Additional Resources:
» See photos of the Partch instruments
On Demand
New Sounds
Monday, February 14, 2005
-
Harry Partch and his instrumentsAmerican Eccentrics
As part of WNYC’s American Music Festival on this edition of New Sounds, there's music from American eccentric Harry Partch, who among other things, was a composer, instrument-maker, musical dramatist, sometime hobo, piano teacher, and grape-picker. We’ll hear a work that fused Partch’s instrument building and composing - “And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma.” It's just full of complex textures and radical rhythms created by overlaying thirty-four one-minute instrumental verses, in combinations of duets, trios, and quartets, up to a concluding septet. Also, listen to "serious" orchestral music by the late guitarist, innovator, and American iconoclast Frank Zappa. Hear selections from a recent release of his music by the Ensemble Modern, the German new-music group that Zappa worked with late in life. Plus, there’s the strange and twisted sounds of Henry Kaiser’s re-invention of Stephen Foster’s song, “Autumn Waltz,” and music by La Monte Young, among others.
PROGRAM #2376, American Eccentrics (First aired on Feb. 14, 2005)
|
ARTIST(S) |
RECORDING |
CUT(S) |
SOURCE |
|
Various Artists |
Beautiful Dreamer, The Songs Of Stephen Foster |
Henry Kaiser: Autumn Waltz [3:00] |
American Roots Publishing #591594** www.americanrootspublishing.org * |
|
Harry Partch |
The Harry Partch Collection, Vol. 2 |
And On the Seventh Day, Petals Fell in Petaluma, excerpt [16:00] |
New World #80622** www.newworldrecords.org * |
|
Ensemble Modern plays Frank Zappa |
Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions |
A Pig With Wings [4:30] |
BMG #59842** www.bmgclassics.com* |
|
La Monte Young |
The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from the Four Dreams of China |
90 xii 9, The Second Dream, excerpt [12:00] |
Gramavision #79467 Out of print. Info and discography at: www.melafoundation.org |
*, ** Find the recordings you've heard - go to the New Sounds Recordings Information page
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