Free performance on Harry Partch instruments
If you haven't had an opportunity to see or hear the unique musical instruments
that are part of the Harry Partch Instrumentarium, you will not want to
miss this month's free performance.
The Instrumentarium is a collection of instruments created and built by
20th-century composer Harry Partch. The collection has been housed at
Montclair State since 1999. On Sunday, April 14, the Montclair State University
Harry Partch Ensemble and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble will perform a
50-minute concert that includes "Daphne of the Dunes," "Greek
Study No. 2" and "Verse 11 from Petals" by Harry Partch,
"Round Midnight" by Thelonius Monk and the premiere of "Radium"
by graduate student Elizabeth Walsh, who will conduct her own work for
kithara, diamond marimba, bass marimba and zoomoozophone. The Montclair
State Contemporary Chamber Ensemble will perform "Octandre"
by Edgar Varése.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. in McEachern Recital Hall.
"Harry Partch's influence continues to evolve as contemporary composers
explore new sounds and develop new instruments," said Dean Drummond,
director of the Harry Partch Institute. "At Montclair State, students
representing the next generation of musicians now have the opportunity
to involve themselves with all these possibilities."
The lower level of the University's new 500-seat theater, expected to
be completed in the fall 2003, will house the Instrumentarium and the
New Music Institute.
Partch was active between 1930 and 1972 as a composer, theorist and instrument
inventor. He built his instruments in a new microtonal tuning system for
the performance of music dramas, dance theater, multi-media extravaganzas,
vocal music and chamber music. Influences for his work included Greek
mythology, Asian and Native American music, and his experiences as a hobo.
He developed a "concept of corporeality" based on the integration
of the elements of speech with music that explored expanded melodic and
harmonic possibilities. He was the author of a treatise, "Genesis
of a Music," that explained his philosophy and theory of intonation.
For more information about the Harry Partch instruments, click
here.