Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury

The late iconoclastic American composer Harry Partch (1901-1974) is among the most individualistic composers, who, like John Cage and Lou Harrison, contributed to the experimental music phenomenon in the 1960s. Partch is famous for designing and creating dozens of unique, larger-than-life instruments to perform his music, based on a micro tuning system that is alternately lyrical, raucous and hauntingly resonate. Japan Society commissions and produces the unprecedented re-staging of Partch’s Delusion of the Fury, a large-scale musical theater piece that has never been remounted since its first production in 1969. Built upon the timeless theme of life and death, the first act of Delusion of the Fury is based on two Japanese noh plays, and requires performers to sing, act and dance in the noh tradition.