The American composer Harry Partch (1901–1974) composed in musical tunings not available on conventional Western instruments. Instead, he developed a 43-tone scale and new instruments. His music emphasized monophony and corporeality, in contrast to the abstract, polyphonic music prevalent at the time. His earliest compositions were small-scale pieces to be intoned to instrumental backing; his later works were large-scale, integrated theater productions in which he expected each of the performers to sing, dance, speak, and play instruments.^[1]

Partch described the theory and practice of his music in his book Genesis of a Music, which he had published first in 1947,^[2] and in an expanded edition in 1974.^[3] A collection of essays, journals, and librettos by Partch was published posthumously as Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos 1991. Philip Blackburn edited a collection of Partch's writings, drawings, scores, and photographs, published as Enclosure 3 in 1997.

Partch partially supported himself with the sales of recordings, which he began making in the late 1930s.^[4] He published his recordings under the Gate 5 Records label beginning in 1953.^[5] Towards the end of his life, Columbia Masterworks released records of his works. Partch scored six films by Madeline Tourtelot, starting with 1957's Windsong, and was the subject of a number of documentaries.^[6]

Works

• Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po (1930–1933)
• Two Psalms (1931)
• The Potion Scene (from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) (1931/1955)
• The Wayward
  • Barstow: Eight Hitchhikers' Inscriptions (1941/1954/1967)
  • San Francisco: A Setting of the Cries of Two Newsboys on a Street Corner (1943)^[7]
  • The Letter (1943)
  • U.S. Highball (1943/1955)
• Yankee Doodle Fantasy (1944)
• Dark Brother (1942–1943)
• Two Settings from Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1944)
• "I'm very happy to be telling you about this..." (1945)
• Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales (1946)
• Eleven Intrusions (1949–1950)^[8]
• Plectra and Percussion Dances^[8]
  • Ring Around the Moon (1949–1950)^[8]
  • Castor and Pollux (1952)^[8]
  • Even Wild Horses (1952)^[8]
• Oedipus (1950/1952–1954/1967)
• Two Settings from Lewis Carroll (1954)
• Ulysses at the Edge (1955)
• The Bewitched (1955/1973)
• Windsong (1955)
  • rewritten as Daphne of the Dunes (1967)
• Revelations in the Courthouse Park (1960)
• Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (1961)
• Bless This Home (1961)
• Water! Water!: An Intermission with Prologues and Epilogues (1961)^[8]
• And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (1963–66)
• Delusion of the Fury (1965–66)
• The Dreamer That Remains—A Study in Loving (1972)

Books

• Genesis of a Music (1947; revised 1974) Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306801068
• Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos (1991; published posthumously) University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252069130
• Enclosure 3 (1997) Innova. ISBN 0-9656569-0-X

Recordings

Audio

Partch made recordings of his own music; on recordings such as the soundtrack to Windsong, he used multitrack recording, which allowed him to play all the instruments himself. He never used synthesized or computer-generated sounds, though he had access to such technology.^[9]

• The World of Harry Partch (Columbia Masterworks MS 7207 & MQ 7207, 1969, out of print) Daphne of the Dunes, Barstow, and Castor & Pollux, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer.
• Delusion of the Fury (Columbia Masterworks LP M2 30576, 1971; CD Innova Recordings 406, 2001) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Danlee Mitchell under the supervision of the composer and "EXTRA: A Glimpse into the World of Harry Partch", composer introduces and comments on the 27 unique instruments built by him.
• Enclosure II (early speech-music works) (Innova 401)
• Enclosure V ("On a Greek Theme") (Innova 405)
• Enclosure VI ("Delusion of the Fury") (Innova 406)
• Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury. A Ritual of Dream and Delusion (Wergo, 2022) Delusion of the Fury, conducted by Heiner Goebbels.^[10]

Films