Chris Rainier

                                                              [Photograph by Matthew Stanton]

Hello!

The internet is an infinite web of tangents that are constantly in flux, and so I’d like to begin by saying thank you for taking the time to read this. There is a lot to read here, but then again there is quite a lot to say. Feel free to scroll down and stop when you find a heading that piques your interest!

Essentially, I have launched this crowdfunding campaign as a way to fund the vinyl pressing of my recordings of Harry Partch’s works for voice and Adapted Guitar 1, as well as selected folk songs either notated or mentioned in his Depression-era journal Bitter Music. 

The album will be released as a 180g 12" black vinyl record, with a full colour gatefold sleeve (including a 12-page colour booklet), digital downloads of the album itself, bonus digital tracks and miscellaneous digital visual material. 

The album will be entitled:

'chris rainier sings the music of harry partch (and other folk songs)'

Who was Harry Partch?...and how does Bitter Music fit into all this?

            [Partch playing his first Adapted Guitar 1, c.1941. Courtesy the Harry Partch Estate Archive]

Harry Partch was an American composer who lived from 1901 to 1974, and is widely considered to be one of the most - if not the most - important microtonal composers of the 20th century. Unlike many other performers, theorists, composers, musicologists and instrument-builders, most of whom generally only specialise in one particular component of creative musical work, Partch managed in one lifetime to essentially create his own culture. Although various influences on his music are discernible the more time you spend with it, Harry Partch's work is about as close as one gets to being truly original. 

For Partch though, this necessitated starting from scratch: in developing a new musical theory and composing music within this theoretical framework, he had to design and build the instruments to play it. This was partly because he was trying to discover new sounds, but also because conventional instruments for the most part simply could not play all the pitches he needed. Furthermore, this new music had to be notated so that it could be taught to others, although Partch himself was proficient on each one of his instruments. Over the years, various notations and tablatures were developed and refined for this very purpose.

Somehow, he also managed to record his works [sometimes using multi-tracking techniques in the 1950's to overdub himself when no-one else was available], and have these recordings pressed to vinyl. He even mailed them out himself, often one by one, predating the DIY/cottage-industry/indie/punk aesthetic by decades. Even though many things were done on a shoestring budget, he also managed to compile many of his theoretical and practical ideas in his seminal book Genesis of a Music. Today Partch is rightfully acknowledged as a artistic pioneer who’s influence grows every year, within a wide range of musical communities.

  [From the DVD Enclosure VIII: Harry Partch. © 2007 American Composers Forum & innova Recordings]

...and Bitter Music?

Here I would like to quote an extract from Partch scholar and composer Philip Blackburn’s incredible tome Enclosure 3: Harry Partch. Part scrapbook, part biography and part photo album, it is the most exhaustive visual and textual overview of Partch’s personal and musical world around:

[the addition in bold parentheses has been added by me]

“Bitter Music, originally entitled Cause All Our Sins Are Taken Away, is a journal Partch kept while on the road in California, Oregon and Washington from June 11, 1935 to February 1, 1936, during the height of the Great Depression. The journal is a synthesis of three art forms: text, music and drawings intended to be read near a piano, so the notated fragments of speech may be intoned more or less as they were inflected at the time. [I have transcribed a number of these folk songs, some of which are notated either in fragmentary form or simply mentioned, onto Partch’s first Adapted Guitar 1, as a way of re-imagining them and re-interpreting them within his future microtonal musical direction]. As such Bitter Music was unique in Partch’s output and more candid about his personal life than any other work. He had a contract for the book’s publication in 1940, but war-time paper prices prevented its being issued; ten years later, coinciding with the height of McCarthyism, when homosexuals were jailed for being ‘un-American’, and when he was tired of his hobo works being ridiculed, he withdrew the work. It was mentioned in the 1949 edition of Genesis Of A Music and listed as late as 1952, two years after its supposed destruction. A microfilm copy was secretly made by Larry Marshall and the text and music have been published Harry Partch: Bitter Music. Partch would occasionally ‘get into a snit’ and burn his work. Bitter Music was not alone: December, 1942, the text of End Littoral, and possibly other works, were all burned – perhaps a hobo cleansing practice."

