source file: m1559.txt Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 14:41:33 -0700 Subject: "Enclosure 5: Harry Partch" available From: "Jonathan M. Szanto" Tunors, This is a bit lengthy, but I wanted you all to be aware of the release of Philip Blackburn's important "Enclosures" series on the life/work of Harry Partch. I'll have info on Corporeal Meadows shortly, but one reason why I'm forwarding this is that, especially on the tuning list, Partch's *first* version of Oedipus, with Yeat's translation (and performed and recorded at none other than Mills College!) always crops up as a seminal work in modern microtonal circles.=20 On a personal level, I was once again happy to help with some of the tape transfers and various 'detective' work, and also pleased that nearly 20 years after the fact people can hear a performance that I still consider a real high point in my years of playing with the Partch Ensemble, "The Bewitched", as performed in Cologne. Here's the news: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The American Composers Forum announces the forthcoming release of the final part of its series chronicling the life and work of Harry Partch (1901-74), one of America=B9s most extraordinary, yet central, composers. Partch was a self-taught musician, eclectic visionary, instrument-builder, microtonal theorist, gay, sometime-hobo, who conceived and composed a Corporeal, integrated, ancient ritual theater. Enclosure Five (innova 405), the final (maybe) installment of this multi-media biography, is a 3-CD set focussing on Partch=B9s works inspired by ancient Greece. It includes important works published here for the first time, reissues of out-of-print recordings, and new performances. With this issue, virtually the entirety of Partch=B9s recorded ouevre is publicly available for the first time. Taken with the rest of the Enclosures series and the Harry Partch Collection on CRI, we can now begin to assess Partch=B9s whole output. Works include: - A reissue of Ulysses at the Edge with Jack Logan playing the trumpet part originally intended for Chet Baker; - Revelation in the Courthouse Park (after The Bacchae of Euripides), in its original version recorded at the University of Illinois in 1960 and excerpted on Partch=B9s own Gate Five records; - King Oedipus, the culmination of Partch=B9s Speech-Music period, in its original version using the translation by W.B. Yeats. Although Partch considered this his most important work (it took 19 years to write) and an excellent performance (featuring the incomparable Allen Louw as Oedipus and Rudolphine Radil [pupil of Mahler] as Jocasta), it was never released because of a permission dispute; - Miscellaneous short Speech-Music works: By the Rivers of Babylon (reorchestrated from the version heard on Enclosure Two); Come Away, Death from the lost collection, December 1942. This work, for voice and guitar, appears with the work by Douglas Moore that inspired Partch=B9s own setting; and Minuet, a curious Baroque duet performed by Partch and his then-student, Ben Johnston; - The Bewitched (A Dance Satire) in a 1980 recording from Germany featuring an extraordinary performance and recording of this major Partch work (produced by Kenneth Gaburo for the Berlin Festival, with Danlee Mitchell, music director and Isabelle Tercero as The Witch). Partch=B9s own spoken introductions to two of the works are included as well as an extensive booklet. The Enclosures series, named after Partch=B9s last contemplated work and released on the innova Recordings label of the American Composers Forum, is the culmination of a 13-year endeavor by Dr. Philip Blackburn, a Minnesota-based composer, performer, administrator and scholar. Inspired by Partch=B9s pioneering spirit and dearth of published materials, Blackburn worked with the Harry Partch Foundation, colleague Kenneth Gaburo, and many others to bring Partch=B9s singular voice to the public, attempting to "let Harry speak for himself." Ulysses Departs from the Edge of the World=20 (1971 Orion LP, Jack Logan, trumpet) Revelation in the Courthouse Park (1960, Gate 5 Records, Issue F) Introduction to King Oedipus (KPFA-FM, 1954) King Oedipus=20 (1952, Mills College premiere with W.B. Yeats libretto) Johann Krieger: Menuet (1950, Partch + Ben Johnston) Come Away, Death (from December, 1942) (1997, Didier Aschour and Vincent Bouchot) By the Rivers of Babylon (137th Psalm) (1961, Gate Five Records) Introduction to The Bewitched (1959, WNYC) The Bewitched (1980, WDR-K=F6ln) Details on the whole Enclosure series can be found at www.composersforum.org Telephone orders: 1 (800) 388-4487 Web orders: www.cdemusic.org or your local music store Mail order, PO=B9s, wholesale orders to:=20 American Composers Forum innova Recordings 332 Minnesota Street, E-145 St. Paul, MN 55101-1300 tel: 651-228-1407 fax: 651-291-7978 e-mail: innova@composersforum.org www: http://www.composersforum.org ---------------------------------------------- ..and since there's been so much talk about co-ops and such, you might find the American Composers Forum website of interest. Cheers, Jon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jonathan M. Szanto | Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch, online. . . jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.corporeal.com/