issue02

EMUSIC-L Digest                                      Volume 61, Issue 02

This issue's topics:
	
	Partch Instrument Blueprints? (10 messages)
	Partch Instruments Blueprints
	Partch Instruments Info
	Partch tunings for Yamaha SY/TG77's (and others?)

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Date:         Sat, 5 Feb 1994 10:38:59 CST
From:         HARRY HAECKER 
Subject:      Partch Instrument Blueprints?

I am interested in seeing blueprints for any instruments
built by Harry Partch.  Does such a book exist?  I have
read his book on scalar systems, but aside from some pictures
of a few of his instruments, there are no diagrams.

In lieu of that, the location of samples (MSDS or K2000 compatible) from
these unique instruments would be great!

Harry Haecker

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 5 Feb 1994 12:00:16 -0500
From:         William Matthews 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

Harry Haecker writes:
>
> I am interested in seeing blueprints for any instruments
> built by Harry Partch.  Does such a book exist?  I have
> read his book on scalar systems, but aside from some pictures
> of a few of his instruments, there are no diagrams.
>
> In lieu of that, the location of samples (MSDS or K2000 compatible) from
> these unique instruments would be great!
>

What a wonderful idea!  HOWEVER, it's the tuning of the instruments which
distinguishes Partch's magical contribution to American music from all the
others.  So any sample archive will have to have a copy-protect scheme
to prevent the sounds from being reproduced in equal temperment.  Hmmm.
There are several available recordings of some of Partch's pieces, from
which one could extract samples.

Bill M.
wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 5 Feb 1994 11:56:13 CST
From:         HARRY HAECKER 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

William Matthews writes:

>...it's the tuning of the instruments which distinguishes Partch's...music
from all the others.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I worked out Partch's system of tuning for the
Yamaha TG/SY77; I don't know if this has been done before, but would certainly
be willing to ULoad it to this site, if anyone showed interest in it.Since
it's for a specific synthesizer it sould only be useful for a limited crowd
on this list, unless there's a Yamaha subdirectory. (I haven't yet explored
this site's directory tree.

>So any sample site will have to have a copy-protect scheme to prevent the
sounds from being reproduced in equal temperment.

I didn't realize that scales could be copyrighted!Seems a little like
trying to copyright hues and values of colors.

>There are several available recordings of some of Partch's pieces, from which
>one could extract samples.

Good idea!  I do have "The Bewitched" (Composers Recordings, Inc."CRI| CD 7001)
and an optical cord that could go directly to my sampler, but trying to iso-
late the appropriate tones across the keymap (at least 4 for a three octave
range, for each instrument) is not easy...I was considering that before
sending my initial missive.  Now here's where the copyright problem comes
into play.  I'd rather build my own versions of the instruments (in my
*copious* spare time ;-)  )than give CRI, the University of Illinois
Musical Ensemble, and whoever else is out there, money for using sound bytes
in pieces that most likely won't make $$$$, but might...

Harry Haecker

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 5 Feb 1994 14:25:55 -0500
From:         William Matthews 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

Harry Haecker writes:
>
> Yes, as a matter of fact, I worked out Partch's system of tuning for the
> Yamaha TG/SY77; I don't know if this has been done before, but would certainly
> be willing to ULoad it to this site, if anyone showed interest in it.Since
> it's for a specific synthesizer it sould only be useful for a limited crowd
> on this list, unless there's a Yamaha subdirectory. (I haven't yet explored
> this site's directory tree.

I, for one, would love to have a copy, and presume it could readily be
reproduced on a dx7ii, or other Yamaha instruments.  For those who haven't
come to know Partch's unique work, he systematically developed an
orchestra of mostly percussion instruments based on a 43-tone subdivision
of the octave.

>
> >So any sample site will have to have a copy-protect scheme to prevent the
> sounds from being reproduced in equal temperment.
>
> I didn't realize that scales could be copyrighted!Seems a little like
> trying to copyright hues and values of colors.
>

It was a joke, made half in jest.  Partch did what he did with tunings
because he so very crabbily wished to maintain his stance *apart* from the
rest of the musical world.  How much respect do we owe his quasi-religious
vision?

