Editing Harry Partch (section)

==Personal history==
===Early life (1901–1919)===
[[File:Virgil and Jennie Partch wedding photo 1888.jpg|thumb|187px|alt=A black-and-white photograph of a couple. On the left is a seated man with a moustache weraing a dark suit. Standing on the right is a woman in a white dress, body facing left.  Both face the camera.|Partch's parents, Virgil and Jennie (1888).]]
On June 24, 1901, Partch was born in [[Oakland, California]]. His parents were Virgil Franklin Partch (1860–1919) and Jennie (née Childers, 1863–1920). The [[Presbyterian]] couple were [[missionaries]], serving in China from 1888 to 1893, and again from 1895 to 1900, when they fled the [[Boxer Rebellion]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}}

Partch moved{{when|date=March 2024}} with his family to Arizona for his mother's health. His father worked for the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service|Immigration Service]] there, and they settled in the small town of [[Benson, Arizona|Benson]]. It was still the [[Wild West]] there in the early twentieth century, and Partch recalled seeing outlaws in town. Nearby, there were native [[Yaqui people]], whose music he would hear.{{sfn|Schell|2018}} His mother sang to him in [[Mandarin Chinese]], and he heard and sang songs in Spanish. His mother encouraged her children to learn music, and he learned the [[mandolin]], violin, piano,{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}} [[reed organ]], and [[cornet]]. His mother taught him to [[read music]].{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=365}}

In 1913, the family moved to [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], where Partch began to study the piano seriously. He obtained work playing keyboards for [[silent film]]s while he was in high school. By 14, he was composing for the piano. He developed an early interest in writing music for dramatic situations,{{clarify|date=December 2022}} and cited his lost composition ''Death and the Desert'' (1916) as an early example.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}}

In 1919, Partch graduated from high school{{which|date=March 2024}}.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=365}}

===Early experiments (1919–1947)===
[[File:Harry Partch high school graduation photo 1919.jpg|thumb|187px|right|alt=A black-and-white photograph.  Enclosed in an oval, the face of a young man in a suit and tie faces leftward.|Partch in 1919]]
The family moved to Los Angeles in 1919 following the death of Partch's father.  There, his mother was killed in a [[trolleycar|trolley]] accident in 1920.  He enrolled in the [[University of Southern California]]'s School of Music in 1920, but was dissatisfied with his teachers and left after the summer of 1922.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}}  He moved to San Francisco and studied books on music in the libraries there and continued to compose.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xviii}}  In 1923 he came to reject the standard twelve-tone [[equal temperament]] of Western concert music when he discovered a translation of [[Hermann von Helmholtz]]'s ''[[Sensations of Tone]]''.  The book pointed Partch towards [[just intonation]] as an acoustic basis for his music.{{sfnm|1a1=McGeary|1y=2000|1p=xviii|2a1=Gilmore|2a2=Johnston|2y=2002|2pp=365–366}}  Around this time, while working as an usher for the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]], he had a romantic relationship with the actor [[Ramon Novarro]], then known by his birth name Ramón Samaniego; Samaniego broke off the affair when he started to become successful in his acting career.{{sfn|Gilmore|1998|p=47}}

By 1925, Partch was putting his theory into practice by developing paper coverings for violin and viola with fingerings in just intonation, and wrote a string quartet using such tunings.  He put his theories in words in May 1928 in the first draft for a book, then called ''Exposition of Monophony''.{{sfnm|1a1=McGeary|1y=2000|1p=xviii|2a1=Gilmore|2a2=Johnston|2y=2002|2pp=365–366}}  He supported himself during this time doing a variety of jobs, including teaching piano, proofreading, and working as a sailor.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xviii}}  In New Orleans in 1930, he resolved to break with the European tradition entirely, and burned all his earlier scores in a [[potbelly stove]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xviii}}

