Volume 2 of New World/CRI's Harry Partch collection offers two very different large-scale creations from the maverick composer, theorist, and instrument inventor. The Wayward is made up of four works that vividly depict scenes from the hobo life that Partch knew first-hand in the 1930s. U.S. Highball is its longest and most substantial section, depicting a transcontinental hobo trip in colorful musical turns. Here Partch exploits his exotic instruments and unique microtonal language to the hilt. The Chromelodeon huffs and puffs like smoky train whistles, surrounded by churning mallet activity and slithering bowed and plucked string work. Snippets of text inspired by real life interweave with sung announcements from the train conductor.

Partch himself intones the cries of bygone newsboys in the brief San Francisco while playing his Adapted Viola, and he's also heard in The Letter (his final recording as a performer). Barstow, a setting of eight hitchhiker inscriptions from a highway railing, stems from a live 1982 performance, directed by Partch's longtime musical confidant Danlee Mitchell. Despite the sonic disparity between pieces (both U.S. Highball and San Francisco were recorded in 1958), the interpretations are unified by their infectious vitality and by the performers' consistently intense involvement. Newband's 1999 recording for Wergo of course benefits from state-of-the-art digital editing and greater accuracy in regard to Partch's written intentions. Nevertheless, the Partch and Mitchell performances are often quicker, dynamically varied, and physically exciting.

One of Partch's rare non-theatrical large-scale creations, And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma, is a series of 34 one-minute instrumental verses. The first 23 consist of duets and trios that showcase the full range of Partch's instruments. Then the verses are sequentially paired and the pairs are played simultaneously to form quartets or quintets (verses 24 through 33). Miraculously, the sonorities generated by the increased textural and rhythmic complexity sound fresh and uncluttered. It matters little that the recording stems from sessions that took place at different times in different venues, and there are noticeable ambient changes between certain verses. Partch biographer Bob Gilmore's booklet notes could not be more informative or insightful.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com