For more information about Harry Partch, here's a small selection of websites and audio/video links:

Corporeal Meadows: The Legacy Of Harry Partch

Harry Partch's Instruments

Hobo Sapiens: The Life And Chimes Of Harry Partch

1945 recording of Barstow, from Enclosure Two: Harry Partch ©1995 innova Recordings

The Rose, recorded 1950/51, taken from The Harry Partch Collection Vol.1 © Harry Partch Estate

Music Studio from Enclosure VIII: Harry Partch © 2007 American Composers Forum & innova Recordings

Now, how did I get into all this...?

Since discovering Partch’s music in the late 90’s, and specifically the works he wrote for his first Adapted Guitar 1, I’ve endeavoured to somehow make it possible for me to perform these pieces. As a guitarist I was initially entranced by the instrument itself and the works written for it, but over time I have become interested/possibly obsessed with Partch's entire musical output, biographical history and ideas about musical theory and instrument-building. Over the years this has meant absorbing all the information I could possibly get my hands on, information which until only the last few years was often quite difficult to access. The generosity of a handful of individuals, who remained patient and helpful over the course of many years of emails, speaks volumes about their heartfelt admiration for Partch’s work. I was also greatly assisted by numerous university and public librarians, archivists and newspaper staff from across the United States. I am particularly grateful to Philip Blackburn, Kyle Gann, Andrew Granade, Greg Schiemer, John Schneider, the team at the Harry Partch Estate Archive led by Scott Schwartz, Jon Szanto and Elisabeth Smalt.

In 2002 I completed a Master’s degree in Music by Research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. During this time I explored Partch’s theories and various instruments, and designed and built a 66-key metallophone that drew from, but also expanded upon some of Partch’s theoretical models and instrument designs. I also made my first attempt at replicating Partch’s first Adapted Guitar 1, and although I performed on this instrument a few times, its playability and intonation were unsatisfactory and I put it aside in 2003. Shortly before this I did manage to present the Australasian premiere of Partch’s work Barstow, in concert with acclaimed Australian contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Offspring, as well as live on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show.

After nearly a decade of exploring the lap steel guitar and various other musical oddities [more on that further down the page] I returned to Partch’s work in 2013 when Melbourne City Council provided some funds and logistical support to present a concert of his music for Melbourne Music Week. By this time getting hold of scores and information was a little bit easier. Together with James Mumford of Mumford Guitars, I extensively researched and subsequently recreated a ‘proper’ replica of Partch's first Adapted Guitar 1, as it would have functioned way back in 1943. That performance showcased most of Partch’s compositions for voice and guitar, as well as fragments of hobo speech and folksongs of the era, all of which are either notated or mentioned in Bitter Music, and which I transferred onto the Adapted Guitar 1.

                                                         [Photograph by Matthew Stanton]

Since that initial performance, I have performed some or all of these these works, and lectured on Partch’s guitars at various institutions around the world: the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Harry Partch Estate Archive at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Slade School of Fine Art in London and the International Guitar Research Centre in Guildford, Surrey. I am also currently establishing a working relationship with Scordatura, an Amsterdam-based contemporary music ensemble who specialise in microtonal music. The group is led by violist Elisabeth Smalt, partner of the late Bob Gilmore, who’s incredible biography of Partch has been a guiding impetus since I first read it more than a decade ago. Scordatura is in possession of replicas of two early Partch instruments - the Adapted Viola and the Kithara 1- which has allowed them to perform various works I have been unable to thus far. Combining our forces and instruments in the future will allow a substantial expansion of the Partch repertoire we are able to perform together, and I’m looking forward to taking on some of the longer, early works such as the 1943 version of U.S. Highball.

So, what is actually going to be on the record?[without giving too much away...]

My aim with this album is to produce a detailed snapshot of a very brief, but pivotal few years in Partch’s creative development, from roughly 1934 to 1943. This timeframe encompasses hobo wanderings, grant-sponsored travels to London and Europe, desert roadtrips, and many nights of compositional fervour in friends’ spare rooms from California to New York. 