I've seen the instruments themselves, which are maintained by a group in
California.  They are made from pieces of this and chunks of that
unidentified wood with knots and branches used as part of the form of the
instrument;  in other words, no blueprint would suffice to get you even
close to the sounds of the originals.

Please send me your tuning data through private e-mail, if an upload to
this list is difficult or inappropriate.

Bill Matthews
wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 5 Feb 1994 21:36:00 PST
From:         Loren Nerell 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL--------------------------------

> I've seen the instruments themselves, which are maintained by a group in
> California.  They are made from pieces of this and chunks of that
> unidentified wood with knots and branches used as part of the form of the
> instrument;  in other words, no blueprint would suffice to get you even
> close to the sounds of the originals.

I was apart of that group back in the early 1980's when Danlee Michell
(Harry's assistant) was teaching at San Diego State. Bill is right about some
of the instruments,they were made from various cast off items. A good example
of this is the 'Spoils of War' which was made literaly from artilery shells and
other military devices left over from world war II. Many of his instruments
though could be copied with little trouble with out blueprints. If you have
read his book "Genesis of A Music" then you know the most important part of his
instruments - his tuning system. Most of his instruments were adapted from
conventional instruments just by changing the tuning of the instrument. He
changed the tuning of the Chromelodeons by filling the reeds down until they
reached the right pitch. Some of his more exotic instruments could be made
if you can find the right materials. The'Cloud Champer Bowls' were made from
large pyrex bottles. They were cut to the right size with band saws. Danlee
told me it was very mch a hit or miss thing tring to tune one of these. When I
was involved with the group we made a new version of the instrument called the
'boo' because the orginal had deteriated so much. It orignally was made from ba
mboo (hense the Name) and would split after playing it for a while. The new one
was made from pvc pipe and sounded just as god as the original.

In retrospect the closestthing that you are going to find to actual blueprints
is Harry's book. It has all of the instruments with all the tunings used for
each one. The only other alternative is to join the group, which I heard is now
based in New York city.

>Please send me your tuning data through private e-mail, if an upload to
> this list is difficult or inappropriate.

Sounds great, does it come with a color coded ratio chart for the keyboard like
Harry use to use?

Loren Nerell
ESUTZS3@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU

------------------------------
Date:         Mon, 7 Feb 1994 08:28:55 -0500
From:         "Jon Crystal (Jon Crystal)" 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I worked out Partch's system of tuning for the
>Yamaha TG/SY77; I don't know if this has been done before, but would certainly
>be willing to ULoad it to this site, if anyone showed interest in it.
>
>Harry Haecker

Harry:

Please do!  There are quite a few of us with 77's who'd be interested.

Jon

------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 8 Feb 1994 23:28:58 -0600
From:         Matthew R Beron-1 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

I know there is a film 16mm type from the late 60's or early 70's that
shows Partch demonstrating his instruments in an apartment/ studio in
Chicago. Harry talks about 4 or 5 instruments  why he built it and then
plays it . This is no where close to blueprints but might give you more of
an idea of his instruments from that era. The film is in Uof Minnesota's
circulating film library University Film and Video  (612) 627-4270 voice
they UFV are on the Net now and the film data base and all lists and
discriptions about the films can be accessed.

Partch's instruments that are in this film are made from found objects
military surplus , and science lab discards Harry does not use these
objects as is but transforms them to suit is purposes. The Film title has
Harry Partch in the title,the complete title I cannot remember.


-=-=-===--==--=-=-==-==-=-=-=-==-==-=-====--==-=-=----====----==-=-=-=-=-=
===-=--=--=----=-- Matt Beron  beron001@maroon.tc.umn.edu      |-=-=-====-
=-===-=-=-===-==-=-==-==-==-==-=-==-=-==-=-=-==-==-==-==-==-=-=|--==--==-=
 " No work is ever finished, it is abandoned."  Joseph Conrad


On Sat, 5 Feb 1994, HARRY HAECKER wrote:

> I am interested in seeing blueprints for any instruments
> built by Harry Partch.  Does such a book exist?  I have
> read his book on scalar systems, but aside from some pictures
> of a few of his instruments, there are no diagrams.
>
> In lieu of that, the location of samples (MSDS or K2000 compatible) from
> these unique instruments would be great!
>
> Harry Haecker

------------------------------
Date:         Wed, 9 Feb 1994 06:48:24 CST
From:         HARRY HAECKER 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

It's beginning to sound like I should just be innovative...make my own bell
tree, "Spoils of War" (were the shells actually tuned to his ratios???), or
any other collection of things that can sound.  Too many projects going on
right now as it is; but with a sampler at my disposal, I'm itchingto get
my "hands dirty" as soon as possible.