Partch had a New Orleans violin maker build a viola with the [[fingerboard]] of a cello.  He used this instrument, dubbed the Adapted Viola, to write music using a scale with twenty-nine tones to the octave.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xviii}}  Partch's earliest work to survive comes from this period, including works based on Biblical verse and Shakespeare, and ''Seventeen Lyrics of Li Po'' based on translations of the Chinese poetry of [[Li Bai]].{{efn|"Li Po" and "Li Bai" are different renderings of the same name: 李白.}}{{sfnm|1a1=McGeary|1y=2000|1p=xviii|2a1=Gilmore|2a2=Johnston|2y=2002|2p=366}}  In 1932, Partch performed the music in San Francisco and Los Angeles with sopranos he had recruited.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xviii}}  A February 9, 1932, performance at [[Henry Cowell]]'s New Music Society of California attracted reviews.  A private group of sponsors sent Partch to New York in 1933, where he gave solo performances and won the support of composers [[Roy Harris]], [[Charles Seeger]], Henry Cowell, [[Howard Hanson]], [[Otto Luening]], [[Walter Piston]], and [[Aaron Copland]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}}

Partch unsuccessfully applied for [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|Guggenheim]] grants in 1933 and 1934.  The [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]] granted him $1500 so he could do research in England.  He gave readings at the [[British Museum]] and traveled in Europe.  He met [[W.&nbsp;B. Yeats]] in Dublin, whose translation of [[Sophocles]]' ''[[King Oedipus]]'' he wanted to set to his music;{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}} he studied the spoken inflection in Yeats's recitation of the text.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=366}}  He built a keyboard instrument, the Chromatic Organ, which used a scale with forty-three tones to the octave.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}}  He met musicologist [[Kathleen Schlesinger]], who had recreated an ancient Greek [[kithara]] from images she found on a vase at the [[British Museum]].  Partch made sketches of the instrument in her home,{{sfn|Harlan|2007|p=179}} and discussed [[Music of ancient Greece|ancient Greek music theory]] with her.{{sfn|Foley|2012|p=101}}
Partch returned to the U.S. in 1935 at the height of the [[Great Depression]], and spent a transient nine years, often as a [[hobo]], often picking up work or obtaining grants from organizations such as the [[Federal Writers' Project]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}}  For the first eight months of this period, he kept a journal which was published posthumously as ''Bitter Music''.{{sfnm|1a1=McGeary|1y=2000|1p=xix|2a1=Gilmore|2a2=Johnston|2y=2002|2p=366}}  Partch included notation on the speech inflections of people he met in his travels.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=366}}  He continued to compose music, build instruments, and develop his book and theories, and make his first recordings.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}}  He had alterations made by sculptor and designer friend Gordon Newell to the Kithara sketches he had made in England.  After taking some woodworking courses in 1938, he built his first Kithara{{sfn|Harlan|2007|p=179}} at [[Big Sur]], California,{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}} at a scale of roughly twice the size of Schlesinger's.{{sfn|Harlan|2007|p=179}}  In 1942 in Chicago, he built his Chromelodeon—another 43-tone reed organ.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xix}}  He was staying on the eastern coast of the U.S. when he was awarded a Guggenheim grant in March 1943 to construct instruments and complete a seven-part ''Monophonic Cycle''.  On April 22, 1944, the first performance of his ''Americana'' series of compositions was given at [[Carnegie Hall|Carnegie Chamber Music Hall]] put on by the [[League of Composers]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xx}}

===University work (1947–1962)===
Supported by Guggenheim and university grants, Partch took up residence at the [[University of Wisconsin]] from 1944 until 1947.  This was a productive period, in which he lectured, trained an ensemble, staged performances, released his first recordings, and completed his book, now called ''[[Genesis of a Music]]''.  ''Genesis'' was completed in 1947 and published in 1949 by the [[University of Wisconsin Press]].  He left the university, as it never accepted him as a member of the permanent staff, and there was little space for his growing stock of instruments.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xx}}

