Partch performs Castor & Pollux by Harry Partch

PRISM Quartet, Inc.
Presents
COLOR THEORY
PRISM Quartet and Partch (East Coast Debut)
June 12, 2016
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave • Brooklyn, NY
Partch
Erin Barnes: diamond marimba
Alison Bjorkedal: kithara, "Castor" canon
Matt Cook: surrogate kithara, "Pollux" canon
David Johnson: cloud chamber bowls, chromelodeon
John Schneider: harmonic "Castor" canon, adapted viola
Nick Terry: bass marimba, cloud chamber bowls
T. J. Troy: bass marimba
CASTOR & POLLUX (1952) by Harry Partch (1901 - 1974)
A Dance for the Twin Rhythms of Gemini
CASTOR, Leda and the Swan
1. Insemination
2. Conception
3. Incubation
4. Delivery
POLLUX, Leda and the Swan
1. Insemination
2. Conception
3. Incubation
4. Delivery
Perhaps the only ‘triple exposure’ in music history, Partch called this infectious dance music, “A tribute to the twin stars of luck. Atonal-dynamic dithyramb. A ritualistic ecstasy…In Castor each of the first three sections requires pairs of different instruments and dancers, all three of which have identical measure patterns, but not necessarily the same rhythms. Number 4, then, is the total of these, played and danced simultaneously. Thus, three different compositions become one composition-the “Delivery,” the logical result and the sum total of the factors that make it inevitable. Pollux follows the same plan: Numbers 5, 6, and 7 combined to result in Number 8.”
Harry Partch (1901-1974) is the iconoclastic American Maverick composer who, between 1930 and 1972, created one of the most amazing bodies of sensually alluring and emotionally powerful music of the 20th century. Partch wrote music drama, dance theater, multi-media extravaganzas, vocal music, and chamber music-all to be performed on the extraordinary orchestra of instruments that he designed and built himself. The Great Depression forced Partch to spend many years as a transient. It was during these years that he collected the texts and experiences that would later form the basis for The Wayward, a collection of musical compositions based on the spoken and written words of hobos and other characters.
To obtain COLOR THEORY featuring PRISM Quartet and Partch, please visit www.prismquart...

[@simonagree4070]

Thumbs-up #666 woo-hoo! This is just how I remember it from the record, more than 50 years ago. Most (all?) of these performers hadn't even been born. They are wonderful! The lady gets some of Partch's need for dance.

[@user-nw2gf5mq7g]

Partch' compositions always reminds me of Indonesian Gamelon music.

[@oscargill423]

So nice to see that people are still playing Partch's music!

[@brucekuehn4031]

I came to this from an unusual direction. I had been watching a silent movie on TCM called The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg with Ramon Novarro. I recalled that he had also played the title character in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur and I looked up more information on him. It turns out that Navarro and Partch had a romantic relationship before Navarro’s fame began to rise in Hollywood. Strange how one thing can lead to another.

[@michaelyancey3021]

This is fascinating music. I found Parch because I was picking through some old magazines online and found "Coast FM & Fine Arts", a short-lived LA magazine. The issue is August 1969, with an article on page 24. worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Other-Documments/Coast-FM-Fine-Arts-LA/Coast-Fine-Arts-1969-08.pdf

[@pjnewman5947]

BRAVO!

[@canticle56]

This is pure gold!

[@bananartista]

I would give my life to play these instruments

[@KohanKilletz]

Ishamel has heard your wish and it will be granted.

[@WhallexKing]

damn, shit life then

[@abigailking2023]

My cat came and lied down in front of my laptop when I put this on. XD I think she likes it.

[@chasekimball5999]

I love Partch, and it is especially nice to see a live performance. My first Partch album was "Delusion of the Fury" in about 1973 or 74

[@docbailey3265]

What a brilliant performance! There were actually a few miscues, but if you weren’t a huge fan of this you wouldn’t have noticed, and it’s so tribal it probably doesn’t make any difference. Jeff Goldbloom on the harmonic canon was a nice touch.