Does UMN support interlibrary loans of videos?  One of these days computers
will be so fast, and RAM so cheap UMN would be able to send me an entire movie
over some Net in a .MPG file.  "I have a dream..."   Harry Haecker

------------------------------
Date:         Wed, 9 Feb 1994 10:17:19 -0600
From:         hinkle-turner elizabeth 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

Hi Folks!

        The film about Partch that Matthew refers to is called:

                "The Dreamer That Remains"

It is wonderful to watch.  It is available for rent (we rented it for $70.00!)
from Kent State University also.  It is unfortunately not available on
video, only on 16 mm film.

                        Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner

------------------------------
Date:         Thu, 10 Feb 1994 13:58:02 -0600
From:         Matthew R Beron-1 
Subject:      Re: Partch Instrument Blueprints?

U of Minnesota's film and video library is a rental library and any one in
the continental USA can rent the media. It is not very cheap however!
the title of the 16mm movie is "Music Studio:Harry Partch" the media #is
5f0627-a it is about 20minutes long run time. the rental price is $14.65
plus shipping I have ufv's catalog on my desk . good luck.

-=-=-===--==--=-=-==-==-=-=-=-==-==-=-====--==-=-=----====----==-=-=-=-=-=
===-=--=--=----=-- Matt Beron  beron001@maroon.tc.umn.edu      |-=-=-====-
=-===-=-=-===-==-=-==-==-==-==-=-==-=-==-=-=-==-==-==-==-==-=-=|--==--==-=
 " No work is ever finished, it is abandoned."  Joseph Conrad

------------------------------
Date:         Mon, 7 Feb 1994 06:24:44 -0500
From:         Doug Walker 
Subject:      Partch Instruments Blueprints

Harry Haecker requests Partch instruments blueprints:

Well, I do not know of blueprints of Partch instruments, but the Canadian
sound sculptor and cinematographer, John Grayson at the beginning of the
70s published a book as part of a big educational project he ran near
Victoria BC that contains a lot of scale drawings of many instruments vary
much like those of Partch, with whom he "studied" and worked informally
for several years. Many other interesting instruments of Grayson's
invention are to be found there too. As well, there is a 50 page
multimedia Requiem by yours truly composed for the collection of novel
instruments included in the book.

The title of the book is _Environments of Musical Sculpture that You Can
Build_. The book is long out of print but is to be found in larger
libraries, so you ought to be able to track it down via InterLibrary Loan.
It is interesting and useful, despite the unfortunate title.


ALSO, there is a very active new list on alternate tunings. All of the
movers and shakers and lurkers in the field are on it.

How to subscribe:

To: listproc@varese.mills.edu
Subject: Leave this line blank
Message: subscribe tuning your name

Hope this helps in your quest.

Doug Walker
ab704@freenet.carleton.ca

------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 8 Feb 1994 06:57:27 -0500
From:         Doug Walker 
Subject:      Partch Instruments Info

Re: Harry Haecker's interest in the Partch instruments :
Two recent postings on the TUNING list might help

The first, from John Chalmers, might be useful re the interest in
getting blueprints and samples:
-------
 Dean Drummond, Harry Partch's assistant at UCSD in the 1960's
(along with Jonathan Glasier) has the Partch orchestra and is
performing the entire corpus one piece a year. His address is P.O.
Box 443, Nyackm NY 10960.
-------

The second, from Jeff Soo, gives a more general source:
-------

For the Instrument Builders Digest:
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With the subject header: SUBSCRIBE     to subscribe
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-----------
Hope this helps in the quest for original sounds

Doug Walker
ab704@freenet.carleton.ca

------------------------------
Date:         Sun, 6 Feb 1994 21:54:25 CST
From:         HARRY HAECKER 
Subject:      Partch tunings for Yamaha SY/TG77's (and others?)

