Kalimba
The kalimba, a modern version of the African mbira, is an instrument that is small, cheap and easy to retune, and hence another good candidate as a gateway to microtonal music. Retuning is apparently common practice among the traditional mbira masters in Africa - see e.g. this article by Joseph Monzo on the MakeMicroMusic yahoo forum.
Kalimbas used in microtonal music
Several members of the Yahoo tuning forums have used kalimbas for microtonal music:
- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/78060 (Kalimba tuned to harmonic series, George D. Secor)
- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/78106 (Kalimba tuned to Mavila pentatonic, Petr Pařízek)
There are YouTube videos of microtonal kalimba music:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnAHx-7Ef4 (Jacob Barton playing kalimba at the UnTwelve event on the 31.07.2008)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJd5DLtbtgk (Aaron Krister Johnson of UnTwelve playing his composition "Queen of Hearts")
Sevish has produced several tracks with microtonal kalimba:
Other microtonal kalimba/mbira references:
- http://bp.b0b.com/2016/01/tuning-a-kalimba-to-bp/ (Tuning a kalimba to the Bohlen-Pierce scale)
- A kalimba in Bohlen-Pierce tuning is also used in Just Her – Jester – Gesture and Burning Petrol, compositions by Georg Hajdu.
- Kalimba with pitch bends
Array mbira
The array mbira is a xenharmonic instrument designed and built by Bill Wesley. Wesley's description:
The 1 - 29 harmonics are tuned into the 15 five octave courses on the players right, and the 1 - 29 subharmonics are tuned into the 15 octave courses on the players left.
C1 is the harmonic "1" and D#6 the subharmonic "1". The 12 octave courses in the center, 6 harmonic and 6 subharmonic, form a rough chromatic series of 12 notes or "pitch classes" with this capacity being unique to choosing the minor third difference between the harmonic 1 and subharmonic 1. The exact ratio used for the minor third difference between the harmonic 1 and subharmonic 1 pitch classes is 13/11.
Pitch shifting effects pedals are controlled by a stereo-out foot-actuated expression pedal for added pitch shift effects which pedals also provide unique tones for the tines.
Wesley produced the following diagrams of the instrument's layout:
The left half of the instrument.
The right half of the instrument.
Reference material on Mbira
- Paul F. Berliner, The Soul of Mbira, University of Chicago Press, 1993.
- L. E. McNeil, S. Mitran, Vibrational Frequencies and Tunings of the African Mbira, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008.