Sherry Chandler » 2006 » August » 04
For your Friday afternoon amusement, I recommend Harry Partch’s Instruments
These instruments were made to be beautiful in sound, vision, and “magical purpose.” They were tuned according to the natural overtone series… Some, like the Chromelodeon, had as many as 43 tones in a single “octave.” [Harry Partch] made particular instruments for specific needs in his compositions, not the other way around. But, more than this, he designed the instruments to be “corporeal.” To Partch, corporeal meant to involve the whole body, the whole person in the art.
That being the case, it seems almost sacrilege to “play” these virtual versions of the instruments. Nevertheless, I’m inviting you to do that at the link.
This post was written by sherry
Photograph by T. R. Williams
From the Back Steps
A bird begins to sing,
hesitates, like a carpenter
pausing to straighten a nail, then
begins again.
The cat lolls in the shade
under the parked car, his head
in the wheel’s path.
I bury the thing I love.
But the cat continues to lie
comfortably, right where he is,
and no one will move the cat.
My own violence falls away
like paint peeling from a wall.
I am choosing a new color
to paint my house, though I’m still
not sure what the color will be.
— Jane Kenyon, from Collected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2005)
This post was written by sherry
