Taking Partch

Fred Lyon

Harry Partch, happy to strangle anybody who called himself his pupil, in Sausalito circa 1954.

Related Content

• Top 10 San Francisco Museum Free Days
  February 3, 2012
• Studio Time
  October 12, 2011
• Arthouse Movie Listings Dec. 28-Jan. 3
  December 28, 2011
• San Francisco Art Gallery Reviews for September
  August 17, 2011
• The British Have Way More Latitude in TV Commercials Than We Do -- See Their Best
  January 27, 2012

More About

• Harry Partch
• Beth Custer
• Dean Drummond
• Bart Hopkin
• Classical Music

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

That's a fitting legacy for Harry Partch, who didn't want people to follow in his footsteps so much as walk proudly in their own. "If anyone calls himself a pupil of mine," Partch once said, "I will happily strangle him. But this is simply the expression of an attitude, and -- amazingly -- in its deeper meaning it is an expression of hope."

Beth Custer's Vinculum Symphony will be performed Thursday, Sept. 2, at 7:30 p.m. and Friday through Sunday, Sept. 3-5, at 8 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission (at Third Street), S.F. Tickets are $13-15 ($10 for the Sept. 2 performance). Newband presents "Harry Partch and His Legacy" Thursday, Sept. 23, at 8 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center; tickets are $13-15. Partch instruments will be on display Sept. 21-23, and experimental instruments curated by Custer will be on display throughout the "Sounds Like Art" festival from Aug. 28 to Nov. 7. Call 978-2700 for more information.