Bitter Music is the most controversial work by Harry Partch (1901 - 1974). It is, in essence, an artist's journal he kept during eight months of his hobo existence in the mid-'30s, the depth of the Great Depression.

When he returned to the U.S.A. from a trip to Europe in 1935 (taken on a grant to undertake research on his ideas about just intonation), he got an indifferent and uncomprehending response from the Guggenheim Foundation and had to live with friends. He saw ahead of him a life of " ...begging under the apology of my music" and rejected that existence. While passing through Indianapolis, he had encountered a new American institution, the transient bureau, and heard of transient shelters established by the government. As he had already twice lived on the road for limited periods of time, now he again " ...sought the relief and surcease of wandering about as a bum."

Bitter Music comprises notes Partch made about his existence and his thoughts during that time. It is, literally, an artist's journal. He notes down things said to him by others, using standard notation and piano accompaniment in the equal tempered system. Some of these piano notations are merely a measure or two, scraps of sung material that appear amidst blocks of text. It introduces the reader or listener to intimate and often bitter thoughts, and to unforgettable characters like Pablo and Kaintuck. There are, in language that is rarely impolite, references to sexual encounters along the road.

One section, though, December 1935, is a phantasmagoric nine-minute tone poem for piano and spoken voice, a dense, even viciously bitter outpouring against a stew of musical reminiscences, as if Partch had suddenly become a dirt-poor and enraged incarnation of Charles Ives. Musical references include There is a Tavern in the Town, Red River Valley, Rock of Ages, some Chopin and Beethoven, and more.

Partch had a contract to publish the words and music of Bitter Music (though not the pen and ink drawings he also wrote), but it was canceled when war broke out, leading to paper shortages.

Partch excerpted a few words from the work for other projects, then destroyed every copy he knew of. He missed one microfilmed copy, which was published in 1991, against much opposition from those who felt Partch's wishes should be observed. If totally read and played, it would take two hours to perform. Warren Burt transcribed major sections (about 75 minutes) of it as a piece for singer/reader and pianist. It was premiered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from Melbourne on January 23, 1992, with Burt and pianist Sheila Guyner.

The work is almost painfully personal. The moments for piano, and the December 1935 fantasia, are quite original. Bitter Music gives an idea about the character of the man, which includes a considerable amount of whining, which is understandable, but perhaps the reason Partch attempted to eradicate this work, which he counted as a failure.

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