source file: m1477.txt Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 12:04:07 -0700 Subject: Reply to Mr. Wolf From: Carl Lumma >>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. When I said he wouldn't have a problem, I meant in theory he would probably have had nothing against it. I did not mean that he actually did modulate the entire diamond. >While there are a few places where reeds need to be changed on the >Chromelodeon, they don't represent wholesale modulation of the diamond. I know it. >Erv Wilson tells a story about Partch playing fragments from _Water, Water_ >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! That is a fantastic story! I have enough love for stories about Partch or Wilson, let alone a story involving them both! >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 principle of >symmetrical inversion around the tonic and the six identity harmony led to >the diamond which characterizes the second (peaking at Dark Brother and >Even Wild Horses), and in the third, dominated by the percussion >instruments, Partch made an extremely free use of his tonal resources, and >his previous use of non-harmonic tones often dominates the music (Castor >and Pollux and ...Petals... deserve special mention in this regard). Hmm. Interestin' >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. Most certainly it is. "Tonal flux" is a type of modulation in my 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 Letter >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. I am very impressed by your knowledge of Partch's work. Are you familiar with _Dreamer_ or _Delusion of the Fury_? Carl