source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 11:24:49 -0700 Subject: Post from McLaren From: John Chalmers From: mclaren Subject: Neil Haverstick's evaluation of Partch as a composer --- Neil Haverstick is one of the most talented guitarists I've had the pleasure to hear. His "MicroStock" in Colorado has rapidly become one of the most important microtonal concert venues in the U.S., and Neil is the prime mover in that effort. However, permit me to join with Denny Genovese in disagreeing Neil's opinion of Partch as a composer. Neil said something to the effect that Harry Partch was a genius "in a certain way," but that he didn't find Partch to be a great composer. Having heard a fair amount of Partch's music, it's clear to me that Partch is at the very least a first- rate composer. Whether you want to call him "great" probably depends on the judgement of future generations...but in my opinion it's safe to say that if *any* of the composers of the 20th century should be called "great," Partch certainly should. "Daphne of the Dunes" sends shivers down my spine. It's just that good. The intricate cross-rhythms and the adroit use of timbre and small vs. large just intervals seem to me astonishingly adept. "Two Pieces On Ancient Greek Scales" is one of Partch's most widely recorded compositions, and it seems to me in every way the equivalent of Bach's best two-part Inventions. "And On the Seventh Day, the Petals Fell In Petaluma..." has always struck me as a virtuoso display of compositional ability, right up there with Josquin DesPres and Johannes Ockeghem. Remember that Partch composed "Petals" so that some of the duets overlapped into quartets...doing this with a string quartet or a wind quintet is challenging enough, but to do it *by yourself* using *only two tape recorders* in a JI tuning which no one else had ever heard before, and to make it work musically...well, this is an achievement that leaves me speechless. Partch was obviously a genius. In my judgment he was also a great composer. This is just one person's opinion, but it seems to me that Neil hasn't fully appreciated the beauty and the power of Partch's music. On the other hand, let me point out that this says nothing about Neil Haverstick's judgement. Neil's compositional style is *very* different from the academic "serious" so-called "highbrow" compositional style with which many of the academic subscribers to this forum are most familiar. Neil is an excellent composer, however. Oddly enough, many of Neil's pieces tend in the direction of what the French call "spectral composition," a new music movement that doesn't have its own name in this country (but does have some brilliant exponents, foremost among them William Sethares). Neil's use of the guitar with heavy signal processing has influenced me in my recent use of guitars as "resonant bodies" with extreme signal processing. By beating the back of the guitar with a rubber mallet, placing knitting needles between the strings, and running various objects along the strings (paper, tin foil, picks, felt sticks) while subjecting the signal to extravagant signal processing with a reverb unit, remarkable and almost orchestral sounds can be obtained from almost any guitar. Neil's work with guitars particularly in 34/oct pointed the way for us (Adam Cline has done a lot of work with prepared guitars at the Sonic Arts Gallery), and serves as a continual inspiration. Perhaps Neil comes from such a different mindset to Partch's that it's difficult for Neil to fully appreciate Partch's music. --mclaren Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 23 Jun 1996 18:34 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id JAA06488; Sun, 23 Jun 1996 09:33:58 -0700 Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 09:33:58 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu