"If the guitars in Picasso's pictures could be played, what would they sound like?" asks Ivor Darreg, one of the artists whose works are on display in the Sonic Art exhibition. His instruments may go a long way toward answering that question.
Ivor Darreg has composed in many styles and idioms for 50 years and his design and construction of acoustic as well as electronic instruments is an outgrowth of correlating the structure of music and language. By interfacing linguistics and phonetics with the physical aspects of musical instrument design, he was led in 1969 to start refretting guitars in order to achieve more versatility in sound. By the mid-seventies, he began developing the MEGALYRA family of steel-guitar-type instruments for solo and ensemble work.
He claims that at least four to five "New moods" are added to the musical vocabulary by dividing the octave into segments other than twelve equal temperaments. He urges composers and musical instrument builders to "detwelvulate!" He has compiled many charts comparing various tuning strategies which show the advantages and disadvantages. Comparing equal temperaments, Darreg says that 17 tones per octave is "brilliant" and "its mood is rousing, invigorating, stimulating," while 19 tones per octave has "incredible zonk, pizzazz and impact..." with "pungent harmonies and greater contrast between its consonances and dissonances than 12 has." One of the most pleasing systems to the ears is 31 tone per octave, having a "calm and restful" effect whereas the mood of the 12-tone system, on which most of traditional western music is based, is one of "restlessness--never any repose."
Because of various physical and financial obstacles Darreg is forced to use "found objects" and low-cost materials for the construction of his instruments. Despite these limitations he continues to explore tuning systems which have resources and expressive powers that have never been heard before, and has earned the description of "the grand old man of the microtonalists" by OMNI, March 1981.
[by Marlin Halvorsen: excerpted "Ivor Darreg and Sonic Art," from the The Pawprint, February 11, 1982]
Ivor Darreg...has been building experimental, avant-garde musical instruments for more than half a century. Most of these instruments offer the possibility of numerous arbitrary scales--called "microtonal" scales, since they include many small intervals lying between the traditional pitches. Some of these instruments -- the tubulongs -- are arrays of pipes played with mallets. Others -- the megalyra family of instruments -- are stringed instruments like slide guitars. Finally, Darreg has refretted conventional acoustic and electric guitars so as to acommodate numerous different divisions of the octave: 14 pitches, 22 pitches, 31 pitches, 34 pitches, and so on. Some of these instruments -- the megalyras, for example -- offer several different interval systems at once, so that one can shift rapidly from one system to another and immediately perceive the difference.
Unlike Partch, who was interested in such more comprehensive matters as his total ritual musical theater, Darreg has focused almost exclusively on the problem of intervals. His experiments with the basic issue of music-making are stimulating and controversial, well worthy of attention by anyone interested in the future of contemporary music.
Instrument-designer and composer Ivor Darreg will discuss his long career of experiments in microtonal at Better World Bookshop and Art Gallery on Saturday August 24 at 4:00 p.m. The free talk will include performances on several of Darreg's own instruments.
[by Thomas Arne: excerpted from "If Intervals be the Food of Love, Play On," San Diego Reader, August 22, 1991]
If ever there were a mad musician, Ivor Darreg, 66, is it. The composer of such memorable works as The Purple Bedroom Blues and Welcoming Dance for the Astronauts as Performed by the Giant Cockroaches of Mars, Darreg wears shiny green shoes and speaks out of the corner of his mouth because all his teeth were extracted when he was 17. His house in Glendale California is so stuffed with books and records that many of his instruments are left out on the front lawn. AMong these are eight Megalyras--microtonally tuned stringed instruments derived from the Hawaiian steel guitar. Says Darreg, who has been expanding the conventional scale for nearly half a century, "Twelve-tone scales are all right, but nineteen carries a great deal of zonk, so why not use it? Seventeen is brilliant to the point of harshness. Thirty-one is very, very calm." Darreg hopes to retire the piano, which he considers "the noose around music's neck." Pulling for emphasis on his long white beard, he announces, "The day for microtonality is soon!"
[by Todd Brewster: excerpted from "Twangs and Tweedles," LIFE magazine, November 1983]
The next time you press the buttons on your touch-tone phone, think of Ivor Darreg.
Touch-tone phones are tuned to a 14-tones-per-octave scale, a fact which pleases Darreg no end. It means that, albeit unconsciously, the general public is finally being exposed to a musical system that's dear to the composer's heart.
Darreg invents, composes for and plays all sorts of instruments in strange and unfamiliar musical scales, such as 13, 19, 22 or 31 tones per octave. Anything but the usual 12.
Xenharmonics, the term Darreg prefers for the non-12-tone movement, derives from the Greek xenos, or "strange." The same concept has often been called Microtonal, but no matter what you call it, the sounds can take some getting used to.
Darreg, now considered the reigning patriarch of the movement since the death of fiery founding father Harry Partch 18 years ago, has lived for the past five years in an unassuming North Park cottage.
A sign in the front window warns "BEWARE OF fanatical DOGmas, don't let them put the bite on you." Darreg answers the door wearing a yellow checked shirt, his wayward white beard and longish hair painting an eccentric first impression. Once you glance inside his abode, which is jammed from floor to ceiling with instruments in various stages of repair, it is easy to see why Life Magazine, in a 1983 feature, called him a "mad musician."
Darreg may be eccentric, but he is by no means mad. Angry, perhaps. He was a musical maverick way before it was fashionable, and only in the last 15 years have people begun to respect his contribution.l One reason for the growing interest in his work is the increased sophistication of computers and recording techniques.
Darreg's backyard is cluttered with an assortment of instruments that he's crafted from redwood posts, metal tubes and other scavenged parts. He introduces each lovingly, demonstrating the various ways in which they can be played.
The electric Megalyra Contrabass, for example, is strung on two sides, "one side for brilliance, the other for depth." Darreg slides a metal bar across the strings, and the thunderous reverberations thrum your insides in a strangely unsettling way. The amplified instrument is, of course, tuned to a non-12-tone scale. Any reactions from the neighbors?
"There are sometimes problems," he cackles.
Darreg has been disturbing as well as enthralling people with is music for many years.
"I was 12 years old when I left the 12-tone scale behind," explains the 75-year-old musician. "I took my cousin's ukulele and tuned it so that two fo the strings were a quarter tone apart from the others, and it drove my sister raving mad!"
Darreg studied the cello for several years and even played for a time in the Portland Junior Symphony, but his experiments with nontraditional notes met with disapproval.
"My teacher claimed those notes didn't exist, and if they did they should not."
Portland is Totem Pole country, and Darreg, inspired by a 1935 art exhibit, wondered if he could modernize the Totem Pole idea by giving it a Mondrian or Kandinsky flair. This is how the family painted Megalyra family of instruments was born. But it wasn't until the sixties, when the Sound Sculpture movement was making waves, that his unusual instruments began to be noticed.
"The only way I've gotten anywhere at all was by being part of the Sound Sculpture movement," he explains. "The arts have been free to expand in the last 50 years, where music has not."
Darreg's identity is inseparable from his music. Never married and suffering from chronic health problems for most of his life, he took care of his invalid mother until her death. Her passing provided a new lease on life for Darreg. At 70, he moved from Los Angeles to San Diego, where he feels much more at home, and his health improved tremendously. Out of the blue, people began sending him synthesizers and anything else they thought he could use in his musical experiments.
A seven-foot reg Megalyra and Hobnailed Newel Post are currently part of the Hollywood Bowl Museum's "New sounds in New Shapes" exhibit through next March. Darreg is excited by such indications that Microtonal music, long accepted in INdia and the Mideast, is at last beginning to take root in the West.
At night, Darreg fosters Musical Progress by sending out "telepathic commercials" about what he's doing and what he needs. Every morning, he spends several hours on more conventional correspondence, writing letters to people throughout the world involved in the Xenharmonic Music Alliance, which he helped found 30 years ago.
Whether as the score for Fellini movie or a virtual reality computer program, Xenharmonics deserves to find a larger audience.
[by Simone Butler: excerpted from "A Xen Kind of Experience," December 1992, San Diego KPBS On Air Magazine.]
Ivor Darreg has been building original instruments that challenge the conventions of modern music theory for half a century. Since he first built his Electronic Keyboard Oboe in 1937, Darreg has explored and demonstrated the wide variety of sounds, harmonies and moods available in microtonal scales and just intonation (intervals based on the naturally 9occurring harmonic or overtone series). With his retunable keyboards, refretted guitars, quartertone Tubulong made form aluminum pipes, and giant contrabass steel guitar Megalyras, Ivor has helped to open ears to these "new" and strange sounds.
In his 1985 Progress Report Darreg states, "One very good reason for composing and performing in new scales is to enlarge the Mood Vocabulary, since the ordinary 12-tone equal-temperament tuning adds a certain restlessness to practically everything performed in it. Some of the new scales, such as the 17-tone equal temperament, add brilliance beyond what is possible in 12-tone; while other scales such as just intonation and the 31-tone scale realize a calm soothing peaceful mood otherwise unobtainable. 19-tone has a peculiar zonk otherwise impossible to obtain."
Indeed, on a recent visit to his cluttered cottage in Glendale, California (soon to the leveled by the rampant forces of Condomania), Ivor played me two versions of a very gentle guitar piece, first on guitar refretted to 19 notes per octave, then 31-tone. The difference was subtle but apparent, each providing its own sense of contrast and resolution. Darreg points out that 90% of the repertoire for guitar could be played on these refretted instruments and that for many places the new tuning system would make an improvement over the strictly 12-tone versions.
Within the Just Intonation/Microtonal movements, Ivor Darreg has been criticized for emphasizing the individual scales and their possibilities for creating previously unheard or unfelt moods. Instead of following the purist line that says Just Intonation is the only valid tuning system, Darreg insists on taking tuning theory out of the ivory towers and making new sounds accessible to the widest possible audience.
Recent trends indicate that this exposure may finally start to happen...
Darreg has also made his instrument available to local musicians who seek him out after hearing tales of a giant steel guitar that produces a deep rumbling bass capable of loosening the San Andreas fault. The Megalyra packs a megaton of wallop. Those 8-foot-long beams, strung with wound piano wire and fitted with hand-wound pickups, are also brightly painted and color-coded for different scales for ease in playing by musicians and non-musicians alike.
As an instrument builder, composer, musicians and Xenharmonic theorist, Ivor Darreg has become a treasure trove of knowledge and experience in the application of microtonal scales and harmonic theory. With the growth of interest in new and strange tunings, explorations of World Music and primitive scales, and the rapid rise in use of computers and synthesizers by a larger and larger group of people, Ivor's ideas about new scales and moods should be heard by anyone interested in finding a way of expression not confined to 12-tone equal temperament. Ivor's writings on microtonality, the de-evolution of the piano, and comments on contemporary music can be found in Interval magazine.
[by Paul Burton: excerpted from "Ivor Darreg," Option, Sept/Oct 1985]
Strange sounds reverberate through the cramped yard belonging a long-haired, white-bearded Glendale resident.
Ivor Darreg, 66, who spent the past half-century inventing exotic symphonic instruments and rewriting the pages of musical history, has more than than 40 handcrafted alternative instruments lining the inside of his house. A handful more spill into the tiny front yard belonging to the genius of physics, math and music composition. The precision-designed sculptures are as interesting to look at as they are to listen to, as Darreg creates strange sounds for his frequent "guests."
The sounds, which the inventor calls "Xen music" - meaning "strange music," is all part of a recent movement to open the doors of mainstream music to allow for more tones. Darreg says that an infinite spectrum of sounds exists between each established note known to present day musical scales, and that conventional instruments are geared to play only the most well-known sounds.
The inventor, who has a strong background in electronics and musical theory, wants to revamp all commonly-played instruments, including trumpets, xylophones, and guitars, to provide more sounds.
Darreg created new notes on his own guitars by inserting extra frets -- metal bars, which separate fingering areas - on the instruments' necks. Although nearly all guitars sold at retail stores come with 12 frets, Darreg has models contain 19 and 31 fingering spaces.
The advantages to the added fingerings, the inventor says, is that more tones can be played on each string and more chords can be included in the musician's repertoire. The 31-fret guitar offers tones acceptable to the human ear but not seen on standard sheet music.
The theory behind the alternative device is that musical tones, are merely sounds which are measured by the number of times they vibrate each second. Although society has accepted only 12 sounds in its modern day scale, an infinite number of tones exist. Darreg's musical premise is tied extremely closely to mathematics and he even programs computers to print out a generous supply of notes found between any two points. Although the computer fails to name the newly-discovered notes, it does list the rate of each sound broken down to the ninth decimal point.
Aside from the complicated scientifics involved in "xen music," it is a distinguished art form noted by innovative arrangements and off-beat, almost tribal rhythms.
"I'm introducing, composing music impossible to play on conventional instruments," Darreg said recently while demonstrating one of his largest inventions. Playing the revolutionary sounds not only requires restructuring established instruments, but demands the invention of large, diverse devices capable of producing many tones, he said.
Among the inventions crammed into Darreg's home are a family of fretless steel stringed electric contrabass instruments the creator calls "megalyras," the largest of which measures more' than eight feet long. The brightly-colored thin and erect "megalyras" are odd-looking and the sounds emanating from them are even more diverse.
Promoting the music revolution is a full-time project for Darreg who said "xen music can be the music of the future. The only obstacles are psychological ones. Musicians will not have to be retrained from ground zero, because the notes and chords they are accustomed to are retained in full in the new and converted instruments."
Darreg's "megalyras" are color coded to both alternative and conventional scales so that polished musicians can approach the instruments and play melodies by following the markings correlated with the standard 12-tone octave. With time, the musicians can adjust to the new markings and take on a fuller, 31- to 72- tone scale.
In the same fashion, all musicians can be weened from 12-tone octaves to broader forms, Darreg said. Tones can be added to trumpets and other brass instruments by cutting the size of valves or by adding valves, he said.
Wind instruments such as clarinets and flutes can be readjusted by adding more fingerings and drilling more holes along the pipe, he said.
The simplest way of refurnishing instruments is to program computers to spell out what notes are possible to reach and at what capacity they will be attained, Darreg said.
Scattered around his home is a lifetime supply of physics devices, a handful of tape recorders, parts from abandoned pianos and probably the most impressive artifact of all, an accordian-like portable keyboard that attaches to old vacuum tubes and plays electrified percussion that sounds similar to an orchestra of clanging alarms and buzzers.
