From: mclaren
Subject: construction of a 19-tone m'bira
--
The Sonic Arts Gallery is constantly boiling with
new ideas and plans for new instruments, so it
came as no surprise when Jonathan Glasier began
work on a 19-tone m'bira.
Patterend after Bill Wesley's "array m'bira," this
instrument is to an african thumb piano as a 747
is to the Wright brothers' biplane.
instrument is to an african thumb piano as a 747
is to the Wright brothers' biplane.
Bill Wesley's "array" arrangement of tines places
consonant intervals closest to one another, while
putting dissonant intervals far apart. Thus if you
stroke the tines of one of Bill's m'biras at random,
you get a set of fifths, rather than a jangle of
semitones.
This has had some interesting effects when
translating the "array" into 19 tones to the octave.
Originally designed by Pythaogrean intonation,
the 2-D "array" of crisscrossing 5th and 4ths
seems to accomodate well the 19-tone system.
No doubt this is because 19 boasts fine fifths,
only 7 cents flat of the just 3/2. The array would
probably also work as a keyboard arrangement for
17, 22, 27, 29, 31, and most of the other equal
temperaments with good fifths.
The real surprise, though, is how close this
temperaments with good fifths.
The real surprise, though, is how close this
microtonal acoustic instrument sounds to its 12-TET
cousin. The 19-tone equal tempered scale truly is
the first step outside 12.
--mclaren
