Tubulong: Difference between revisions

The '''tubulong''' is a tuned set of metal tubes. It has been used by [[Lou Harrison]], [[Erv Wilson]], [[Ivor Darreg]], and [[Bart Hopkin]], among many others.

The chime of metal tubes goes back at least to 1889 with the Deagan pipelaphone, later marketed as the tubaphone.<ref name=deagan1889musical/><ref name=deaganresource/> The instrument later became popular for playing music in alternative tunings, since it is relatively easy to build and tune and holds its tune very well.  

Erv Wilson originally coined the term tubulon by phonetic analogy with gamelan; later this became tubulong.<ref name=hopkin1994tubulonia/> Tubalong and tubaphone are also used, as well as various particular names for individual instruments (see recordings below).

The [https://intervalarchive.com/microtonal-history/ Interval Archive] contains some photos of tubulongs.

Lou Harrison's 1970 puppet opera ''Young Caesar'' uses two tubulongs called "soprano bells" and "tenor bells".<ref name=alves2017microfest/> The internet archive has a [https://archive.org/details/AM_1974_12_25/AM_1974_12_25_A_ed.wav recording of the 1971 premiere], followed by a radio interview with Harrison and Bill Colvig.

David Rosenthal's 1977 composition ''Improvisations'' appears on the 1979 record [https://youtu.be/ruIdlyei1OU&t=1582 ''Professor Johnson's Astounding Sound Show'']. From the liner notes:

"Improvisations" was composed in 1977, shortly after I built the just-intoned tubulong, the 88 key 3½ octave instrument on which the piece is played. The tones of the tubulong are tuned to notes of harmonic series and their inversions. Each of eight rows of eleven metal alloy tubes sounds a series through and including the 15th harmonic (each is thus a transposition of an identical chord). The complete inversion of every transposition is also available on the instrument. This amounts to an enlargement of the late Harry Partch's "tonality diamond" tuning system, and the tubulong much resembles certain of his creations. Partch's original design is altered mainly by revoicing and rearrangement of tones. These changes and the tubulong's ample range increase its self-sufficiency for my purposes.

The just tuning system used here includes many intervals not practicable in our standard contemporary musical alphabet of twelve equally spaced tones to the octave. In it, there are much finer increments of pitch, and there is much potential for expressiveness by virtue of the greater power and variety of both consonance and dissonance. The limitation of this tuning by most western standards lies in its inability to achieve intricate transposition of certain musical materials, but this is not necessarily an impediment to what the ear hears as a real modulation. "Improvisations" treats the tuning as a giant mode, portions of which make up distant keys, which differ in intervallic

construction, but modulate one into another, and develop the same ideas. The title of the piece may be misleading, in that it does not refer to how the piece is played, but to how it was written, and to how it should sound. "Improvisations" is completely notated, but its rhapsodic pacing and the very interpretive playing it calls for justify its name.

It is important to mention that no technical or theoretical understanding of any tuning is prerequisite to the enjoyment of this or any other music. There are no necessary obstacles to the appreciation of intonational subtlety. The listener's central involvement is not with the explanation of musical artistry, but with its effort.

—DR

Lou Harrison's score for James Broughton's 1988 short film [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rUzv3Ki-SM ''Scattered Remains''] uses a tubulong as well as a retuned harpsichord.<ref name=alves2017microfest/>  

Dean Drummond's zoomoozophone consists of 129 aluminum tubes in a 31-tone just tuning.<ref name=drummondprimer/> It is featured on the 1990 Newband album [https://moderecords.bandcamp.com/album/microtonal-works-mode18 Microtonal Works].

Gayle Young's Columbine is 61 steel tubes tuned to a 23-tone just tuning.<ref name=youngcolumbine/> A video of Young's 2021 composition Nine by Nine performed on Columbine is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW1iqfeDiVI available on YouTube].

The Union Duo, Anthony Di Sanza and Todd Hammes, have a series of videos called [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxRttDjzAoeo-ui2iwHQdgDcWoQpOcej- Music with Tubes] featuring a replica of Lou Harrison's Tenor Bells.

If the tubes have a seam running down the inside, they produce two slightly different notes depending on where they are struck.<ref name=hopkin1994tubulonia/> Compare the two-tone phenomenon in Bronze Age Chinese bells.<ref name=rossing1989acoustics/>