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Harry Partch, Hobo Composer
Examines the impact of Harry Partch's hobo years from a variety of perspectives, exploring how the composer both engaged and frustrated popular conceptions of the hobo.
Harry Partch (1901-74) was one of the most distinctive and influential American composers of the mid-twentieth century. During the Great Depression, Partch rode the railways, following the fruit harvest across the country. Although he is renowned for his immense stage works, such as Delusion of the Fury, and his use of highly sophisticated instruments of his own creation, Partch is still regularly called a "hobo composer." Yet few have questioned this label's impact on his musical output, compositional life, and reception.
Focusing on Partch the person alongside the cultural icon he represented, this study examines Partch from historical, cultural, political, and musical perspectives. It outlines the cultural history of the hobo from the mid-1800s through the 1960s, as well as those figures associated with the hobo's image. It explores how Partch's music, which chronicled a disappearing subculture, was received, and how the composer ultimately engaged and frustrated popular conceptions of the hobo. And it follows Partch's later years to question his response to the hobo label and the ways in which others used it to define and contain him for over thirty years
S. Andrew Granade is Associate Professor of Musicology in the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Harry Partch (1901-74) was one of the most distinctive and influential American composers of the mid-twentieth century. During the Great Depression, Partch rode the railways, following the fruit harvest across the country. Although he is renowned for his immense stage works, such as Delusion of the Fury, and his use of highly sophisticated instruments of his own creation, Partch is still regularly called a "hobo composer." Yet few have questioned this label's impact on his musical output, compositional life, and reception.
Focusing on Partch the person alongside the cultural icon he represented, this study examines Partch from historical, cultural, political, and musical perspectives. It outlines the cultural history of the hobo from the mid-1800s through the 1960s, as well as those figures associated with the hobo's image. It explores how Partch's music, which chronicled a disappearing subculture, was received, and how the composer ultimately engaged and frustrated popular conceptions of the hobo. And it follows Partch's later years to question his response to the hobo label and the ways in which others used it to define and contain him for over thirty years
S. Andrew Granade is Associate Professor of Musicology in the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City.
- GenresMusic
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 29, 2015
Adding another Harry Partch biography to this world is a daunting task given the definitive and excellent biography that Bob Gilmore has left to posterity and the slippery qualities of the subject himself. It is also an irresistible undertaking given the inspiration of those two sources as well and the multiple angles that one can take toward approaching his life and music.
Here, S. Andrew Granade chose well by focusing upon the hobo identity of the composer to shed new light on his aesthetic choices and the autobiographical quality of works like US Highball, Barstow and Bitter Music. After reading this book, it's hard not to picture Partch's life and music within a context that includes John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie.
This book is well written and polished and shines when it considers the social backdrop of Partch's creative output. The passages of detailed musical analysis stand up less well, largely because they aren't as strong as the rest of the book. But it is refreshing to see it attempted. Even in a book that helps pull my own focus away from an obsession with the intonational underpinnings of Partch's accomplishments. This is a valuable addition to Partch scholarship.
Here, S. Andrew Granade chose well by focusing upon the hobo identity of the composer to shed new light on his aesthetic choices and the autobiographical quality of works like US Highball, Barstow and Bitter Music. After reading this book, it's hard not to picture Partch's life and music within a context that includes John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie.
This book is well written and polished and shines when it considers the social backdrop of Partch's creative output. The passages of detailed musical analysis stand up less well, largely because they aren't as strong as the rest of the book. But it is refreshing to see it attempted. Even in a book that helps pull my own focus away from an obsession with the intonational underpinnings of Partch's accomplishments. This is a valuable addition to Partch scholarship.
August 7, 2020
This treatment of Partch's "hobo years" is a fascinating document — not just for what it reveals about one of our country's most innovative musical minds, but as a window into the world of Depression-era America. It's not a substitute for Gilmore's excellent biography, but a beautiful (and sometimes very moving) portrait of a crucial period in the composer's life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews