Genesis of a music : an account of a creative work, its roots and its fulfillments
Harry Partch (Author)
"The most controversial of all contemporary composers, Harry Partch has rejected not only the form and tonality of the 300 year-old symphonic tradition, but its theory, notation, and instrumentation as well. The only composer to write for instruments of his own design and construction, Partch has created a battery of stringed and percussive instruments which, in lesser hands, would function as mere gadgetry, but which he presses into the service of 'a sonoric imagination so vibrant and integrated that it can rightly be called genius.' Now in its second edition, Genesis of a Music provides the only definitive statement of Partch's unique philosophy of composition, including a 43-tone scale through which the musical effects of dissonance are intensified by the correct relationship of overtones. Since this provocative work was originally published in 1949, Partch has created many new works, and the major corpus of his music and theatre has been realized in performance. This revised and enlarged edition surveys Partch's recent experiments in musical form, media and style; it also features numerous illustrations of his extraordinary instruments and notation."--Dust jacket
Print Book, English, 1974
Da Capo Press, New York, 1974