                           [Photograph by Dorothea Lange c. 1935, courtesy of the Library of Congress]

Side A of the record will include all of Partch’s works written for voice and his Adapted Guitar 1 - the first version of Barstow: Eight Hitchhiker’s Inscriptions From A Highway Railing in Barstow, California, the intimate triptych December, 1942 and a solo Adapted Guitar 1 version of the 1943 incarnation of his work The Letter: A Depression-Era Message From A Hobo Friend. Also included will be three 'versions' of his first published work, a short popular song from 1929 entitled While My Heart Keeps Beating Time. Two of these will be recorded with different instrumentations as digital bonus tracks, only available to those who buy the vinyl. The third one [included in Bitter Music with amended ‘hobo’ lyrics and slightly different harmonisations] will be on the record itself, re-imagined within Partch’s microtonal system on the Adapted Guitar 1. The only Partch work of the era that won't be included will be the half-hour epic U.S. Highball, which I intend to present on a separate release in 2017. There are also a few exclusive digital audio 'nuggets': one being the earliest recording of Partch in existence - a lecture and performance from 1942!

                    [Photograph taken in March 2016 outside Barstow, California by Melissa Agate © 2016]

Side B of the album will consist of a number of folk songs - some dating back to the turn of the last century - all either briefly mentioned, or notated in fragmentary form in the pages of Partch’s journal Bitter Music. These songs have been deconstructed and re-imagined microtonally on the Adapted Guitar 1, after considerable research into their origins and interpretations. The collection will begin with the song who's lyrics gave Bitter Music its original title - Hand Me Down My Walking Cane - as well as a number of other songs from genres spanning sea shanties, prison ballads and Victorian drinking songs.

finally...

It is my belief that Partch’s influence is now much more profound and pervasive than at any time in the past, and that to present him with as dusty a moniker as ‘classical composer' is a convenient, but lazy and flawed pigeonhole. I personally feel his work and personality have much more in common with an increasingly diverse community of musicians, inventors and visual artists. It can be difficult and overly simplistic to point to specific examples, but when I think of Partch’s guitar work from the 1940's I think of everyone from Joseph Spence to Senyawa, Bill Orcutt to Robert Pete Williams, the first album by Micachu and the Shapes, and even Cambodian musician Kong Nay. It's also important to take into account that Partch was profoundly influenced by Woody Guthrie amongst others during this period, and the world sure needs more Woody Guthrie right now.

                                                [Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress]

The intentionally narrow focus of this recording - spanning a period of less than a decade - seeks to provide a musical snapshot of one of many musical plateaus that Partch reached within his lifetime, and used as both springboard and source of inspiration for later creative explorations and conceptual expansions. I'm definitely not aiming to attempt to present a portrait of Partch’s life and work as a complete entity. That would require many more albums, and for me quite a few more lifetimes. I do hope though to do justice to a small cog in a very big wheel with integrity, intent, and as much grit as possible.

Other things I've done/do:

For a description of my other musical activities, please click here.

To date I have released six albums, with a seventh solo album in the pipeline, which will hopefully be completed in early 2017. My most recent album ‘man and the echo', released on vinyl at the end of 2014, was very favourably reviewed in various print publications such as Wire and Hi-Fi +, as well as numerous music blogs and online magazines.

You can see additional photos of the design of my last album at the link below, as well as listen to and purchase digital tracks or the vinyl record itself:

http://chrisrainier.bandcamp.com/

For more information on any of my work, please go to:

http://www.chrisrainier.net

The total quote I have received to press a limited edition run of 250 copies of the record is: 

€3100 

[approximately AUD$4510 / GBP£2590 / USD$ 3430 as of the 9th of July 2016]

This figure includes the 250 records themselves [12", 180 gram, on black vinyl], a colour gatefold cover, and a 12-page colour booklet with rare/never-before-seen photographs, score excerpts, ephemera and liner notes. Each record will include a free high-quality [FLAC or MP3] digital download of all the tracks on the record, some bonus tracks only available to those who buy the vinyl, as well as additional digital articles and photographs.

The amount I am asking for excludes all recording and mastering costs, packaging/booklet design expenses and shipping.

Should I be fortunate enough to exceed my target, I would be looking to either retrospectively finance these aforementioned costs, or inject these additional funds into producing a filmed performance of the works contained on the record.

At this stage I cannot envision any obstacles to the record being released, apart from the obvious financial ones! As with all vinyl releases, the process does take some time, but most of the resources and logistics for completing this final stage of the process are in place. Now I am relying on the generosity of interested, curious and/or generous individuals to make this recording a reality.

Thank you,

Chris Rainier

chrisrainier.net

chrisrainier.bandcamp.com