And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma

Harry Partch

Mazda Marimba, Chromelodeon, Bloboy, Crychord and Cloud Chamber Bowls – those are only a few of the extraordinary instruments the musicians from Ensemble Musikfabrik have to master for And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma. The piece written between 1963 and 1966 by the American composer Harry Partch consists of 34 approximately one-minute pieces in varying instrumentation, from duet to octet. It was written for a series of instruments, which Partch drafted and constructed by himself to realise his own microtonal system.

The sculpture-like instruments are the only complete set of Partch instruments outside of the stock of the School of Music at the University of Washington in Seattle. Under the direction of Thomas Meixner and on behalf of Ensemble Musikfabrik the instruments were reconstructed completely for the first time and were learned by the ensemble members. Petals is a collection of instrumental studies written by the American maverick Partch in preparation for his opus magnum Delusion of the Fury, which was performed for the first time in Europe with great success during Ruhrtriennale 2013 by Ensemble Musikfabrik. Petals as well experienced its European premiere with Ensemble Musikfabrik – at the Kieler Tage für Neue Musik 2014. After shows in Bristol and Cologne in February and May this year in the next season it can be heard in Warsaw, Munich, Salzburg and Frankfurt for the first time.