This long-lost journal of Harry Partch’s wanderings during the Great Depression (from cleaning sewers to having tea with Irish poet W B Yeats) is an extraordinary musical portrait of an American pioneer, chronicling his occasionally hilarious and often heartbreaking struggles to forge a new music system outside the classical tradition.  

This première recording of Bitter Music takes the form of readings and collected musical fragments - an aural diary of what was going through Partch’s mind and ear during a critical period in his artistic development.

Includes Harry Partch speaking about Bitter Music.

Partch:
- John Schneider (voice, adapted viola, adapted guitar)
- Gary Eister (voice, piano)
- Richard Valitutto (piano)
- Paul West (kithara)