Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Harry Partch�s Oedipus at Montclair State University (NJ)

Because no sacrifice is too great for Sequenza21, last night, under cover of darkness, I slipped over the Hudson to bring you the skinny on Montclair State University�s production of Harry Partch�s Oedipus. Directed by Decasia alum Bob McGrath and featuring the original Partch Instrumentarium played by Newband, the production proved that, somehow, not all cool things happen in New York City.

Recalling the visual devices he used in Decasia, McGrath placed almost all the live action behind a scrim upon which films and slides of pre-war Vienna, state funerals, babies, and other thematically related images were projected. The idea was to present Oedipus through the lens of psychoanalysis. Thus, Oedipus (Robert Osborne) sits in an armchair for almost the entire production being "analyzed" by the Priest (Mark Peters). While Freud�s interpretation of Sophocles�s tragedy has unarguably become entwined with our conception of it, McGrath�s choice to confine Oedipus to a psychologist�s chair makes the king seem petulant and childish: reacting to the other, more mobile characters, he resembles more an infant who�s rejecting the food he�s been served than a tragic hero. Nonetheless when the Herdsman (Daniel Keeling) confirms Oedipus�s worst fears and Oedipus bursts from his chair and the scrim finally lifts, the moment is arresting and powerful.

Underscoring the half-singing/half-speaking actors, Partch�s music enforces the drama efficiently and powerfully evokes the ancient world. His microtonally divided octaves and original instruments, many of which are adaptations of already existing ones, seem ancestral in relation to equal temperament and today�s conventional instruments. As such the sounds produced by the Instrumentarium do not sound wholly unfamiliar: rather, they sound like music we�re hearing through the distortion of centuries. Listening to it, one gets the sense that, over time, this strange, raw, ghostly music became sharpened into the pitches and harmonies familiar to us today. Ironically, in light of Partch�s status as an innovator, he comes across in Oedipus as something more like a musical archeologist.

Of course, the one who really came out looking good from all this was Montclair State University. Not only are they playing host to one of this season�s most interesting productions, but their brand-new Alexander Kasser Theater, a beautiful Mediterranean-style structure, is a wonderful venue for experimental and traditional endeavors � even if it requires an occasional stealthy journey across the Hudson.

posted by David Salvage 4/02/2005