Harry Partch

Lore & Background

Partch composed with scales dividing the octave into 43 unequal tones derived from the natural harmonic series. To play his music, he built many unique instruments, with such names as the Chromelodeon, the Quadrangularis Reversum, and the Zymo-Xyl. Partch described his music as 'corporeal' (emphasizing its physical/visceral elements), and distinguished it from abstract music. Ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh and kabuki heavily influenced his music theatre.

Encouraged by his mother, Partch learned several instruments at a young age. By fourteen, he was composing, and in particular took to setting dramatic situations. He dropped out of the University of Southern California's School of Music in 1922, dissatisfied with the quality of his teachers. He took to self-study in San Francisco's libraries, where he discovered Hermann von Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone, which convinced him to devote himself to music based on scales tuned in just intonation.

In 1930, he burned all his previous compositions in a rejection of the European concert tradition. Partch frequently moved around the US. Early in his career, he was a transient worker, and sometimes a hobo; later he depended on grants, university appointments, and record sales to support himself. In 1970, supporters created the Harry Partch Foundation to administer Partch's music and instruments.

A New Tuning World

Harry Partch's central musical contribution was his systematic use of just intonation, a tuning system drawn from the natural harmonic series rather than the twelve equal divisions that dominate Western concert practice. His scales divided the octave into 43 unequal tones, producing intervals smaller and more numerous than standard tuning allows. This was not merely a theoretical exercise; Partch physically built instruments tuned to these scales so his compositions could actually be performed.

Among his creations were the Chromelodeon, the Quadrangularis Reversum, and the Zymo-Xyl, each designed to realize specific intervals from his 43-tone system. He also crafted an Adapted Viola with a cello-sized fingerboard to explore a 29-tone scale. Partch described his music as "corporeal," emphasizing physical and visceral experience, and positioned it against what he saw as the abstract trajectory of Western music since Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, which he regarded as the pivot point where older just intonation tunings were largely abandoned in favor of equal temperament's practical flexibility across all 24 key signatures.

A Restless, Self-Made Life

Partch's path was anything but conventional. Born in Oakland in 1901 to Presbyterian missionary parents who had served in China and fled the Boxer Rebellion, he grew up in a multilingual, musically rich household—his mother sang to him in Mandarin, he heard Yaqui music in Arizona, and he learned mandolin, violin, piano, reed organ, and cornet. He lost his father in 1919 and his mother to a trolley accident in 1920. After enrolling at USC's School of Music, he left after the summer of 1922, dissatisfied with his instructors.

In San Francisco's public libraries he found a translation of Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone, which redirected his entire musical thinking toward just intonation. He supported himself as a piano teacher, proofreader, sailor, and transient worker, sometimes living as a hobo. In 1930, in New Orleans, he burned all his earlier scores in a potbelly stove, a dramatic severance from the European concert tradition. Later in life he relied on grants, university appointments, and record sales to sustain his work.

Music as Total Theatre

Partch's compositional ambitions evolved dramatically over his career. His earliest surviving works were small-scale pieces meant to be intoned with simple, folkloric string accompaniment, drawing on sources as varied as Biblical verse, Shakespeare, and translations of the Chinese poet Li Bai. By the 1930s and beyond, his vision had expanded into large-scale integrated productions that fused singing, dancing, spoken word, and instrumental performance into what he called a "corporeal apotheosis." Each performer was expected to embody multiple roles simultaneously.

These works were decidedly related to, yet quite apart from, Wagnerian opera. Partch drew heavily on Ancient Greek theatre and on Japanese Noh and kabuki traditions. His 1932 performances in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including a notable appearance at Henry Cowell's New Music Society of California, marked early public encounters with this radical theatrical-musical vision.

Legacy and Institutional Life

Partch's influence extends well beyond his own performances. Alongside Lou Harrison, he stands as one of the first Western composers in the twentieth century to work systematically with microtonal scales.

His 1947 book Genesis of a Music laid out the theoretical and practical foundations of his tuning system and instrument-building philosophy. In 1970, a group of supporters established the Harry Partch Foundation to steward his compositions and his collection of hand-built instruments. Partch died on September 3, 1974, leaving behind a body of work that challenged fundamental assumptions about pitch, performance, and the relationship between music and the human body.

Reader's Guide

Partch's earliest compositions were small-scale pieces to be intoned with simple folkloric-like string instrumental backing; his later works were large-scale integrated theater productions in which he expected each of the performers to sing, dance, speak, and play instruments in a 'corporeal apotheosis'. His book Genesis of a Music (1947) describes his theory and practice. He built instruments such as the Chromelodeon (a 43-tone reed organ), the Kithara (based on ancient Greek designs), and the Adapted Viola (a viola with the fingerboard of a cello).