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    The Bewitched－A Dance Satire (1956)

    Freda Schell, The Witch; The University of Illinois Musical Ensemble, John Garvey, conductor The Chorus of Lost Musicians (in order of appearance): William Olson, Chorus Leader (male solo voice), Marimba Eroica; Warren Smith, Bass Marimba; Thomas Gauger, Boo (Bamboo Marimba); Michael Donzella, Spoils of War; George Andrix, Cloud-Chamber Bowls; Danlee Mitchell, Diamond Marimba; Jack McKenzie, Surrogate Kithara and Gongs; Georgi Mayer, Harmonic Canon (Castor); Barbara Grammar, Harmonic Canon (Pollux); Sanford Berry, Kithara (right side); Jan Bach, Kithara (left side); Warren Birkett, clarinet; Joseph Firrantello, bass clarinet; Charles Delaney, piccolo; Carol Zuckerberg, koto; Peter Farrell, cello; Herbert Bielawa, Chromelodeon

    METICULOUSLY REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MONO MASTER TAPES!

    The Bewitched was Partch's first work solely intended for dance (and mime-dance at that; he was not overly enamored in his lifetime of so-called "modern dance"). Drawing heavily from his deep affection for the music-theatrical performance traditions of Greek theater, as well as those from Africa, Bali, and Chinese opera, Partch conceived of a contemporary American music ritual-theater where musicians not only play, but also function at times as movers-singers-actors. Such is the case of The Bewitched, where the instruments are the set, in front of (and around) which dancers "dance," but where the onstage musicians also move and sing. Partch's masterpiece has been lovingly remastered from the original mono masters and the 24-page booklet includes never-before-published photographs from productions of The Bewitched. This is the definitive document of this very important work.

    "The Bewitched is in the tradition of world-wide ritual theatre. It is the opposite of specialized. I conceived and wrote it in California in the period 1952-55, following the several performances of my version of Sophocles' Oedipus. In spirit, if not wholly in content, it is a satyr-play. It is a seeking for release－through satire, whimsy, magic, ribaldry－from the catharsis of tragedy. It is an essay toward a miraculous abeyance of civilized rigidity, in the feeling that the modern spirit might thereby find some ancient and magical sense of rebirth. Each of the 12 scenes is a theatrical unfolding of nakedness, a psychological strip-tease, or－a diametric reversal, which has the effect of underlining the complementary character, the strange affinity, of seeming opposites." —Harry Partch

    Includes unlimited streaming of Harry Partch: The Bewitched / Taylor Brook: Block via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
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about

about Block:

Block was written in 2022 for retuned steelstring guitar with optional electronics in the Spring of 2022 to accompany the rerelease of the CRI recording of Harry Partch’s The Bewitched by Anthology of Recorded
Music.

Block compliments and contrast The Bewitched, taking inspiration from a spoken introduction given by Partch at a performance of The Bewitched in Chicago, 1957. In this introduction, Partch discusses our listening habits,
playing on the expression of “in one ear and out the other,” by stating that he wants to create a “block between the ears... and when this block is effective all kinds of wonderful things happen: nerve impulses quicken, the
adrenal glands begin to secrete their ecstatic hormones, the pancreatic juices begin to ooze.” Partch achieves this through his corporeal aesthetic, combining sound and sight in the musical theatre works that dominated his late output, The Bewitched among them. For myself, the immersed mental state is more often achieved using sound only - rather than exciting all the senses, focusing in on a single one. Combining the guitar with a corpusbased electronic accompaniment, Block invites the listener to enter the ecstatic experience that Partch describes.

credits

from Harry Partch: The Bewitched / Taylor Brook: Block, track released September 16, 2022
The published recording of the composer was recorded on an Eastman Parlour guitar.

Notes by Marc Sabat
Art by Reuben Radding

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Composers Recordings, Inc. Brooklyn, New York

CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.) was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore and Oliver Daniel. CRI was dedicated to the promotion of new music by American composers, releasing over 600 recordings on LP, cassette and CD over its 49 year history, New World Records assumed ownership of CRI in 2006, since which time its entire catalog has been digitized for streaming, download & CD-R purchase. ... more

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