[NewMusic] Partch

[George Cremaschi]

>If we're talking the '50s, I'm guessing Partch (and California) were
>so obscure as to not be on NYC radar at all

Not necessarily the 50's, it could later - the whole NY crew
(Cage, Feldman, Brown, Wolff, Tudor) lived much longer,
some are still alive, and anyway by the late 60's Partch recordings
on Columbia and CRI were widely available...

> > And I wonder if Sun Ra ever heard Partch? 'Strange Strings',
> > 'Atlantis'...?

>Great observation, though the chronology doesn't quite coincide.
>They do seem to have some convergence in retrospect, but Ra didn't really 
>get into "tone science" till circa 1963 with Cosmic Tones for Mental 
>Therapy.

Well, Partch started issuing recordings on his own Gate 5 label
in 1953, but we have no way of knowing if any copies made
it to Chicago, or New York, or Philadelphia. However, modern
transport and postal delivery methods did exist then, so it is
certainly possible that some news from distant California made
it East. But more importantly, Partch had a connection with the
University of Illinois in the late 50's and early 60's, overseeing
productions there of some of his most important music-theater
pieces, including 'The Bewitched' (1957), and 'Revelation in the
Courthouse Square' (1960). His classic recording of "Windsong"
was recorded in Chicago in 1958. Of course, Sun Ra was in Chicago
in that time period. So the chronology *does* coincide...

-George

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