When things are hopping
Thoughts on the European creation of Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury and on the reproduction of his instruments
Roman Brotbeck
They are called Bloboy, Gourd Tree, Quad- rangularis Reversum or Blue Rainbow, they are converted reed organs, complicated zithers, different marimbas, but also instruments made out of trees, schnaps bottles, plane reactors or hubcaps: Harry Partch’s (1901–1974) musical instruments. They were almost like living figures, those replicas made by Thomas Meixner, when on stage at the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum, when the MusikFabrik ensemble gave a new lease of life to Harry Partch’s sound universe during the Ruhrtriennale. In this text an attempt will be made at explaining the meaning of this production, with a particular focus on the problem of historical performance practice in the case of Partch.