[@WeirdMedicine]

First heard of Harry P when in college in 1973, just before his passing; great to see his music lives on.

[@user-ep3bb9fk6n]

this is absolutely amazing

[@timberframingbear]

Saw a Partch ensemble at Garth Newel. It was magic. It was a tiny venue, and i got to touch some of the instruments. That was more magical

[@canticle56]

Really beautiful performance, performance very energetic. , and video. The video style seems an homage to Partch who actually did several videos of his group performing. It’s a documentary style but certainly not dry. This is absolutely top notch in every way. Bravi

[@Jack-vy6uo]

I was happy to meet Him in NYC along with John Cage. It changed my teenager outlook on music 😮

[@mooshroommoon]

Piano teacher just said to listen to his music today. It’s great! I’m happy someone can make jumble of music in to one piece and make it sound ok.

[@agogobell28]

Really interesting.

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

still love his music!!

[@davidbulger3716]

Reading Beck’s Wikipedia page brought me here. It’s difficult to find new sounds and musicians will definitely explore to find new sounds. Some influence on Zappa perhaps but in the end demon possessed wind chimes. I liked it!

[@eliotfintushel1258]

Wonderful! Inspiring! Thank you!

[@KohanKilletz]

It actually works really well

[@iancollins4129]

I loved that!

[@nowandxenpodcast]

BRILLIANT

[@karolinakralova9086]

i love it

[@richardvanelli7610]

Really good! Really liked it.

[@jeffcase9979]

I currently have one of the 500 original copies of plectra and percussion dances currently on eBay

[@opaljk4835]

That probably cost a pretty penny

[@agst2006]

maverick American composer

[@machida5114]

quite good...

[@nathanpiazza9644]

So interesting to see all the negative comments, I guess everyone has Stockholm Syndrome for 12-tone equal temperament.

[@Patrick-gm3fb]

I just found this because I'm getting pretty sick of 12TET. My brain needs a break and the chance to move on to something different. I'm just grateful that I'm no longer beholden to Google as a means to find things and there're some legitimately good AI search tools being developed.

[@simonagree4070]

That's my impression too. The haters puzzle me -- they must be mixed up about what music is.

[@SmashAtoms]

This is just Wounded Knee by Primus but played in reverse.

[@Squidward_Tikiland]

I like the wierd tuning and the sounds but there’s no drama to it. Where does it lead??

[@ChrisCherchant]

It leads to a parallel universe where everyone's tone-deaf 😬

[@Squidward_Tikiland]

@@ChrisCherchant that might be literally true. Pop music and modern, not avant-garde classical used to have some of the best composition in the world. Now you have academic avant garde classical, and pop music written by people who never played classical

[@onecrak]

Ahhh, bet Mike Patton likes this too.....

[@joelcasseus628]

14:00

[@ericmatteson7844]

The spontaneous, percussive accompaniment from the audience was well worth the wait. Bravo! Now the king can get some clothes on. What I find most impressive about Partch is that he never let on, to his sophisticated listeners, what is blindingly obvious to any three year old...

[@nathanpiazza9644]

What

[@nathanwesche]

Would be hard to tell if they played anything drastically wrong. Lol

[@hoon_sol]

@basteAndTurkeypilled: Yeah, this is pretty awful. But people can pretend to like it all they want. I'll keep listening to _The Art of Fugue_ instead.

[@Nilmand]

Actually it's quite accessible, repetitive and memorable music. The only piece of music that could possibly correspond to your comment would maybe be Cage's Music of Changes

[@hoon_sol]

@@Nilmand: Repetitive, yes; accessible or memorable, absolutely not. This is just pure garbage that people pretending to be intelligent try to convince others is good.

