source file: mills2.txt
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 1997 03:22:59 +0200

Subject: Digest 1090, 1092: Partch and dissonance

From: "Jonathan M. Szanto" <jszanto@adnc.com>

Hello listees,


Regarding Adam's response in 1092 about 1090 - Partch, "Barstow" and
dissonance:


>>>>

<excerpt>    1.  Partch's instruments such as the Diamond Marimba and the
Boo

(both included in the 1956 "Barstow" revision) are inharmonic (do not
have

overtone partials which relate to the harmonic series).  These
instruments

also have such short ring-times that you could not hear the overtones

relating even if they were well-tuned.


</excerpt><<<<<<<<


I recall a while back quite a bit of discussion (and disagreement) here
on the list as to the harmonic content of plucked and bowed strings, with
camps being roughly formed between observers of strings in performance
(real world) and observers of strings in theory (science). The issue
never seemed quite settled. Having plucked a few strings myself, I know
that they don't all behave equally across the harmonic spectrum, and
certainly change with time/playing. All that said, it seems that
percussion instruments wouldn't be the only purveyors of inharmonic
sounds -- that anything beyond carefully controlled situations would
yield inharmonic pitches in the sound field also.


Though a simple plucked guitar string, in new condition on a good day,
probably *would* sound more consonant than a Bamboo Marimba. So would a
sine-wave generator, or some other 'clean' pitch source. Of course, none
of this gets into whether or not the timbral/dramatic nature of a given
instrumentation (or 'orchestration) outweighs other (mitigating) factors.
This is left as an exercise for the reader...


By the way, I've found that unemployment (or underemployment, to be
exact) can lead to anal-retentiveness: the revision Adam refers to was
actually 1954, when the Diamond Marimba was added; the Boo part was
tentatively penciled in during rehearsals in 1958 but didn't make it
officially into the score until the revision in 1968, which is when the
Columbia recording was done. I need a life.


>>>>

<excerpt>    2.  As Partch progressed through life, he became more
inclined to

write dissonant, "mistuned" music which is based on his "Monophonic
Scale,"

but is not necessarily in what would be purists would consider to be
Just

Intonation.  Most people won't tell you this because they have not
exmained

his scores in detail (his tablature-noation makes this prohibitively

time-consuming).


</excerpt><<<<<<<<


I like this, because it had been quite a while since I had thought about
consonance/dissonance in just intonational terms. While it is true that
Partch progressed to a less 'textbook' usage of JI as the years went on,
I'm not sure how that relates to purists, but maybe it could be
considered "mistuned" music. One notes Adam's statement: "Most people
won't tell you this...". Possibly, but you can hear Partch himself
address at least the general nature of this in the lecture "A Quarter-Saw
Section of Motivations and Intonations", included on Innova's Enclosure
Two:


In referring to Oedipus (1951/52):


"In the coda of Oedipus, the resolution involves parts of true hexads,
including a 33 identity, which is certainly dissonant, up to the
penultimate; at the end, it is *dissonant* -- monophonically 
dissonant."


About the Coda to Revelation in the Courthouse Park (1960): 


"Dissonances are frequent; only occasionally is a chord a true Monophonic
hexad. But I emphasize: these are Just Intonation dissonances, not
12-tone equal temperment dissonances, and in my opinion, there is a vast
difference."


He apparantly had a different idea about the inclusion of dissonance
within the framework of just intonation. On the other hand, while he
certainly helped get the ball rolling, JI hasn't stood still since he
stopped writing. An interesting area, anyhow. One last bit on Partch's
direction/non-purist/non-ji behavior:


"Once I had found a direction that carried an inherently compelling
force, in almost total disregard for current "laws", ... the actual doing
became dominant, and theory was often tedious, even unimportant.  When
the index of doing went up, the index of theory went down ...  Rules and
standards become meaningless once the simple truth is faced. Let us give
to nuts and bolts the standardization of thread that we have come to
expect, but let us give to music -- magic, to man -- magic." [Partch,
Genesis of a Music, pp.xi-xii]


That's it for my 30 minutes of scholasticism -- I've just been lurking on
the list for a while. By the way, since the topic was someone hearing a
different version of Barstow, I invite all of you to stop by the Meadows
to see "Seven Ways To Barstow". If you have Netscape Navigator and
RealAudio 3.0, you can compare *yourselves* s.e.v.e.n different
renditions/versions of Section Number One ("Today I Am A Man") from
"Barstow", complete with academically inept notes by yours truly.


Man, I gotta get a full-time job one of these days...


Cheers, all!

Jon

*--------------------------------------------------------------------*

   Jonathan M. Szanto   | If spirits can live online . . . . . . . . .

 Backbeats & Interrupts |  . . . . . Partch lives in Corporeal Meadows

   jszanto@adnc.com     | http://www.adnc.com/web/jszanto/welcome.html

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