The oldest instrument in his collection is a 1930-built electric keyboard oboe which served as a ancestor to the synthesizer. Darreg dragged it with him when he moved to Glendale seven years ago from the Silverlake area in search of a "quieter area...better for my nerves," he said. The inventor hopes to modernize the old electric instrument "providing I live long enough."
Darreg is not alone in the full-time revolution as a whole network of alternative musicians, inventors and physicists are busy experimenting with new sounds across the country. To keep up to date with what is happening in the field the "cult" publishes a trade magazine to which Darreg often contributes articles.
"All we have to do it convince certain people at the top and the whole world will transform to our music," he said.
[by Harrison Remer: excerpted from "Inventor captures strange tones, extends music scale," Los Angeles Times, 1985]
...The white-bearded venerable of of microtonal music sat at home in nearby Glendale, using a pair of pliers to pluck metal frets from thes neck of a cheap guitar. Ivor Darreg, a former child prodigy now sixty-five years old, has experimented with alternate tunings for well over fifty years. He called what he was doing to the neck of the guitar "de-twelvulating." Later, he measured and marked the same neck, setting out new positions where the frets were to be hammered back in.
Judging from the state of Darreg's tiny house, an awful lot of de-twelvulating had been going on. The place was crammed with a lifetime supply of microtonality: old vacuum tubes, physics-lab devices with knobs, stacks of sheet music, three or four tape recorders, parts from abandoned pianos, and, of course, the ten guitars, which contain ten, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-four and thirty-one tones per octave. All this clutter had apparently forced Darreg to park his own massive inventions outside the house. Eight of them lay about--a family of fretless steel-stringed electric contrabass instruments called megalyras. Several were eight feet long. Like the refretted guitars, they were microtonal; Darreg had carefully painted colored lines marking each different tonal system.
As Darreg demonstrated the various tunings, it became obvious to me that many are an acquired taste. Listening politely to the more dissonant ones made my smile muscles feel sore. I yearned for thirty-one tone and wondered why Darreg put equal emphasis on the other systems. "The fact is," he explained, "that each one has its own mood. There are harsh ones, gentle ones, soothing ones, rousing ones. For example, seventeen-tone offers a brilliant cleanness that twelve can't match, while nineteen is extremely aggressive, particularly when you compare it with thirty-one which is harmonious and serene.
"Here's one that's just plain weird," he said, happily plucking some not-so-harmonious sounds from one of the megalyras. "It's in thirteen." I decided that thirteen, too, was an acquired taste.
[by David Flesicher: excerpted from "Sounds of Infinity," Connoisseur, August 1983]
"The grand old man of the microtonalists is Ivor Darreg, a composer, instrument builder and piano tuner who lives in Glendale, California. The former child prodigy, now sixty-three, is a leading authority on musical life beyond the 12-tone scale.
"I've tuned organs, pianos, and harpsichords for forty years," Darreg says. "I've always wanted to escape the musical establishment's squirrel cage. Think of what it's like to be a concert pianist and practice the same old scales day after day. Those horrible exercises were so boring."
In 1936, when he realized he wasn't using his ears to "hear efficiently," Darreg constructed his first instrument--one electronic musicians would envy for its prescience. He found an old accordion keyboard in a music shop in San Francisco and, adding parts from a shortwave radio, created an electronic keyboard oboe. A musician with a conventional background could play it, but Darreg added several buttons that produced pitches not heard on the ordinary 12-tone scale. They were, to an extent, new notes.
Since then, Darreg has built five contrabass steel instruments, ranging from six to eight feet long, which he calls Megalyras. He has also modified and refretted many guitars, so musicians can play in 19, 22 or 31 tones per octave.
"It changes the mood profoundly by adding four or five new musical moods to the vocabulary," Darreg says of the Megalyras. "There are certain chords and combinations of sounds that are impossible in the ordinary twelve-tone system. Until the guitar took over from the piano as our main instrument, it was financially and mechanically impractical to increase the number of tones. It's been attempted for two or three centuries, but it simply costs too much."
[ by Doug Garr: excerpted from "The Endless Scale," OMNI, March 1981]
In death as in life, Ivor Darreg remains well ahead of his time.
His audacious debut album "Detwelvulate!" will be released this week -- nine months after he succumbed to a lengthy pancreatic illness in mid-February at age 76.
"Ivor pretty much knew that the only good composer is a dead composer," said former Darreg collaborator Jonathan Glasier, "and that you really can't get well known till you go."
A pioneer of microtonal music (that is, music with more than 12 tones per octave), Darreg died 57 years after he first moved to San Diego in 1937.
Only 19 when he relocated here from his native Oregon, he promptly designed and built an Electronic Keyboard Oboe that was one of the first synthesizers ever made. He devoted the rest of his life to creating intensely atmospheric music and wonderfully unique instruments that, to this day, sound both futuristic and timeless, otherwordly and yet strangely familiar.
Among the instruments he devised in the 1940s were the Amplified Cello, the Amplified Clavichord, and the Electric Keyboard Drum, which was very likely the first drum synthesizer. By the '60s he was immersed in what he dubbed Xenharmony, or nonquartertone microtonality, and started making refretted guitars and Tubulongs (metal tubes cut at different lengths and struck with mallets).
