Harry Partch - Revelation in the Courthouse Park (1989)

The late Harry Partch (b. Oakland, CA, Jun. 24, 1901, d. La Jolla, CA, 1976) was an American experimental composer and instrument builder who worked extensively and systematically with microtonal scales and wrote much of his music for custom-made instruments he built himself. He is best known for his advocacy of "Just Intonation", the system of tuning pitches to the simplest intervals based on a primal, corporeal integration of the elements of speech with music, using principles of natural acoustic resonance and expanded melodic and harmonic possibilities. During his lifetime, only one production of his play Revelation in the Courthouse Park took place. That was at the University of Illinois in 1960. Not until 1987—11 years after Partch's death—was another production held. Recorded in the Great Hall at Philadelphia's University of the Arts on October 12, 1987, that posthumous production was recorded for broadcast on public radio and can be heard on this double CD. Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Partch’s fusion of current pop idolatry with parallel (only a little more sinister) scenes of Ancient Greece, and now you too can hear the original 1960 Illinois production replete with flying acrobats, fireworks, and unseemly transvestites. So who's afraid of Harry Partch?

Tracklist

CD 1
1. Chorus One: Park Prologue/Fanfare and March/Forever Ummorra/Save (11:57)
2. Scene One: Hymn to Dionysus (Holy Joy and Get Religion) (12:36)
3. Chorus Two: Early Evening of the Same Day in the Courthouse Park (8:19)
4. Scene Two: (Hymn to Dionysus) Holy Joy and Get Religion/Hymn to (6:36)
5. Chorus Three: 1. Fireworks Ritual - Those Old-Fashioned Thrills/2. Not (11:27)

CD 2
1. Scene Three: (Hymn to Dionysus) O to Be Free Where No Man Is (15:24)
2. Chorus Four: Midnight of the Same Evening in the Courthouse Park (6:48)
3. Scene Four: (Hymn to Dionysus) Hell-Hounds of Madness/Continuation (7:50)
4. Coda: Early Morning in the Courthouse Park (3:40)

Tomato R2 70390


Here's the YouTube insert of BBC documentary on Harry Partch for the inquiring minds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKnTj2cyNQ