The Microtonal Guitars of Harry Partch

Abstract

Schneider features Harry Partch, one of America's most colorful and original composers. Though trained as a concert pianist, Partch's dissatisfaction with the scales and instruments of Western music inspired him to design and build an orchestra of over two dozen hand-crafted microtonal instruments that were tuned to what he called his monophonic scale of 43 tones per octave. He also composed dozens of vibrantly singular musical works of all sizes, and authored theoretical statements of lasting significance in his book Genesis of a Music.