A decade later, Darreg created the first of his Megalyras, an adjustable, 6-to-8-foot-long contrabass slide guitar that is strung and played on both sides. He then made various Megalyra offshoot instruments with similarly exotic names, among them the Kosmolyra, and the Hobnailed Newel Post, a 6"-by-6-boot beam with more than 70 strings.
Many of Darreg's remarkable instruments, including the Electric Keyboard Oboe and six Megalyras, will be on display when he is honored at an album release party and performance Saturday night...
The performance, like Darreg's album, is being spearheaded by Glasier, a San Diego microtonal music champion under whose auspices Darreg moved back to San Diego from Glendale in 1985. (..)
"We'll be doing some of Ivor's music, including 'Prelude in 19,' which I'll perform on his 19-tone guitar," Glasier said. "And we'll be doing our own music, because we want to show that Ivor had an influence on all of us, and that we're now actually going beyond it."
Joining Glasier at Satudary's concert will be: John McBryde and Jeff Statyton on their own Megalyra-inspired stringed instruments; Bill Wesley, playing his Array Orchestra, a group of instruments he built that includes a giant kalimba (or African thumb piano) with 180 tines (or keys); and veteran percussionist Will Partsons, who will perform on a Roland Octapad electronic percussion controller connected to Glasier's Ensoniq TS-10 synthesizer (which is capable of many tunging systems, including Harry Partch's 43-tone just-intonation system).
If there is a living link between Darreg and the late Partch, two of America's most distinctive music inconoclasts of this century, it is undoubtedly Glasier. Partch lived with Glasier's family in El Centro when Glasier was just 3: Glasier went on to work at Partch's musical assistant at UCSD in the late '60s. It was then that Glasier befriended Darreg, and he was instrumnetal in intiating written correspondence between the two mavericks.
The founder of Interval/Exploring the Sonic Spectrum, which he published from 1978 to 1987, Glasier now runs the Sonic Arts Gallery at 1961 Beech St., Golden Hill.
The spirit of Darreg is very much alive in Glasier's Gallery, which is a precursor to the San Diego Museum of Sight and Sound he one days hopes to open. A lifelong musician, Glasier, 49, recalls Darreg with unmistakable affection and admiration.
"He was a very interesting man. He'd wake up in the morning and write at least five letters one a typewriter, single-spaced, 3 or 4 pages each. He had this real prolific mind, which is how he kept his Xenharmonic Alliance going, through which he told people what he was doing and what I was doing.
"He was a pauper, basically, most of his life, but he was able to create something out of nothing. His instruments look somewhat crude, but it's a matter of now taking his ideas and making something out of them with better materials, which is what we're doing."
Added percussionist Parsons, who once worked with Partch was introduced to Darreg by Glasier in 1978: "Partch had one microtonal universe he worked in that was his, but Ivor kind of defined the whole spectrum. And Ivor wrote these comparison charts -- he called them musical mood charts -- that allow you to compare completely different temperament tuning systems to each other. He left us with an intellectual tool that's like a musical map of the world."
Featuring 21 selections, all performed by Darreg, "Detwelvulate!" is the first release on Glasier's Sonic Arts Productions label. THe 72-minute CD is available for $14.00 payable to the Ivor Darreg Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 371443, San Diego, 92137-1443.
[by George Varga: excerpted from "The Arts," San Diego Union Tribune, Wednesday, November 16, 1994]
From Neil Haverstick:
I recently was informed that Ivor had died... Actually I first became aware of Ivor though his article in Guitar Player mag (1976?). Although I was not yet playing 19 tone guitar, I remember thinking that Ivor Iooked exactly like the sort of fellow that should be playing and promoting "weird" stuff. Just from his picture, you could tell that he was not only very intelligent, but quite humorous as well. When I did begin corresponding with him this last year or so, l did indeed find him to be both very deep and very funny. Immediately after I started writing him, I would find correspondence in my box which featured cassettes, strange pictures, and cryptic little notes which were frequently hilarious... He was not one to be very formal.
I wish I would have gotten to know him better... I imagine the sense of loss to those who knew him well is enormous. To me, his legacy is one of openmindedness towards the arts, a desire to always be looking forward and being open to all possibilities. I myself am inspired by the sheer amount of exploration Ivor did with various tunings, and his practical experimentation with the many instruments he built. He was not an armchair sort of person, and I find that very inspiring. I am sure he is in a good place now.
From Ralph David Hill:
Ivor Darreg was a mentor to me. He gave me strong encouragement towards developing demonstration music in just intonation at a critical point when I'd developed an early computer-controlled digital synthesizer virtually unrestricted as to pitch. He clearly saw the potential significance of my work at a very early stage.
He was a friend to me as well, and gave me strong, steady encouragement through the eleven year period over which I knew him.
