20 Oct
2007
20 Oct
'07
12:58 p.m.
Julien Claassen wrote:
Thanks for telling me all this. I'll try to find
a bit about the Harry P.
book you mentioned. Perhaps it is, what I'm looking for. But I'm not
completely sure. But it's a start.
Hi Julien,
I wouldn't recommend Partch's book to a student looking for a starting
text on typical theory/composition. Harry Partch was an amazing and
idiosyncratic composer who designed his own instruments and trained
musicians on them in order to get his music heard at all (shades of Don
Van Vliet), he was pretty far from the mainstream.
Wendy Carlos has some interesting commentary on Partch's contributions.
She notes particularly that Partch's instruments were perhaps not the
best designs for projecting harmonies based on just and other
intonations (HP's instruments were mostly percussive, with not much
sustain).
Julien, can screen readers deal with PDF files ? If so, there are a lot
of things available in that format.
Best,
dp