PARTCH’S PIECES

Regarding Mark Swed’s piece on Harry Partch (“The Hobo Composer, Resurrected,” June 30):

The Partch instruments are not in New Jersey. They are under the care of Dean Drummond and his group NewBand at the State University of New York in Purchase.

In addition to the stunning performances of Harry’s music by NewBand, various composers from around the world, including Drummond, have been commissioned to compose for the Partch instruments. Most of these new works are more exciting than the voice and piano pieces that Swed refers to, which probably have Harry suffering corporeal depression in his grave. He thought he had burned all of that music.

DAVID JOHNSON

Percussion instructor, CalArts

Los Angeles

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Swed poses some fascinating questions as to keeping Partch corporeal. For my group Just Strings, I re-created Harry’s actual adapted guitar to get the exact sound he had in mind in his first solo version of “Barstow.” With the “Ancient Studies,” I used tunable modern instruments to re-create the plucked sound of his handmade table zither the harmonic canon, hence keeping the basic timbre of the original. After our recent Japanese tour, a colleague there wants to play the studies on two kotos!

I feature many recent recordings of Partch pieces on my weekly radio program “Soundboard” on KPFK-FM (90.7) Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon.

JOHN SCHNEIDER

Venice