This is the first performance of Partch’s uncut original score for Madeline Tourtelot’s 1958 art-house film WINDSONG being premiered in Los Angeles. The film was a retelling of Apollo’s amorous pursuit of the virgin Daphne, and as the composer tells it, “The music, in effect, is a collage of sounds. The film technique of fairly fast cuts is here translated into musical terms. The sudden shifts represent nature symbols of the film, as used for a dramatic purpose.” Thrilling percussion parts and atmospheric Harmonic Canon parts produce some of the composer’s most memorable mid-century music. In fact, Tourtelot was so fascinated by the process of making the film score, in which Partch overdubbed all of the parts himself, that it became the subject of her film Music Studio 1958. The score was cut & re-ordered to match the final film cut, and though he later expanded the piece for dance as "Daphne of the Dunes," this original version includes the spoken introduction & is the composer's initial vision for the piece. The work will be featured along with Ulysses at the Edge [vimeo.com/167652318] on the Grammy winning PARTCH's new album SONATA DEMENTIA, to be released in 2018 by Bridge Records.
