A celebration of maverick microtonal american composer, theorist and instrument-builder Harry Partch [1901-1974], through the prism of his very first Adapted Guitar.

This performance of Partch’s music will focus on rarely heard works for this particular microtonal acoustic guitar and voice, inspired by his years spent as a hobo, riding the rails through 1930’s America. My replica of the original instrument, which Partch developed between 1934 and 1942, brings to life hitchhiker’s inscriptions, snatches of inebriated dialogue, and letters from ex-convicts, using various microtonal scales - including the infamous ’43 notes to the octave’. Partch’s use of microtonality to accurately map the nuances of human speech are also demonstrated in spoken excerpts from his Depression-era journal ‘Bitter Music’, which have been transcribed onto this instrument.

This first Adapted Guitar was both a practical and technical embodiment of Partch’s ‘One Voice’ aesthetic construct, and was used to compose and perform the first versions of some of his most seminal works such as the first incarnations of Barstow, The Letter and U.S. Highball. To a far greater extent than his first ‘built’ instrument the Adapted Viola, Partch’s introduction of this guitar into his growing ensemble allowed him to synthesize his intonation theories, performance aesthetic and iconoclastic self-image. In this way it provided the foundation for his later creative explorations of large-scale dramatic productions and corporeality. His use of various guitars, right up until his final work The Dreamer That Remains in 1973 - when he returned to a reconfigured version of this first guitar - further illustrates the profound importance of this instrument to his creative ideals over a period of more than four decades.

Chris Rainier is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, composer/improviser and visual artist from Melbourne, Australia.   For over a decade he has focused on extending the sonic possibilities of the lap steel guitar - most recently the acoustic, hollow-neck weissenborn - beyond its historic use and context. Drawing on traditional techniques and repertoires, he has explored new musical territories within an improvisational framework, embracing a disparate range of musical influences: 20th century classical, tape looping, Just Intonation, drone, Exotica, Futurist noise, Balinese Gamelan Gong Kebyar,Hindustani slide guitar traditions, pre-war Hawaiian steel guitar and the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.   He has performed solo and in collaborative concerts at various festivals, art galleries and non-traditional performance spaces, often improvising live soundtracks to film. Solo tours in Europe and Japan have seen him share the stage with Masaki Batoh, Taku Sugimoto, Teuzi Akiyama, Giovanni di Domenico, Diane Cluck and Yuri Landman.   Rainier’s research into microtonal music and new instrument designs, influenced by the work of composer Harry Partch, was the focus of his postgraduate studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Since 2013 he has presented performances of Partch’s rarely heard works for voice and microtonal guitar, readings and musical extracts from his depression-era journal bitter music. He has also lectured extensively on Partch’s life, music and guitars at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, the Harry Partch Archives at the University of Illinois, and the Slade School of Fine Art in London.   His most recent solo recording ‘man and the echo’, was reviewed very favourably in the Wire Magazine in 2015, as well as various other print and online publications, blogs and forums.