We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Harry Partch - The Bewitched: Scene 6 - Euphoria Ascends A Sausilito Staircase

from Harry Partch: The Bewitched / Taylor Brook: Block by Harry Partch, Taylor Brook

supported by
ironer19
ironer19 thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1.29 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    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
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15.99 USD or more 

     

about

Scene 6—Euphoria Descends a Sausalito Stairway

The scene is one of the landings of a stairway on the steep hills that rise from San Francisco Bay at Sausalito. Adolescent love can make do with whatever scene it’s got, of course, but there is something of poetic justice in placing the scene among conservative suburban homes where, at the same time, baroque leaps, baroque swoons, pirouettes, trunks revolving around necks, and the various other devices of adolescent love in ballet form might attract hardly even a second notice.

Magic is a wonderful thing, and although Pythagoras is reputed to have arrested a man in motion with a single chord—to release him with a second chord, it has remained for the young man of Sausalito to accomplish this feat with his dancing partner for the purposes of undisturbed examination. From this point on, adolescent love becomes so athletic as to be intolerable.

Anyone can dream of bringing control to a Sausalito love affair, but the Witch actually accomplishes it. Facing each other, the boy and girl now move backward and forward on the stairway—with quiet dignity and tenderness—in a way that suggests eternity.

credits

from Harry Partch: The Bewitched / Taylor Brook: Block, released September 16, 2022
The Bewitched: Harry Partch, composer

Cast of The Bewitched: 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

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Composers Recordings, Inc. image

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

contact / help

Contact Composers Recordings, Inc.

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like The Bewitched: Scene 6 - Euphoria Ascends A Sausilito Staircase, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now