Harry Partch

From Genesis of a Music, 2nd edition:

Finally, to bring at least a semicolon to the personal story, when I saw, in the late twenties, that it was necessary to devise instruments of my own, I did not find it a fearful step. Until his death in 1919, my father had always maintained a small woodshop; I was familiar with common tools.

When the index of doing went up, the index of theory went down....

Indeed we have magic - pre-packaged. Not only do we find ourselves with ever more imaginative devices servicing consistently trivial distractions, but in art the searching man must humble himself before banks of highly technical equipment, and cater to those technicians and administrators who have been chosen to preside. We have usurpation by an academically incestuous elite, and the rebellion against this sort of thing constitutes a thoroughly moral stand. How can it be misunderstood?