Enclosures: Harry Partch (Innova)
Composer, instrument maker, hobo, and occasional crank Harry Partch was born in 1901 in Oakland, California, and spent a lifetime in obscurity. But with Enclosures, which includes two videos, a 528-page scrapbook, and two CD sets, the American Composers Forum tries to elevate Partch from oblivion.
Partch sought to mirror the complexities of human speech - hence his invention of Monophony (a 43-microtone scale dubbed "just intonation") and musical instruments that would produce it. Plenty of Enclosures' compositions sound like discordant clanging, and the sonic limitations of studio discs scratch our digital ears - thus, Partch's complex musicology may be lost on the layperson. Yet his music unexpectedly creeps inside your soul.
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