Riley: Harp of New Albion

This recording features the premiere recordings of works by the late Lou Harrison and the legendary Harry Partch. John Schneider, guitarist and Los Angeles radio personality performs on a wide variety of guitars using such instruments as Partch’s microtonal Adapated Guitars, Martin, Gibson and Fender guitars, a National Resophonic Guitar, and other instruments that feature tuneable fretboards for various types of Just Intonation. Lou Harrison (1917-2003) wrote his last guitar piece for National Steel guitar, custom fretted in Just Intonation. The Scenes from Nek Chand uses a six-note mode and is based on the sculpure and architecture of Nek Chand in northern India. Harry Partch worked on the adapatation of guitars in the 1930s, using one for his Barstow: 8 Hitchhikers’ Inscriptions (1941) (available on BRIDGE 9041). The opening of Partch’s long lost song cycle, December 1942, begins with a setting of the jester’s song "Come Away Death" from Shakespearre’s Twelfth Night. Three Intrusions (1949) are the first compositions to use Partch’s newly invented Diamond Marimba and the Adapted Guitar 2. Both of these works feature Schneider singing and intoning the vocal parts, as well as performing on copies of Partch’s Adapted Guitars.