source file: m1525.txt
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 13:54:25 -0700

Subject: Re: partch bio

From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves)

>Has anyone read the new Partch bio by Bob Gilmore? Any thoughts? Worth
>purchasing?

I'm really happy that someone did all this long-needed research on Partch's
life. It is really illuminating and, for me, well worth it. Gilmore went
through land records, small town newspapers, and every other resource you
can think of to track down Partch's nomadic existence (even so, there are
some significant lacunae in his hobo period). Though the tone of the book
is always rather scholarly and detached, Gilmore also draws a good portrait
of Partch's personality, too, and helps the reader understand many of the
decisions that affected his life.

If you're looking for detailed information about his music, though, the
book, like most composer biographies, is a little disappointing. There is
some good background info on all his known pieces that usually goes beyond
mere liner notes, but little in the way of actual analysis. To be fair,
this was not part of Gilmore's goal, and his accomplishment is still
substantial.

Unfortunately, the unavailability of his scores and the difficulty of
rendering them in an easily-understood notation has made such analysis
infrequent, at least from what I've seen or heard about. Why doesn't
someone publish facsimilies of his scores, at least, with a guide to
reading them, so that we can just peruse his scores in libraries like every
other major composer of this century?

Bill


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