
Harry Partch distributed his music as "Gate 5 Records." The name is from the building into which the composer moved his unique instruments after the Second World War. The building was at Gate 5 of the Sausalito shipyards where warships were built and is still the name of an area which was converted to civilian uses after the war, The "fifth gate" also has a mystical significance, in that old walled cities commonly had four gates at their cardinal points, and the Fifth Gate was a metaphysical one, the intangible Gate to Illusion. [read more...]