Partch's geniuses of music - Corporeality vs Abstract

Partch's application of just intonation through a system he called Monophony in which all intervals emerge from one fundamental pitch, rhythm and melody have their origin in the spoken inflection of the text, and performance is based on one voice. His elaboration of Monophony means more than the monophonic texture we normally understand.

 Partch discusses the origin of music as monophonic songs. It can be traced to all ancient cultures and modern music cultures that still have a strong connection to ancient practice. China had a tradition of poets/musicians positing a strong connection between words and music, the singer and the poet, which is also reflected in his music. The music with lyrics, songs, usually carried concrete ideas or massage. Important ancient and near-ancient cultures-the Chinese, Greek, Arabian, Indian, Africa, in all of which music was physically allied with poetry or the dance and even further cooperate drama and story. It is Partch descibes as Corporeality.

In contrast to Western music, it had developed the concept of abstract, the spirits of all united into one and transported into a realm of unreality. It transformed into a non-verbal form, leans to the use of instruments. Even songs and operas have words in the music, Partch's argued that the words in western music are so musicalized words that convey no meaning. Partch did not answer why specifically, in my opinion, the compositional technique, polyphonic texture, complex harmony, modulation, temperament, all of these features upstage the meaning of text or scene, shifting the focus of the original converting meaning.

Although Partch was an experimental composer, often find inspiration from the ancient, when connecting the old enough, the new created. He pursued the universal connections between ancient and modern societies; he simply had found a new aspiration beyond attempts to ally music with mathematics and performance. He used Pythagorean references to explain both the mathematical basis of his music and the reason that he wrote his music in small, whole-number ratios. 

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