Ictus: 'The Wayward'

THE WAYWARD

Harry Partch is by far the biggest freebooter among American composers. As soon as he realized that the prevailing tempered tuning conflicts with any natural intonation, he developed a radically new system of microtonality as a way out. He gradually built up an impressive set of instruments for this purpose. His vision of 'Just Intonation', set out in the book Genesis of a Music, is only gaining followers worldwide. During the Depression, Partch chose a wanderer's life. Spontaneous speaking melodies from colorful figures he met then provided the inspiration for four favorite compositions, collected as The Wayward. Composer and musicologist Tim Mariën thought this unique work was too valuable to withhold from Europe and so ended up at Ictus. Bearing in mind Partch's bricoleur spirit, Mariën converted instruments such as a twelve-string guitar, reed organ and zither for microtonal purposes. However, the 'arrangement' is not a note-by-note transcription of the original score, but subtly adds color to it. Within the Partchian context, a recent work by Mariën will be played as well as a work created by up-and-coming composer Thomas Smetryns.

“Ictus is a wonderful ensemble. To realize Partch's music they must have worked long and hard. To then perform it for a relatively small audience that was very grateful afterwards. As a bonus we received a composition by partch adept Tim Mariën. Completely in the spirit of the teacher. And for a moment Belgium was beautiful.” (Review in Knack about the premiere of 'The Wayward', April 2010)

“The highlight of the three-hour immersion was Tim Mariën's accurate adaptations of 'The letter' and ' Barstow', by America's most idiosyncratic composer Harry Partch – a dazzling spoken word performance with intriguing accompaniment from converted piano and guitar. The flair with which Michael Schmidt delivered the lyrics undoubtedly earned him the title of most striking musician of the evening.”

(De Standaard, 28.01.2011, about two pieces from 'The Wayward ' performed by Ictus during Liquid Room #2 on 26.01.2011)

MUSICIANS

Michael Schmid, voice, flute

Thomas Moore trombone

Tom Pauwels, guitar, zither

Jean-luc Plouvier, piano, harmonium

Gerrit Nulens, percussion, zither