Isolation --Part II-- Facts on Harry Partch

A True Isolationist - Harry Partch

Here is a 'small apocalypse' on the life of Harry Partch, which he himself watched collapse, admittedly, before his eyes.

I have learned these facts from someone who has recently conducted research for a presentation on Harry Partch.

-Harry Partch was an American composer and musical instrument inventor. He lived from 1901-1974). He was brilliant, and eventually went mad from syphilis and other factors.
-Harry Partch barely had any connections with people, outside of writing letters. Even in these letters, most of what he wrote was complaining about who he was with at the time, or where he was staying, or the state of his life at the time.
-He was sterile, and had most of his relationships with men. He loathed admitting this fact about himself due to a strictly managed childhood. His mother and friends often discouraged any sort of sexual impulses or ideas, as in, they refused to believe it was normal or good in any way.
-He grew up in the middle of nowhere, in deserts, and quickly learned upwards of five instruments as a young child. The instruments he was later to invent and build were so innovative in so many ways, probably given to the fact that he was alone so much of the time and so obsessive.
-He was a hypochondriac
-He was homeless for a period of his life during the Depression.
-He died of a heart-attack.