source file: m1476.txt
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:37:35 -0400

Subject: TUNING digest 1475

From: Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@compuserve.com>

Carl Lumma wrote:

<He added secondary tonalities as he needed them, and I'm
<sure he would have no problem with modulating the entire diamond by some=

<interval.

Not quite. While there are a few places where reeds need to be changed on=

the Chromelodeon, they don't represent wholesale modulation of the diamon=
d.
Erv Wilson tells a story about Partch playing fragments from _Water, Wate=
r_
for him during the composition. Partch had come up with something that he=

couldn't analyse and asked Erv for his help. Erv pointed out that Partch
was trying to modulate to the dominant, and when a tone wasn't available
simply took the nearest pitch on the Chromelodeon!

Partch's tonal practice can be heard as going through three major phases:=

the first was characterized by the microtonality necessary to translate
spoken intonation (Li Po settings, the Psalms, the Wayward), the principl=
e
of symmetrical inversion around the tonic and the six identity harmony le=
d
to the diamond which characterizes the second (peaking at Dark Brother an=
d
Even Wild Horses), and in the third, dominated by the percussion
instruments, Partch made an extremely free use of his tonal resources, an=
d
his previous use of non-harmonic tones often dominates the music (Castor
and Pollux and ...Petals... deserve special mention in this regard).

Much of what Mr. Lumma may identify as 'modulation' may in fact be either=

the free practice of the later music or what Partch calls 'tonal flux' in=

his book. The tonal flux examples in the book are, in fact, progressions
that dominate his practice. The alternating triads 7/6-7/5-7/4 and
8/7-10/7-12/7 are found, among other places, as the ostinato in The Lette=
r
and among the Choruses of Oedipus to separate strophes. Similarly, one
Chorus in Oedipus alternates strophes based on the 11/8U-16/11O chordal
pair.     =