source file: mills2.txt
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 17:42:48 -0700

Subject: Re: Listening to Partch

From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com>

Brian Lee said:
> From my own work with rational tunings, I find that I get most out of them
> either using long sustained tones or repeated patterns. This gives the
> quality of the interval time to really resonate for me inwardly. Whereas the
> short chippy sounds of much of Partch's music communicates well rhythmically
> but I don't get much else out of it other than at an intellectual level.

   I just have to put a big "amen!" on that one.  That was one of the biggest
confusion points to me in getting to understand Partch's music.  I also find it
strangely - or perhaps amusingly - ironic that he used some of the most
nonharmonic timbres to perform music based on harmonic relationships.  

   But I once posed that concern to Jonathan Glasier, who has been associated
with Partch and his legacy since his youth.  He responded that he understood
that concern, but cautioned me to realize that Partch's musical goals were not
wholly, or in his view, even primarily, about tuning alone.  He wanted to create
an entire alternative music tradition, including instrumentational, rhythmic,
literary, and yes intonational.  


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