More great stuff from the BBC here, this time a documentary on unclassical composer Harry Partch. Partch lived through most of the 20th century, and completely discarded traditional western classical music in favor of creating his own musical language using pure tuning, finding tones between conventional notes. He was initially inspired upon discovering the book “On the sensations of Tone” by Hermann Helmholtz, then he developed his own microtonal scale, and further figured out a way to actually write it out. Eventually this led to creating his own amazing instruments. Needless to say this kind of attack on conventional music and thinking doesn’t generally result in living an easy life, and Harry truly railed actively against any sort of convention. He spent a decade or so in destitute poverty, washing dishes, traveling America, yet he continued to document simple things like the speech patterns and dialects of other vagabonds he encountered in his travels. The essence of Partch’s gleeful tragic and often mischievous spirit really comes though in the interviews and video shown here. Partch’s music is difficult to listen to initially for those unaccustomed, and takes some commitment, however any person who is interested in the problem of creating music owes it a listen, Harry after all dedicated his life to it unconditionally.
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 1 of 6
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 2 of 6
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 3 of 6
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 4 of 6
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 5 of 6
Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 6 of 6
