Videos
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Barstow — Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a highway railing near Barstow, California (1941/68)
Notes
- Today I Am a Man
- Gentlemen
- Considered Pretty
- A very Good Idea
- Possible Rides
- Jesus Was God in the Flesh
- You Lucky Women
- 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.
Additional Instruments:
Voice
Performances
Recordings
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Bridge Records is pleased to issue the latest recording by Partch Ensemble, the Grammy Award winning new music group specializing in the music and instruments of the iconoclastic American composer Harry Partch. Partch’s “The Wayward” in the composer’s own words, is “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.” This is the world premiere recording of Partch’s complete cycle.
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LIMITED EDITION: Hardbound book, 72 pages, 38 photographs
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2019 Sequenza21: Best Recordings of 2019
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2019 WQXR: Best Classical Recordings
2019 All About Jazz: Best Releases
2019 The Art Music Lounge Award
Percussive Notes Hall of Fame 2019
Related Pieces
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Ulysses at the Edge of the World
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U.S. Highball — A musical account of a transcontinental hobo trip (1943/55)
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San Francisco — A setting of the cries of two newsboys on a Foggy Night in the Twenties ~ (1943/55)
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The Letter — A depression message from a hobo friend (1943/55)
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Barstow — Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a highway railing near Barstow, California (1941-…)
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The Wayward
Composer
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Partch, Harry







