Electronic Music 411 - Harry Partch Had No Balls - balls, lackthereof, intonation

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Harry Partch Had No Balls

StoreTags: balls, lackthereof, intonation

Author: Roshi on June 13 2007

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--> While reading some more about the composer Lou Harrison, I came across this page where people submitted stories/remembrances about him: link

To set the story:

Lou Harrison was a gay composer well known for his adventurousness in music, having stuck thumbtacks in piano hammers long before it was fashionable and building an "American Gamelan" out of auto parts with his long-time partner Bill Colvig. More about him here: link

Harry Partch was one of the first composers to work with microtonal scales, and among other things, invented a 43-tone scale, and numerous instruments. More info here: link

Anyhow, I found the following anecdote very amusing. Mostly because it illustrates how eccentric and funny Lou Harrison was.

In 1995, Lou and Bill came to visit me in Joshua Tree. I picked them up at the Palm Springs airport in my small truck, and Lou volunteered to sit in the back. On a thin cushion, al fresco. Upon arrival at my house, Bill promptly did his impersonation of a man with narcolepsy, and fell asleep in a chair by the kitchen table. Lou asked if I would drive him around, and show him Joshua Tree the town. "Bill can sleep the whole goddamn day for all I care" said Lou, with some exasperation. We jumped in the truck and took off driving, with no real goal or destination.

Driving around, we talked about all the usual stuff we always talked about. Pretty much everything except music. We rarely talked about music. About an hour into the drive, he did ask me how my composing went. I told him about this dancer I was writing for up in Berkeley. It paid very little, but I was doing my best I said. I told him about the structure being mostly whole notes, sung quietly, in a 3 voice part. He said, " I have a poorly compensated commission of my own right now, I think I as well will just write a lot of whole notes". We both laughed awhile on that one, and then that moment eased into a comfortable silence between us for some minutes. We were headed north, going downhill on a dirt road, the setting sun nearly searing my unprotected eyes. We were a stone's throw from the property he would later purchase.

From that silence, Lou turned to me rather calmly, his eyes squinting into the sun. Matter of factly he broke the silence. "Harry Partch had no balls".

Oh great, Harry Partch had no balls. Thanks for sharing Lou.

I was a bit in shock, Harry after all being one of my heroes and all. Lou went on to explain how when Harry was a kid, he contracted mumps or measles or something like that, and that because of the family's rural homestead, a doctor was just too far away. So the testes apparently wasted away or something to that effect.

Thanks for sharing Lou.

Indeed. Thanks for sharing. That's one of the things that made Lou so great, so awesome as a person. He would share with almost anyone until the cows came home. Share a meal, a conversation, a lifetime's learning and experiences. Lou gave to me so many books on so many subjects I've lost count. All of them signed with a little note. He'd think of someone when he would discover an article or book, and he'd mail it to them right away. Meeting Lou when I did, opened up so many doors and through him I met so many amazing people. He's basically the 1st harmonic of an amazingly varied and unspeakably beautiful scale. From which, all other harmonics relate to Lou, and resonate with him. Lou, you were the 1.

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Comments

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06/13/07 + Roshi

Also, I think that writing whole notes for a commission/project you don't like is very funny.

Recent blogs: Summer Reading - The rest is noise, oogazer set, Origins of Butterzone?