Harry Partch - The Harry Partch Collection, Vol. 1

The works recorded on this disc span the first six years of what Harry Partch, slightly tongue-in-cheek, called the “third period” of his creative life. They show him moving away from the obsession with “the intrinsic music of spoken words” that had characterized his earlier output (the vocal works of 1930–33 and 1941–45) and toward an instrumental idiom, predominantly percussive in nature. This path was to take him through the “music-dance drama” King Oedipus (1951)—the culmination of his “spoken word” manner—to the “dance satire” The Bewitched, in which his new percussive idiom manifests itself. The three works on this disc show Partch before, during, and after this period of transition.

Eleven Intrusions (1949–50) 20:04
1. Study on Olympos’ Pentatonic 1:15
2. Study on Archytas’ Enharmonic 1:57
3. The Rose 1:37
4. The Crane 1:35
5. The Waterfall 1:04
6. The Wind 1:38
7. The Street 2:39
8. Lover 1:45
9. Soldiers—War—Another War 1:57
10. Vanity 0:43
11. Cloud-Chamber Music 3:54

Harry Partch, principal vocals; Ben Johnston, Betty Johnston, Harry Partch, Donald Pippin, Bill Snead, instrumentalists
Recorded in 1950–51 in Gualala, California, by Harry Lindgren. First released on Partch Compositions, a five-record 78 rpm
set by Lauriston C. Marshall, Berkeley, California.

Plectra and Percussion Dances—Satyr-Play Music for Dance Theater (1952)
I. Castor and Pollux—A Dance for the Twin Rhythms of Gemini 15:23
12. Castor 7:41
Leda and the Swan/Insemination (Kithara & Surrogate Kithara and Cloud-Chamber Bowls) Conception (Harmonic Canon and
High Bass Marimba)
Incubation (Diamond Marimba and Low Bass Marimba)
Chorus of Delivery (all the foregoing instruments)
13. Pollux 7:42
Leda and the Swan/Insemination (Kithara & Surrogate Kithara and Low Bass Marimba) Conception (Harmonic Canon and
Cloud-Chamber Bowls)
Incubation (Diamond Marimba and High Bass Marimba)
Chorus of Delivery (all the foregoing instruments)

II. Ring Around the Moon—A Dance Fantasm for Here and Now 9:21
14. Phase One—Well, bless my soul! (Well, bless my soul!) 2:48
15. Phase Two—One, two, three, four —X, Y, Zee 2:12
16. Phase Three—Shake hands now, boys, and at the sound of the bell come out fighting! 2:55
17. Phase Four—Mumbo jumbo, hocus pocus, hoity toity, hotsy totsy, acey ducey, hoochy koochy (Look out! He's got a gun!) 1:26
For Speaking Voice (on tones), Adapted Guitar II, Kithara, Harmonic Canon, Chromelodeon I, Chromelodeon Sub-bass,
Cloud-Chamber Bowls and Marimba Eroica (one player), Diamond Marimba, Bass Marimba

III. Even Wild Horses—Dance Music for an Absent Drama 22:39
18. Act I, Scene 1 A Decent and Honorable Mistake (Samba) 2:42
19. Act I, Scene 2 Rhythm of the Womb—Melody of the Grave (Heartbeat Rhythm) 3:00
20. Act I, Scene 3 Happy Birthday to You! (Afro-Chinese minuet) 2:45
21. Act II, Scene 1 “Nor These Lips Upon Your Eyes” (Rumba) 3:25
22. Act II, Scene 2 “Hunger, Thirst, Shouts, Dance!” (Nañiga) 2:11
23. Act II, Scene 3 “Land of Darkness and of Whirlwinds” (Slow, Fast, Wild!) 3:29
24. Act III, Scene 1 “Had I Not Once a Lovely Youth?” (Conga) 2:46
25. Act III, Scene 2 “Let Us Contemplate Undazed the Endless Reaches of My Innocence” (Tahitian Dance) 2:21
For Adapted Viola, Adapted Guitar III, Kithara, Harmonic Canon, Chromelodeon and Sub-bass, Diamond Marimba,
Bass Marimba, Cloud-Chamber Bowls, 9/8 Marimba Eroica, wood block and cymbal, tenor saxophone and/or baritone
voice
Gate 5 Ensemble (Sausalito): Richard Barnett, Ruita Churchill, Vincent Delgado, Robert Garfias, Henry Jaramillo, Lynn
Ludlow, Harry Partch, Jerry Schimmel, Meyer Slivka, Allen Smith, Marc Smith, instrumentalists; Lynn Ludlow, voice
(Ring Around the Moon); Allan Louw, voice (Even Wild Horses); Horace Schwartz, conductor
Recorded in 1953 in Sausalito, California, by Oscar Anderson. First released as Harry Partch Trust Fund First Edition in 1953.

26. Ulysses at the Edge (1955) 6:39
Gate 5 Ensemble (Evanston, Illinois): David Reid, voice, baritone saxophone; Dick Schleppe, alto saxophone; Danlee
Mitchell, Bamboo Marimba, Cloud-Chamber Bowls; Harry Partch, Diamond Marimba, Cloud-Chamber Bowls
Recorded in 1958 in Evanston, Illinois, by James Cunningham. First released on Gate 5 Records, Issue B, in 1962.

New World Records: NW80621-2