I am redoubling my efforts towards awakening more musicians to new possibilities for musical expression thought extended just intonation. I anticipate that these efforts will contribute to musical art, and Ivor Darreg will have played a crucial role in this as a result of his guidance to me and his encouragement.
I shall miss him a great deal. I shall remember with gratitude the strong encouragement he gave me over the years.
From Alita Morrison:
When I was a small girl I turned the knobs of a shortwave radio to play "tunes" with the squealing "between station" sounds. I also played the radio for "regular" music. For years I have written to Ivor and learned that music could be far more than the repeats of those familiar twelve tones. I learned about microand macro-tonal music and the new moods they could produce. They opened new musical worlds for me.
I am sorry that Ivor could not go home from the hospital to play his music. But, I certainly hope his efforts are continued by those of us who are at home playing the music he promoted.
From Ben Johnston:
One of America's originals has left us. His legacy will not be forgotten. There are enough who care to insure that much. He was a man who very much followed his own drummer. He explored much new ground it will take generations to develop. I only met Ivor Darreg once and then later he sent me generous samples of his work. He worked in a very different direction from me, but I prize the independence which guided him. He left us not only a priceless example, but much solid achievement. Everyone who values him has a great responsibility now: to try to live up to example and to add yet more to his achievements.
From Graham Johnson:
My first "experience" with Ivor Darreg was in January 1973 when he responded to my flyer requesting information regarding the musical saw and theremin which I was researching for a book. (My picture and article appear in the the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians under "Musical Saw."). We corresponded extensively from 1973 to 1986. Even though we lived only a few miles from each other, we were more prone to write than to call or visit.
The first time that I saw Ivor was when I visited him at his residence on Lucile St. in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. We had conversed by phone, but I had no mental image of him. I was shocked to see how he looked -- I looked down on his vast, shiny pink bald head. His pure white; full beard shot out from his face like broom. His eyes bulged from behind his eye glasses which had a plastic frame which he had fused at the bridge by epoxy glue, but each lens was cocked at a strange angle. I didn't know what to expect from such a strange sight! He invited me in. I wondered if I should. We became friends and shared interests in unusual musical instruments.
Ivor showed me his creations in house but also pointed out on the dining room walls two small landscape oil paintings made by his mother who by then had died a number of years earlier. His eyes moistened. I had the impression that those paintings were more dear to him than any of his own musical creations.
In 1973 I gave Ivor an Ekotape brand reel-to-reel tape recorder which was his second recorder which enabled him to duplicate tapes of his works which he sent to interested individuals. I also gave him my Texas Instruments brand
theremin (after I replaced it for myself with a 1929 RCA Victor theremin, one of 200 made). I was not using my marimba, so I gave it to Ivor who changed it to twelve tone scale.
Ivor expressed concern that despite the size of Los Angeles and his hope that he lived in a good place to share his unusual musical interests, L.A. was microtonally unfruitful. A few years later he said that he had found a microtonal enclave in San Diego, so he would move there to join it.
Ivor Darreg was personally unassuming, very knowledgeable, and helpful. Ivor was a rare thinking person whose mind was constantly travelling into unchartered areas of music. His mind was ageless. His life's work is for the ages.
From Theodore Melnechuk:
It hurts when after 20 years
A friend so vivid disappears
Into the music of the spheres.
Farewell, you chief of pioneers
To map new musical frontiers
Between the lines that fenced our ears!
Farewell, you king of chanticleers,
Who sang, because the future nears,
New songs to wake us from our fears!
Farewell, you ace of engineers
Who built great instruments your peers
Now treasure too as souvenirs!
Farewell, you prince of pamphieteers,
Whose trove of lore and wit still steers
Explorers when their hearing veers!
We friends will miss you, but our tears
Will dry each time your music cheers
Our hearts with beauty that coheres,
Until at last the whole world hears
The charming fancy that endears
Your spirit when it reappears.
From David Ward-Steinman:
I was saddened to learn of the death of Ivor Darreg earlier this year. You had asked me for a short tribute to him, which I have not been able to get to before now, but if it is not too late, you are welcome to use the following:
Ivor Darreg will be remembered for his musical contributions as well as for his blythe spirit, wit, genial charm, generosity, and intensity of conviction.
He occasionally appeared as guest lecturer in some of my classes at San Diego State, and invariably held everyone captivated with his ideas and music. His iconoclastic approach to tuning and instrument building reached sympathetic, if not always comprehending, ears among the young. (More conventional in their conditioning than they realized, Ivor was always a helpful catalyst in shaking them up a bit!) He was also a very useful source of information about historical tunings that we all wanted to know more about.
From time to time I would bring visiting composers by Ivor's studio to meet him, see his instruments, and hear his music. He was unfailingly hospitable and generous with his time and tapes. His passionate commitment to microtonality, with all its attendant impracticality vis-a-vis today's musical establishment, was admirable and endearing. His patriarchal, Old Testament appearance in recent years made his role as microtonal prophet even more convincing. Fortunately, he was not a prophet without honor among those of us lucky enough to have known him.
