Harry Partch

Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer. He was one of the first composers to work with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for instruments he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonatio

Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer. He was one of the first composers to work with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for instruments he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.

Partch was born in Oakland, California. Both his parents were Presbyterian missionaries. He learned to play the clarinet, harmonium, viola, and guitar as a child. He began to compose at an early age using the chromatic scale normal in western music, but burned all his early works after becoming frustrated with what he saw as the imperfections of that particular system of musical tuning.