In 1949, pianist [[Gunnar Johansen]] allowed Partch to convert a [[Forge|smithy]] on his ranch in [[Blue Mounds, Wisconsin]] into a studio. Partch worked there with support from the Guggenheim Foundation,{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xx}} and made recordings, primarily of his ''Eleven Intrusions'' (1949–1950).{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=367}} He was assisted for six months by composer [[Ben Johnston (composer)|Ben Johnston]], who performed on Partch's recordings.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxi}}  In early 1951, Partch moved to [[Oakland]] for health reasons, and prepared for a production of ''[[King Oedipus]]'' at [[Mills College]],{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxi}} with the support of designer [[Arch Lauterer]].{{sfn|Foley|2012|p=101}}  Performances of ''King Oedipus'' in March were extensively reviewed, but a planned recording was blocked by the [[Yeats]] estate, which refused to grant permission to use Yeats's translation of Sophocles's play.{{efn|A recording with Yeats' translation has since been released, as Yeats's text has passed into the [[public domain]].}}{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxi}}

In February 1953, Partch founded a studio, named [[Gate 5]], in an abandoned shipyard in [[Sausalito]], California, where he composed, built instruments and staged performances.  Subscriptions to raise money for recordings were organized by the Harry Partch Trust Fund, an organization put together by friends and supporters. The recordings were sold via mail order, as were later releases on the Gate 5 Records label. The money raised from these recordings became his main source of income.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxi}}  Partch's three ''Plectra and Percussion Dances'', ''Ring Around the Moon'' (1949–1950), ''Castor and Pollux'', and ''Even Wild Horses'', premiered on Berkeley's [[KPFA]] radio in November 1953.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=367}}

After completing ''The Bewitched'' in January 1955, Partch tried to find the means to put on a production of it.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}} Ben Johnston introduced [[Danlee Mitchell]] to Partch at the [[University of Illinois]]; Mitchell later became Partch's heir.{{sfn|Johnston|2006|p=249}}  In March 1957, with the help of Johnston and the [[Fromm Foundation]], ''The Bewitched'' was performed at the University of Illinois, and later at [[Washington University in St. Louis]], though Partch was displeased with choreographer [[Alwin Nikolais]]'s interpretation.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxi}}  Later in 1957, Partch provided the music for [[Madeline Tourtelot]]'s film ''Windsong'', the first of six film collaborations between the two.  From 1959 to 1962, Partch received further appointments from the University of Illinois, and staged productions of ''Revelation in the Courthouse Park''{{efn|''Revelation in the Courthouse Park'' was based on ''[[The Bacchae]]'' by ancient Greek dramatist [[Euripides]].{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=367}} }} in 1961 and ''Water! Water!'' in 1962.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}}  Though these two works were based, as ''King Oedipus'' had been, on [[Greek mythology]], they modernized the settings and incorporated elements of popular music.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=367}}  Partch had support from several departments and organizations at the university, but continuing hostility from the music department convinced him to leave and return to California.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}}

===Later life in California (1962–1974)===
Partch set up a studio in late 1962 in [[Petaluma]], California, in a former chick hatchery. There he composed ''And on the Seventh Day, Petals Fell in Petaluma''. He left northern California in summer 1964, and spent his remaining decade in various cities in southern California. He rarely had university work during this period, and lived on grants, commissions, and record sales.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}} A turning point in his popularity was the 1969 [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] LP ''The World of Harry Partch'', the first modern recording of Partch's music and his first release on a major record label.{{sfn|Schell|2017}}

His final theater work was ''[[Delusion of the Fury]]'',{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}} which incorporated music from ''Petaluma'',{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=367}} and was first produced at the [[University of California]] in early 1969. In 1970, the Harry Partch Foundation was founded to handle the expenses and administration of Partch's work. His final completed work was the soundtrack to [[Betty Freeman]]'s ''The Dreamer that Remains''. He retired to San Diego in 1973, where he died after suffering a heart attack on September 3, 1974.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|pp=xxii–xxiii}} The same year, a second edition of ''Genesis of a Music'' was published with extra chapters about work and instruments Partch made since the book's original publication.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxvi}}

In 1991, Partch's journals from June 1935 to February 1936 were discovered and published—journals that Partch had believed to have been lost or destroyed.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xxii}} In 1998, musicologist [[Bob Gilmore]] published a biography of Partch.