{"id":{"repo_id":"westminster","oai_identifier":"oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:qv97w"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/westminster/oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:qv97w","repository":{"repo_id":"westminster","name":"University of Westminster","base_url":"https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/oai2"},"display":{"title":"Harry Partch: A Catalyst for Queer Compositionism","abstract":"My encounter with Harry Partch - mediated through recordings, films, and sleeve photographs - is taken as an interpellative hail (Althusser, 2014) to inquire into his legacy. As a queer musician, I re-articulate Partch’s volatility and (apparent) inability to collaborate, positing that he presented his personhood as hybridised with his self-built instruments, precarious home-studios, audio equipment, microtonal systems, published writings, records, sleeve notes, etc. I champion this hybridised personhood as a queer expression of his epistemology of the closet (Sedgwick, 2008), asking whether this notion applies to what I have coined a queer compositionist stance in collaborative performance projects. Partch collaborated intimately with the human and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2007) that he assembled into his life’s work. I see his protectionism of this assemblage not simply as outsiderism, but as a queer utopian message to arm oneself against the inertia (Becker, 1995) of normalising forces. A methodology centred around Bruno Latour supports this notion. In this regard, I follow the lead of Benjamin Piekut’s scholarship on musical experimentalism. I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. In my accounts of the project’s developments, I have exposed queer compositionism as offering a unique contribution to hauntological approaches to music production.","abstract_html":"My encounter with Harry Partch - mediated through recordings, films, and sleeve photographs - is taken as an interpellative hail (Althusser, 2014) to inquire into his legacy. As a queer musician, I re-articulate Partch’s volatility and (apparent) inability to collaborate, positing that he presented his personhood as hybridised with his self-built instruments, precarious home-studios, audio equipment, microtonal systems, published writings, records, sleeve notes, etc. I champion this hybridised personhood as a queer expression of his epistemology of the closet (Sedgwick, 2008), asking whether this notion applies to what I have coined a queer compositionist stance in collaborative performance projects. Partch collaborated intimately with the human and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2007) that he assembled into his life’s work. I see his protectionism of this assemblage not simply as outsiderism, but as a queer utopian message to arm oneself against the inertia (Becker, 1995) of normalising forces. A methodology centred around Bruno Latour supports this notion. In this regard, I follow the lead of Benjamin Piekut’s scholarship on musical experimentalism. I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. In my accounts of the project’s developments, I have exposed queer compositionism as offering a unique contribution to hauntological approaches to music production.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Saunders, W."],"institution":"University of Westminster","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"PhD thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019","date_published":"2019","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:01:37Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:qv97w"],"render_values":[{"text":"oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:qv97w","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.34737/qv97w","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Saunders, W."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Westminster"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Westminster School of Arts"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Westminster"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/qv97w/harry-partch-a-catalyst-for-queer-compositionism"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/qv97w/harry-partch-a-catalyst-for-queer-compositionism"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis or dissertation"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["PhD thesis"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:qv97w"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.34737/qv97w"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/0ca42ef35c200789c47854c84e7e519e4298599d6f55be5af92cc22e303a2450/5373220/SAUNDERSwilliamPhDAPRIL2019.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["My encounter with Harry Partch - mediated through recordings, films, and sleeve photographs - is taken as an interpellative hail (Althusser, 2014) to inquire into his legacy. As a queer musician, I re-articulate Partch’s volatility and (apparent) inability to collaborate, positing that he presented his personhood as hybridised with his self-built instruments, precarious home-studios, audio equipment, microtonal systems, published writings, records, sleeve notes, etc. I champion this hybridised personhood as a queer expression of his epistemology of the closet (Sedgwick, 2008), asking whether this notion applies to what I have coined a queer compositionist stance in collaborative performance projects. Partch collaborated intimately with the human and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2007) that he assembled into his life’s work. I see his protectionism of this assemblage not simply as outsiderism, but as a queer utopian message to arm oneself against the inertia (Becker, 1995) of normalising forces. A methodology centred around Bruno Latour supports this notion. In this regard, I follow the lead of Benjamin Piekut’s scholarship on musical experimentalism. I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. In my accounts of the project’s developments, I have exposed queer compositionism as offering a unique contribution to hauntological approaches to music production."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["My encounter with Harry Partch - mediated through recordings, films, and sleeve photographs - is taken as an interpellative hail (Althusser, 2014) to inquire into his legacy. As a queer musician, I re-articulate Partch’s volatility and (apparent) inability to collaborate, positing that he presented his personhood as hybridised with his self-built instruments, precarious home-studios, audio equipment, microtonal systems, published writings, records, sleeve notes, etc. I champion this hybridised personhood as a queer expression of his epistemology of the closet (Sedgwick, 2008), asking whether this notion applies to what I have coined a queer compositionist stance in collaborative performance projects. Partch collaborated intimately with the human and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2007) that he assembled into his life’s work. I see his protectionism of this assemblage not simply as outsiderism, but as a queer utopian message to arm oneself against the inertia (Becker, 1995) of normalising forces. A methodology centred around Bruno Latour supports this notion. In this regard, I follow the lead of Benjamin Piekut’s scholarship on musical experimentalism. I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. In my accounts of the project’s developments, I have exposed queer compositionism as offering a unique contribution to hauntological approaches to music production."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Harry Partch: A Catalyst for Queer Compositionism"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Saunders, W."],"dc:date":["2019"],"dc:date.issued":["2019"],"dc:description":["My encounter with Harry Partch - mediated through recordings, films, and sleeve photographs - is taken as an interpellative hail (Althusser, 2014) to inquire into his legacy. 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I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. 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Partch collaborated intimately with the human and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2007) that he assembled into his life’s work. I see his protectionism of this assemblage not simply as outsiderism, but as a queer utopian message to arm oneself against the inertia (Becker, 1995) of normalising forces. A methodology centred around Bruno Latour supports this notion. In this regard, I follow the lead of Benjamin Piekut’s scholarship on musical experimentalism. I ask whether the kind of networked hybridity that Latour has us pay attention to could relate to queer negotiations of the closet. Can a re-articulation of Harry Partch’s life’s work as a mediation of his personhood foreground ephemeral evidence (Muñoz 1996) of his ambivalent use of outsider labels? How can this speculation be used as a catalyst for a queer orientation of collaborative performance projects? The queer Partch that emerges from these questions haunts a series of collaborative performance projects that have offered practice-based contexts for an enquiry into my proposed queer compositionist stance. This stance foregrounds a quiet insistence on project-specific musical principles, not based on authorial signature, but on closet-like assemblages of conceptually integrated elements. 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