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Among the few truly experimental composers in our cultural history,
Harry Partch's life (1901-1974) and music embody most completely
the quintessential American rootlessness, isolation, pre-civilized
cult of experience, and dichotomy of practical invention and
transcendental visions. Having lived mostly in the remote deserts
of Arizona and New Mexico with no access to formal training, Partch
naturally created theatrical ritualistic works incorporating Indian
chants, Japanese kabuki and Noh, Polynesian microtones, Balinese
gamelan, Greek tragedy, dance, mime, and sardonic commentary on
Hollywood and commercial pop music of modern civilization. First
published in 1949, Genesis of a Music is the manifesto of Partch's
radical compositional practice and instruments (which owe nothing
to the 300-year-old European tradition of Western music.) He
contrasts Abstract and Corporeal music, proclaiming the latter as
the vital, emotionally tactile form derived from the spoken word
(like Greek, Chinese, Arabic, and Indian musics) and surveys the
history of world music at length from this perspective. Parts II,
III, and IV explain Partch's theories of scales, intonation, and
instrument construction with copious acoustical and mathematical
documentation. Anyone with a musically creative attitude, whether
or not familiar with traditional music theory, will find this book
revelatory.
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