Tonality Diamond by Harry Partch

"Tonality Diamond" by Harry Partch
11" x 17" archival print, with matte, 16" x 20" frame

This print was featured in the 2015 exhibition "Visual Harmony: Contemporary Tuning Graphics" at the Center for New Music, used by permission of Innova Recordings.

Harry Partch (1901-1974)

Harry Partch’s primary interest was in just intonation – which is to say, tuning systems based on ratios between whole numbers – and in broadening the tonal resources available to composers by expanding the range of ratios that listeners could accept as musically meaningful. In pursuing this he was “seduced” into instrument making, and in many of his instruments the implicit logic and geometry of the tuning systems was reflected as two-dimensional arrays in the spatial layout of the sounding elements. Many of his ideas also take shape as diagrammatic representations of pitch relationships, as can be seen in his pieces exhibited here.

Tonality Diamond used by permission of Innova Recordings, from Enclosure Three: Harry Partch.