Zinging: Delusion of the Fury by Harry Partch

Jubilation and cheers echoed last night in the sold-out Great Hall of the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ after the Dutch premiere of Delusion of the Fury of Harry Partch at the Holland Festival. No wonder, as the performance directed by Heiner Goebbels was titillating and the performance by the - conductorless - MusikFabrik perfect.

What makes the music of American alcoholic, crack addict, jack-of-all-trades, drifter and music finder Harry Partch (1901-1974) so special?

He thought it was nonsense to subdivide the octave into only 12 tones as we in the West have done for centuries. He wanted more, 43 to be precise. He had a problem with that, because the usual instruments are not made for that - only string instruments without frets can make that whole spectrum sound.

How did Partch solve that problem?

He built his own instruments, choosing unusual materials found in his immediate surroundings. From empty liquor bottles, steel strings, wreck wood, bamboo tubes, metal rods to glass bowls in which crystal meth was cooked and tuned gourds hanging from a crooked eucalyptus tree - you name it, Partch gets sound out of it. He even succeeded in tuning a harmonium so that it could effortlessly produce all the 43 tones he wanted, the so-called chromelodeon.

Bit woodsy, then?

You could say that, yes, because after Partch's death in 1974, the instruments gradually fell apart, allowing them to be displayed and played only for museum purposes. For this production of Delusion of the Fury percussionist Thomas Meixner of MusikFabrik recreated all twenty-seven of them and it took the musicians a year to learn to play them. Take the Marimba Eroica alone: immense slats rest on two-metre-high resonator boxes, so the percussionist can only play them standing on a stool with gigantic hammers. Or the Quadrangularis Reversum, a huge, square xylophone that encloses the musician like a spider in its web.

Claustrophobic experience for the musicians?

Not necessarily, as they regularly emerge from behind and from their instruments to take part in the action. In fact, Partch pursued a holistic approach to music, which he sees as a form of theatre. The instruments are simultaneously beautiful sculptures, the musicians play largely by heart and are also actors and choristers; lighting and choreography are also meticulously worked out.

What is Delusion of the Fury about?

The play falls into two parts. The first is based on a Japanese story about a murderer who repents and is forgiven by his victim; the second is more farcical in nature. This is taken from an African folk tale about a shepherdess who has lost one of her goats and quarrels with a deaf tramp, after which both are arrested and put on trial.

Does the music also sound Japanese and/or African?

Apart from the use of a koto, there are no references to Japanese traditional music. A soft howling melody from a plucked instrument marks the beginning and will hereafter also mark the transitions between scenes; rousing rhythms on the very different instruments and subdued, reciting vocal lines from the choir create an atmosphere that recalls both Indian initiation rites and Gregorian chant.

The stage setting in the first part is Japanese-inspired though, evoking associations with Noh theatre: the killer and his victim are decked out in robes with very broad shoulders and engage each other in ultra-rare movements with long rods.

The second movement does not sound African either, but with its jolly, antiphonal and sometimes polyphonic choral singing, it is more in keeping with the American popular tradition. The shepherdess and the villagers surrounding the wanderer utter childlike cries like oe-wie-a-wie, the musicians play mouth harps or gently sway along to a pulsating rhythm; one of them marks the first beat with a mechanical head nod and a hissing sound.

What does it look like?

The stage setting is spectacular and sensual thanks to all those alien instruments. The lighting plan is also so ingeniously worked out that for seventy-five minutes you imagine yourself in different places each time. Sometimes we find ourselves in a subterranean cave, sometimes in a barren desert or an overgrowing jungle, only to end up in a futuristic kind of afterlife with plastic inflatable shapes or descending straight into hell. The direction of the characters is also worked out in detail. Witty are the leitmotifs of a figure constantly wearing different headgear, waving a right hand that simultaneously acts as a shield from the outside world and the twilight lamps swaying back and forth at great height.

Is it moving, poignant?

It is mostly beautiful and meditative, sometimes hilarious. Moving or poignant, no, the stories are too underdeveloped and dramatic for that, dialogues are lacking. The music is inventive and varied, but mainly imploringly ritualistic or childishly exuberant. What is moving, however, is the total abandonment and perfection with which the MusikFabrik musicians shape Partch's unearthly world. - Thanks to Heiner Goebbels' inventive, eye-catching direction.

Tonight is the second and final performance of Delusion of the Fury
MusikFabrik, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, 20.30 hours