| The Harry Partch Collection, Volume 3
The Dreamer That Remains, Rotate the Body in All Its Planes, Windsong, Water! Water!
Harry Partch, intoning voice, narrator, various instruments; The Harry Partch Ensemble, Jack Logan, conductor; Freda Pierce, soprano; chorus and instrumental ensemble, John Garvey, conductor; Cast, chorus, and Gate 5 Ensemble; John Garvey, conductor
The four works on this newly remastered CD are eloquent testimony to Harry Partch’s aesthetic of corporeality. The music he composed for The Dreamer That Remains, for Rotate the Body in All Its Planes, for Windsong, and for Water! Water!, was intended as only one component in the total artistic experience. In these works music joins with drama, with film, with dance, even with gymnastics, as integral parts of the composer’s vision.
“The eloquent and affecting The Dreamer That Remains (1972) was Partch’s last work. It was commissioned by the patroness Betty Freeman for her film on Partch which was directed by Stephen Pouliot. Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (1961) was a spin-off of the “Tumble On” sequence in Partch’s large-scale theatre piece Revelation in the Courthouse Park. It was premiered at the National Collegiate Gymnasts Championship in 1961. Windsong (1958) was also written for film, the soundtrack to a film by Madeline Tourtelot in which Partch saw the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo. (A later version of the work was named Daphne of the Dunes). Finally, somewhat akin to a Broadway musical, Water! Water! (1961) is perhaps Partch’s most lively and lighthearted work. It pokes fun at many targets, especially the rush of audiences for water at the interval; thus the subtitle: "An Intermission with Prologues and Epilogues.” |