Play a Harry Partch Instrument.

December 14, 2004 5:07 PM

Play a Harry Partch Instrument. Visionary musican Harry Partch (1901-1971) built his own incredible Just Intonated instruments. You can now play them all with your keyboard!
posted by ubueditor (16 comments total)

[this is awesome]
posted by kenko at 5:34 PM on December 14, 2004

Indeed. The American Mavericks series was great radio and also created some of the best of the web. Thanks ubueditor!
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 5:45 PM on December 14, 2004

Thanks so much ubueditor. My roommate is currently working on a commission for Newband and I'm sure he'll be psyched to see this site.
posted by leecifer at 5:56 PM on December 14, 2004

"I'm going home, to Boston ah-ah Massachuuuuuusetts ..." Many fond memories of Harry Partch from my Composing Music Since 1950 class freshman year of college. Thanks!
posted by grrarrgh00 at 7:04 PM on December 14, 2004

More discussion of Partch here and here.
posted by languagehat at 7:26 PM on December 14, 2004

After listening to Partch rant about how much better just intonation is to our "Alice in Wonderland" equal tempered scale, (and who's to say it isn't, actually-- my ear found the samples quite listenable) I was about to go ahead and play one of the simulated Partch instruments, but then got totally sidetracked by the treasure trove of unusual music by all sorts of composers in the Listening Room. They even have two streaming radio stations (depending on whether you're in a mood for "smooth" or "crunchy".) I will return here often.
posted by Ironwolf at 8:49 PM on December 14, 2004

This is very, very cool. Thanks for posting (this and other things -- i bow to ubu). I'm off to the listening room...
posted by edlundart at 8:59 PM on December 14, 2004

This is a great resource. Thanks so much.
posted by melissa may at 9:04 PM on December 14, 2004

And here.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 10:18 PM on December 14, 2004

Partch died in 1974, though, not '71. I'd ignore the typo, but I've been cranky about the liner notes to Revelation In The Courthouse Park having him dying in 1976.
posted by sighmoan at 10:36 PM on December 14, 2004

Thanks for this. I've wanted to play a bass marimba since I first read about it in the Delusion of the Fury Liner notes ages ago. What an idea!
posted by QuietDesperation at 10:37 PM on December 14, 2004

/derail

I almost posted this interview to MeFi:

George Crumb
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 10:39 PM on December 14, 2004

[this is awesome] I've always been intrigued by this just intonation. And now I can play all my favorite Tom Waits songs on a properly tuned marimba. Woohoo!
posted by swordfishtrombones at 10:58 PM on December 14, 2004

Nice find. I'm going to be monkeying with this for a while.
posted by Devils Slide at 11:11 PM on December 14, 2004

This is awesome. I remember when I took Music Theory in high school I was confused by how stupid intonation choices were. It's fairly obvious if you've done any choir singing. All really good choirs will naturally gravitate to using just intonation, which is a problem when you try to accompany them.
posted by JZig at 11:21 PM on December 14, 2004

Awesome.
posted by stet at 11:33 AM on December 15, 2004