When stories of gay life in 1950s San Francisco get told, Harry Partch does not feature prominently. This may be because Partch is an iconoclastic figure in many respects other than his sexuality. By ...

Ever heard of an adapted viola? What about a chromalodeon? Or a harmonic canon? They're all instruments invented by avante-garde composer Harry Partch. Partch was a California native who threw out ...

Harry Partch was born in Oakland, California. His parents had been Presbyterian missionaries in China who endured the Boxer Rebellion. Two years after his birth, they moved to Arizona to homestead, ...

“The great cathedral of modern music, erected in trial and labor and pain through most of the Christian era, is a safe and beautiful sanctuary,” Harry Partch once wrote. “Its one sad aspect is that it ...

A treasure trove of unique musical instruments invented and built by pioneering composer Harry Partch between 1930 and 1972 were quietly returned to San Diego last week, ending a 33-year-long ...

I recently attended a concert that included a piece of music by Harry Partch (1901-1974). Some of the attendees, though they were people interested in and aware of contemporary music, had never heard ...

Among the dozen members inducted last month into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters were historian Ron Chernow, playwright Terrence McNally, novelist George Saunders and artist Jenny ...

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts. For many years, Los Angeles County Museum of Art was a go-to spot and a ...

In a time of terrible homelessness, can we speak of hobo culture and not romanticize the wealthiest cities in our wealthy state that are proving incapable of taking care of our own? But not to speak ...

Mere weeks after the Internet erupted with news that Brooklyn rockers Fiery Furnaces dissed Radiohead for trying to appear trendy by writing a song about avant-garde composer Harry Partch (they were ...