[@hoon_sol]

@basteAndTurkeypilled: Just intonation is absolute garbage. Anyone trying to make music in just intonation has totally missed how music actually works. Intervals need room to resonate, not just be perfect intervals; when you try to use just intonation to make music it becomes dull and lifeless due to how movement between various intervals no longer provides any progressive quality. There are numerous scholars who have proven beyond any doubt, both on a mathematical and physical basis, that 12-TET is the only tuning system that provides the perfect amount of resonance. These excerpts from _Interference: A Grand Scientific Musical Theory_ by Richard Merrick should make the matter abundantly clear: *_«In general, the interference equation can be used to measure resonant amplitudes for any musical interval under any temperament or octave division. This equation tells us that minimum resonance occurs at the fourth root of an octave (or square root of twelve) while maximum resonance occurs at the cube root of half an octave. Taken together, these results offer clear evidence that harmonic interference balances naturally around 12 as the most rational and harmonic number possible.»_* *_«We find here the most amazing thing. The arithmetic mean converges toward PI, or mathematical constant π ≈ 3.14159, located in the middle of the curve. We further find this point in the distribution curve to be equal to Unity (or 1) when the domain value X = 12. This is significant because twelve is the square root of 144, the value shared by both harmonic and Fibonacci series in a 12-step octave. Squaring each of the table values and dividing by twelve confirms that 12.02383 ≈ 12 is the point of balance between foreground and background._* *_The significance of twelve as a point of balance in the octave interference pattern is proven further by plugging it into the equation, confirming the curve height equal to Unity at the octave. But even more significant than this is the fact that plugging the square root of twelve into the equation results in the amplitude y = 5.0666. Care to guess what this number represents?_* *_It is none other than the y-axis amplitude for the golden ratio in an octave. Yes, the square root of twelve in the Gaussian interference pattern occurs precisely at Φ, right in the “cracks between the keys” of a major 3rd and minor 3rd in an octave. Just like the dense lattice region between a major 6th and minor 6th, the infinite golden ratio also provides an anti-harmonic proportion in the lower half of an octave. This occurs naturally at the square root of 12 (or fourth root of 144) in a 12-step octave._* *_No matter how you do the math, both harmonic and Fibonacci series reach a harmonic balance with one another at n=12 and an anti-harmonic dead zone at n=√12. Division of the octave by twelve (not eleven, nineteen or any other number) is revealed here as a completely natural pattern produced by linear harmonics that are curved in pitch space by Fibonacci proportions as they converge to Φ. Could Gioseffo Zarlino’s decision to divide the octave into twelve steps have involved some knowledge of this simple relation between harmonics and the Fibonacci series?»_* *_«As a surprising correspondence between music and math, this little trick reveals the Pythagorean comma accurate to 3 decimal places. More amazing still, if we recalculate using the un-rounded arithmetic mean 12.02383 found earlier in place of 12, we obtain a slightly better estimate for the Pythagorean comma good to 4 decimal places. This bizarre associative property in the interference equation using the anti-harmonic golden ratio location of n=√12 proves the golden ratio is a physical property in the natural harmonic series and not some kind of error or “evil” in nature as portrayed by the Church. Vibration needs room to resonate in space and the Pythagorean comma created by the golden ratio appears to be just the right amount of room needed.»_*

[@Nilmand]

@@hoon_sol I don't care, you can think what you want, but if the piece is repetitive and full of patterns with just a few listenings it would be predictable and easy to tell if something is wrong, responding to the original commenter

[@WhallexKing]

mid.

[@spockthelogical]

It sounded out of tune.

[@AnAverageItalian]

_Ok guys who's going to tell him?_

[@codascheuer8426]

Harry Partch uses a tuning system of his own invention. It’s 43-tone unequal temperament. From his point of view, you’re the one who’s out of tune lol

[@danielroy8232]

if you're gonna compose using microtones, you should actually try to make something beautiful.

[@AlanAuti]

1- this is beautiful 2- not all music needs to be beautiful

[@mihaigheorghiu2211]

This music is a hellbound in a basket.

[@jamesscottvideos]

Meh