For almost three years, Partch composed the short pieces that he summarized in the collection Seventeen Poems by Li Po. Each of themdepicts the setting of a poem by the Chinese poet Li Bai (Li Po, 701-762) in the 1922 translation of Shigeyoshi Obata. Partch wrote this song collection for the voice and its newly constructed Adapted Viola. In his score, Partch originally divided the songs into Eleven Poems by Li Po and Six Poems by Li Po. 2 Voice Parts, Adapted Viola and Chromelodeon Facsimile Edition Score.