From Craig Anderton:
Many years ago I wrote an article about just intonation in Etecfronotes; and shortly thereafter, Ivor wrote me to contribute a wealth of information about non- 12 tone tunings. That was his style: seek out those sympathetic to his interests, and ply them with data--everything from tapes, to letters, to cartoons (and outrageous puns!). I finally got to meet Ivor during his days in Pasadena, marvelled at the Megalyra and other assorted goodies, and looked forward to the occasional mailings (all of which I've kept, of course).
Although I wouldn't say I was a close friend of Ivor's, he knew that I paid close attention to everything he sent, and that by influencing me he was also influencing a considerable number of my friends and associates. And every now and then, I'd run into another friend of Ivor's (like David Shierman) and we'd exchange notes about what he was up to and how he was doing. I think we all considered ourselves as part of the "Ivor Darreg Fan Club," even if no such formal organization existed.
Sadly, the latest round of news about Ivor was not what any of us wanted to hear. But we must remember that this was a man who contributed more in one lifetime than most people do in several. He has not only touched individuals such as myself, but left a legacy that will continue to inspire musicians for generations to come. Thank you, Ivor, and I'm sure that wherever you are you're showing your fellow travellers things about sound they had never considered before.
From Carol Merrill-Mirsky:
Ivor Darreg brought his special brand of intelligence and creativity to an exhibit at the Hollywood Bowl Museum in 1992-93 His Megalyra, Drone, and Hobnailed Newel Post were on display along with a recorded example of the Megalyra, a photograph of Ivor, and the following quote:
The ordinary musical tuning-system of 12 equally-spaced tones per octave has been exhausted by myriads of composers during the last few centuries. They have been repeating themselves and each other. Atonality, serialism, aleatory or chanc' music, and composing with noise have all been tried, only confirming the dead end.
The piano until recently has held the status quo in place Now one can build electronic instruments, refret guitars, and resort to computers so that it is possible to hear and compose for "impossible" instruments...
It is no longer necessary for me to risk sounding like 19th century composers. Of course, I still play my early compositions on pianos to show that I went as far as I could go with conventional instruments and tuning. I am not destroying the past, but adding to it.
Ivor participated in several events at the museum and reached a new audience here. I was fortunate enough to receive many letters an( newsletters from Ivor and I saved them, as I'm sure his other correspondants did. My favorite is the ticket on Universal Cosmic Transit Systems for one continuous trip around the Sun aboard the Planet Earth, with unlimited baggage and free moonlight.
Many thanks to Jonathan Glasier, who introduced me to Ivor and who made several trips from San Diego to Hollywood to bring Ivor and his instruments. Best wishes to those of you who are supporting Ivor's legacy. I join with all of you in honoring and rememberin( Ivor Darreg.
From Paul Burton:
Ivor Darreg was a musical revolutionary of the first order, a true freedom fighter. He combined the revolutionary urge to put forward a new vision, an alternate universe, with the anarchist's impulse to reject, even revile, the status quo and its oppressive institutions.
Ivor was also a map maker for the experimenters and explorers willing to attempt the journey into a vast and glorious unknown. He literally charted the way through fretting tables, comparisons of various tuning systems, articles on systems of notation and - most importantly for Ivor and thankfully for us - recordings and performances of the wild, strange and "new" sounds he heard. Raving these "new" sounds heard was primary to his mission - to liberate music from the constraints of 12 tone equal temperament and expand the composer/musician's palette with new, unimagined hues and to expose the listener to the various moods, harmonies and dissonances available.
Ivor also, like a Galileo or an Einstein, sought to open our minds to a larger view of the universe. He knew that when someone heard pure, just intonation or the contrasts and resolutions of 17 tone or 31 tone, their ears would be liberated and their minds would follow. Ivor's antipathy toward the conventions of modern, classical, or even "New Music" theory and the limitations of 12 tone equal temperament was the enlightened stance of the true anti-fascist. He resented the imposition of a narrow musical world view and the suppression of alternatives. He was eager to share his knowledge of the path to liberation and offered total encouragement to those willing to take on the often overwhelming task of exploring and developing the infinite landscape of xenharmonic space.
Like John Cage he delighted in the unexpected and extraordinary. But Ivor also knew specifically what effect , what mood he was going for when combining certain notes or extending chords into wide open space.
Ivor Darreg changed forever how I hear music, from the first visit to his cottage when my ears began to be retuned by an overripe avocado falling onto one of Ivor's 22 tone tubulongs. Ivor's knowledge was mind boggling, his enthusiasm contagious. Mter prolonged exposure to his music and his thought, my ears and mind were liberated. The fine tuning of my sense of pitch has benefitted me immensely in all areas of music. And although I often feel guilty that I am not playing microtonal guitars exclusively, or going all out in developing my limited microtonal vocabulary, I remember that Ivor was never judgemental and even appreciated the combinations of 19 tone and 12 tone guitar I played him. LIe was never a purist and was always open minded and supportive. Although the rigors of playing refretted guitars are still overwhelming, the mind expanding impact of Ivor's instruments sustain me on the journey.
