Editing Harry Partch (section)

===Early life (1901–1919)===
[[File:Virgil and Jennie Partch wedding photo 1888.jpg|thumb|187px|alt=A black-and-white photograph of a couple. On the left is a seated man with a moustache weraing a dark suit. Standing on the right is a woman in a white dress, body facing left.  Both face the camera.|Partch's parents, Virgil and Jennie (1888).]]
On June 24, 1901, Partch was born in [[Oakland, California]]. His parents were Virgil Franklin Partch (1860–1919) and Jennie (née Childers, 1863–1920). The [[Presbyterian]] couple were [[missionaries]], serving in China from 1888 to 1893, and again from 1895 to 1900, when they fled the [[Boxer Rebellion]].{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}}

Partch moved{{when|date=March 2024}} with his family to Arizona for his mother's health. His father worked for the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service|Immigration Service]] there, and they settled in the small town of [[Benson, Arizona|Benson]]. It was still the [[Wild West]] there in the early twentieth century, and Partch recalled seeing outlaws in town. Nearby, there were native [[Yaqui people]], whose music he would hear.{{sfn|Schell|2018}} His mother sang to him in [[Mandarin Chinese]], and he heard and sang songs in Spanish. His mother encouraged her children to learn music, and he learned the [[mandolin]], violin, piano,{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}} [[reed organ]], and [[cornet]]. His mother taught him to [[read music]].{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=365}}

In 1913, the family moved to [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], where Partch began to study the piano seriously. He obtained work playing keyboards for [[silent film]]s while he was in high school. By 14, he was composing for the piano. He developed an early interest in writing music for dramatic situations,{{clarify|date=December 2022}} and cited his lost composition ''Death and the Desert'' (1916) as an early example.{{sfn|McGeary|2000|p=xvii}}

In 1919, Partch graduated from high school{{which|date=March 2024}}.{{sfn|Gilmore|Johnston|2002|p=365}}