 2024.
Librettists: Gerd Stern, Ed Rosenfeld, and Anne LeBaron
- Scene 1: Huxley’s Last Trip—Part 1
- Scene 3: Double Helix: Soliloquy No. 1 (a twisted example…)
- Scene 6: Three Lunches: Soliloquy No. 2 (Finnegan’s Wake)
- Scene 8: Mary Meyer and JFK
The Cast (in order of appearance)
- Aldous Huxley SCOTT GRAFF
- Laura Huxley; LSD Trio (Death) AUBREY BABCOCK
- LSD Trio (Love); Jackie Kennedy ANNA SCHUBERT
- LSD Trio (Sex); Marilyn Monroe NELLE ANDERSON
- James Watson; John F. Kennedy DOMINIC DELZOMPO
- Francis Crick; Timothy Leary TODD STRANGE
- Albert Hofmann; Marshall McLuhan JON KEENAN
- Anita Hofmann; Mary Meyer MARIA ELENA ALTANY
Partch Instruments:
Adapted Guitar, Bass Marimba, Castor and Pollux, Cloud Chamber Bowls, Diamond Marimba, Kithara, Surrogate Kithara
Adapted Guitar, Bass Marimba, Castor and Pollux, Cloud Chamber Bowls, Diamond Marimba, Kithara, Surrogate Kithara
Additional Instruments:
Bb Clarinet, Cello, Contrabass, Drumset, Harp, Percussion, Piano, Viola, Violin
Bb Clarinet, Cello, Contrabass, Drumset, Harp, Percussion, Piano, Viola, Violin
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”.
The Letter — A depression message from a hobo friend (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:
The text for The Letter comes from the composer’s long-lost hobo journal Bitter Music (1935-36) that he initially set to music in 1943 under the title “Letter From Hobo Pablo,” a friend whom he met at a Federal Shelter in Stockton. The 24-year old Pablo was, “… the one sensitive person I have met and the only one I can bear to talk to,” so when they are told that they must go to a work camp “…to work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, tobacco & work clothes furnished, and $4 a month besides,” they both chose Harrington Ranch. Pablo only lasted three weeks, being expelled for drinking, but Partch was clearly pleased when he recounts the letter he received three months later, which he introduces as “Echoes from Mandolin-Face of the tooth-fretted Lips.
Making Music: Alex Wand
Notes
Alex Wand discusses his composition “Darkness within darkness” for Partch’s Adapted Guitar I, Gourd Tree, Cello, and two Vocalists. Together with Artistic Director John Schneider, they discuss the inspiration behind the work, the sourcing of libretto from Lao Tsu’s “Tao Te Ching,” and the unique manner Alex combines elements of contemporary music, folk music, and Partch’s exquisite intonation to create an ethereal, otherworldly venture into what Alex calls “the darkness that is the eternal Tao.”
This video is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.