Ivor would often say, "I'm 67 years old! I don't want this information to die with me!" Thanks to the efforts of Jonathan Glasier, Jon Catler, Johnny Reinhardt and others who were profoundly influenced by Ivor, his ideas and music lives on. I think Ivor finally did see wider acceptance and support and felt vindicated when his instruments were showcased at the Hollywood Bowl or featured in mainstream publications and museums.
The network of xenharmonic experimenters Ivor inspired will continue to expand our musical universe. For as Ivor often said, "Even the seven year itch had to start from scratch." But thanks to Ivor, we don't have to.
Ivor Darreg will be sorely missed by all of us who were fortunate to have known him.
From Rudolf Rasch:
The sad news about Ivor Darreg's decease reached me from various sides. I met him once, when in Los Angeles in 1983, and like all persons who knew him have the most pleasant and particular memories of his person and personality. I am glad to hear that his legacy will be maintained and that his work, in fact a highly original contribution to tuning and intonation in music, will not get lost.
From Thomas S. Reed:
IVOR DARREG
It was a great privilege to know Ivor. He was not only a great source information and musical lore, especially about microtonal music, but a sympathetic and kind hearted gentleman, always willing to supply whatever information he could--and he usually had large amounts of ite But he never sounded pompous or didactic. And his patience and courtesy were of course appreciated. I understand that many people came to him to learn about micrc tonal techniques, and to hear him discourse and perform on his instrumentse can see why. He not only had new and interesting things to say, but he was undoubtedly most gracious about it.
Unfortunately, I was never able to travel to California to meet Ivor. We conversed at length by phone several times, however. And I have quite a stack of letters from him. I admired his vast knowledge of many subjects, and his willingness to share what he could. I usually approached him, either by mail or phone, about one of my own musical notation projects, and he understood quite well whatever it was I needed and invariably had some help for me, or least listened intelligently and shared some viewpoints.
I particularly remember one question I had regarding the meaning of the musical term "l5ma." I knew the meaning was to play two octaves higher than written, but what did "ma" mean? I had searched in all my available reference works, and had not found it. He had the answer. It comes from the Italian, "quindecima," fifteen. The term "8va" comes from "ottava," and "22da" from "ventesima seconda." Of course, Ivor knew some Italian, along with a variety of other languages, including the only other language I know much about besides English, Esperanto. We used Esperanto occasionally in our letters. The fact that he recognized the international and egalitarian usefulness of Esperanto meant a great deal to me.
In my efforts to do what I could to adapt new forms of musical notation to microtonal music, Ivor was my chief source of guidance. He was not seriously involved with my efforts, but he was sympathetic, and attempted te answer any of my questions in detail, and give what direction he could. It was the best help I could have asked for. I'm afraid I was never able to repay the debt.
It was a privilege, however, to be able to publish a few of Ivor's articles in the two publications I was editor of, Musical Six-Six Newsletter, and Music Notation News. I hope a few of our readers were able to enjoy and appreciate Ivor's unique talents and gifts to music.
As far as I can tell, although I only talked with Ivor by phone and corresponded with him for some years, he never seemed very much at home in the everyday world of business and commerce, and money seemed a problem for him. It might have been better if he had pursued a lit. as a college teacher--he seemed to have talents as a teacher, and seemed supportive of students. But he perhaps needed the freedom to follow his own special interests, unburdene by bureaucratic duties in the university setting. He became a piano tuner, a calling which I followed, also. This was a bond we shared, too. As a piano technician, you have the ability to set your own schedule, run your own life He probably needed that degree of freedom.
Certainly, he was able to predict many things in the world of music that eventually came true. Sometimes decades in advance.
The university life would probably have been awkward for him. But some university could conceivably have made a place for him, with special teachingand special research tasks, and we all would have been the richer, including Ivor.
But that was not to be. Perhaps he knew he needed more independence. In any case, I'm sure he gave of his best.
Ivor had little reverence for the piano. He considered them obsolete, expensive, hard to transport, and seldom had a kind word for the instrument that he made his living at--a bit difficult to understand. But he did tune pianos until near the end, I am led to believe, and performed on them on occasion. Perhaps he just wanted to nudge us toward cheaper, more versatile electronic keyboard instuments, instruments you could retune in microtonal ways. Whether he was frustrated or not with the humdrum old-fashioned musical establishment, he never seemed to let it dampen his sense or humor. He usually managed to make an "Ivor" joke even when he was complaining the most.
We owe him much, for being himself and for sharing so much with us.
From Thomas Smith:
Mr. Ivor Darreg was an unusual man. He pursued studies of and research into various esoteric areas of music. He wrote numerous tracts on his findings in those areas.
I was fortunate to hear a short microtonal violin work he had composed. This piece was the most beautiful of its kind that I have heard.