     The microtuning  keymap editing  layout of the  SY/TG-77 seems  a little
     unusual to  me (although logical  from a computing standpoint),  in that
     there  are  85 *or*  86  increments  between  each semi-tone.  For  each
     semi-tone, one can set the Coarse Tuning from C -2 to G 8 (I'm more used
     to the C 0 to G 10 convention),  and the fine tuning from -43 to +42, or
     -42 to  +42--- depending  on the  scale degree  in question.  C's, D#'s,
     F#'s, and  A's get  86 increments,  while the other  eight notes  in the
     chromatic scale  get 85. There are  always 1024 increments in  an octave
     (ah, ha!  finally, a power of 2!)

     The absolute  number of  these increments (inc.)  in Yamaha's  scheme is
     10,795 (C  0 cannot  be fine  tuned below  0). There  are an  average of
     .853333... increments/cent,  so I multiplied  that number by  the number
     of cents/interval to the 1st degree  in the Partch tuning, added that to
     4181 (D  1's absolute increment), and  rounded off to the  nearest whole
     number (unfortunately). This  give you the Absolute  Increment value for
     that note  of the  scale. It  would have  been best,  of course  (from a
     microtonality  junkie's  standpoint), if  the  SY77  could be  tuned  in
     increments of  1/100 of a cent  instead of 1.17647 cents/inc.;  but even
     so,  I'd have  to  have been  given  SOME  musical gift  to  be able  to
     distinguish intervals this small!

     The following table shows the number of cents to the "tonic" for each of
     the 43  tones and  the Absolute  Increment Value. I  hope you  find this
     useful!  I hope this is the appropriate forum for this...at least I'm
     not trying to sell anything ;*)  I've received 6 letters on this in 36
     hours, so I think I hit SOME kind of nerve!If anyone has suggestions,
     corrections, or insights, I'm open!  I love hearing from people who can
     give supporting info on the topic of Mr. Partch, microtonality, and un-
     usual instruments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEG. Key Map   Cents to deg. 1     ratio to deg.1 Absolute Inc. #

1    D  1      0                    1/1           4181
2    D#        21.51               81/80          4199
3    E         53.27               33/32          4226
4    F         84.47               21/20          4253
5    F#        111.73              16/15          4276
6    G         150.64              12/11          4310
7    G#        165.00              11/10          4322
8    A         182.40              10/9           4337
9    A#        203.91              9/8            4355
10   B         231.17              8/7            4378

11   C  2      266.87              7/6            4409
12   C#        294.13              32/27          4432
13   D         315.64              6/5            4450
14   D#        347.41              11/9           4477
15   E         386.31              5/4            4511
16   F         417.51              14/11          4537
17   F#        435.08              9/7            4552
18   G         470.78              21/16          4583
19   G#        498.04              4/3            4606
20   A         519.55              27/20          4624
21   A#        551.32              11/8           4651
22   B         582.51              7/5            4678

23   C   3     617.49              10/7           4708
24   C#        648.68              16/11          4734
25   D         680.45              40/27          4762
26   D#        701.96              3/2            4780
27   E         729.22              32/21          4803
28   F         764.92              14/9           4834
29   F#        782.49              11/7           4894
30   G         813.69              8/5            4875
31   G#        852.59              18/11          4908
32   A         884.36              5/3            4936
33   A#        905.86              27/16          4954
34   B         933.13              12/7           4977

35   C   4     968.83               7/4           5008
36   C#        996.09              16/9           5031
37   D         1017.60              9/5           5049
38   D#        1035.00             20/11          5064
39   E         1049.36             11/6           5076
40   F         1088.27              15/8          5110
41   F#        1115.53              40/21         5133
42   G         1146.73              64/33         5160
43   G#        1178.49              160/81        5187
44   A         1200.00               2/1          5205

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End of the EMUSIC-L Digest
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