Harry Partch collection

Harry Partch was born on Jun 24, 1901 in Oakland, California. Partch is renowned as one of the 20th century’s most innovative American classical composers. He was one of the first composers in that century to extensively work with microtonal scales, which he wrote exclusively for his custom-made instruments that he built himself.

Both of Partch’s parents were Presbyterian missionaries that lived in China and fled that region of the world after the Boxer Rebellion. His family relocated to Oakland, California where Partch was born. Partch’s parents continued to live as missionaries, which resulted in the family relocating numerous times throughout Partch’s childhood, often in small remote towns located in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. In these small, isolated parts of the country Partch was exposed to various cultures and their music. Partch began to compose music at an early age using standard western tunings. However, he became frustrated by the limited structure of these tunings and began to develop his own methods of tuning which he performed on instruments that he created himself. Partch composed numerous operas, concertos, and various other musical projects using his tunings and instruments exclusively. In the late 1950’s Partch started his own record label, Gate 5 Records, to release recordings of his works and to generate income. Near the end of his life Columbia Records made recordings of his work which resulted in his music being exposed to a wider audience. Partch died on September 3, 1974 in San Diego, California.