Played Instrument: Janus Canon I

Performed by PARTCH Ensemble at REDCAT, June 2024

1. Study #1 Olympos’ Pentatonic
2. The Wind (Ella Young, Lao-tze)
3. Study #2 Archytas’ Enharmonic
4. The Street (Willard Motley)
5. 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.