Harry Partch Atop A Train John Schneider June 11, 2004 Harry Partch's Bitter Music John Schneider and Just Strings Acclaimed guitarist John Schneider and his chamber group Just Strings give a unique multimedia presentation of Harry Partch's Bitter Music, the long-lost 1935 hobo journal kept by the iconoclastic American composer, musical theorist, instrument builder and raconteur. The presentation includes Partch's original pen and ink illustrations, photographs from his scrapbook and his legendary instruments. In settings ranging from the transient shelters of Depression-era California to the reading room of the British Museum, from cleaning sewers to taking tea with Irish poet W.B. Yeats, Partch's story reveals seven months in a lifetime devoted to forging a new musical language beyond the traditions of Western classical music. "As long as there are John Schneiders to re-create passably the sounds of Partch, we'll have a tenuous grip on this unique byway in the annals of American innovation," wrote Alan Rich in the L.A. Weekly. Date & time General Admission CalArts Employees & Alumni Students Fri. 6.11.04, 8:30 pm $24 $18 $12 Read the press release