Greatest Hits

Description

In 1988 the pop duo KLF published a book called »The Manual«, which let readers in on the secret of how to achieve a number one hit single. The book duly became a pop literature classic and it’s ironic finding was an unequivocal indictment of the industry: originality is not required – it’s enough to simply put together a song made up of parts borrowed from other tracks. The »Greatest Hits« festival approaches its task with significantly more commitment, and the focus this year is on the composers Gérard Grisey and Harry Partch. The latter was a contemporary of Arnold Schönberg and Aaron Copland; in the desert near San Diego Parch developed his own tuning system with home-made instruments which feature in many of the festival concerts.