HARRY PARTCH ENSEMBLE
The extent to which an individual can resist being blindly led by tradition is a good measure of his vitality.
-- Harry Partch
[T]he most original and powerful contribution to dramatic music on this continent.
-- Jacques Barzun, critic
Far and away our most popular attraction last season, the Harry Partch Ensemble returns with a reconfigured ensemble performing on a new selection of handmade artifacts from the Harry Partch instrumentarium. Partch was a music theorist, composer, philosopher and explorer of the sound world beyond the boundaries of orchestral instruments. Beginning with imitations of human speech, he constructed an entire orchestra. Based in natural tuning systems, the instruments are flexible enough to capture melodic and harmonic nuances impossible to achieve on well-known instruments like the piano. Out of necessity, he became a Renaissance man: skilled carpenter, luthier, sculptor, acoustician, poet, teacher, author and publisher. During the Depression he was also a hobo, penniless, riding the rails and living on his wits. Led by microtonal composer and Partch protege Dean Drummond, this ensemble of students brings the master's work to life on instruments he built himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Partch
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