Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Partch broke with European tradition and forged a new music based on primal integration of sound and speech, using self-designed instruments tuned with natural acoustic resonance or just intonation. The result was a beautiful sound and vision with “magical purpose.”
“Dream” (1948) was written for Merce Cunningham’s dance, minimal fixed tones of sustained resonance, influenced by Balinese Gamelan and divinations through the I Ching.
The Bagobo are an indigenous Proto-Austronesian tribe of Mindanao in southern Philippines. Here is a traditional Bagobo Agung ensemble taken by anthropologist Robert Garfias during the 1960s.