Ebook: Journal of experimental musical instruments

journal of experimental musical instruments volume 1 issue 1:

VOLUME 1 #1, JUNE 1985

“What This Is About: Our Purpose and Our Plans” by Bart Hopkin. 1/2 page; no photos.
A brief statement of the goals and purview of Experimental Musical Instruments by its the author and publisher. [Additional keywords: EMI, newsletter, sound sources]

“Lyra” by Bart Hopkin. 1 page; 1 drawing
French designer and builder Pierre-Jean Croset¹s eighteen-string instrument is made of clear plastic and played entirely in harmonics. Conventional strings lack sufficiently exact tolerances for Croset’s just tuning because of irregularities in diameter and mass. [Additional Keywords: open strings, nodes, just intonation, resonant materials, guitar pickups, intervals, just intonation]

“Steel Cello and Bow Chimes” by Bart Hopkin. 2 pages; 2 drawings.
Designed by and built by Berlin-born Painter and sculptor Robert Rutman, the Single-String Steel Cello uses a suspended and flexible steel sheet that projects pitches ranging from low pitches to high, sounding harmonics and fundamental equally. The curved steel resonator of the Bow Chimes imparts an ethereal to the attached steel rods. [Additional Keywords: thunder, bowed metal, Tibetan chants, U.S. Steel Cello Ensemble]

“Tools and Techniques” by Bart Hopkin. 4+ pages; 5 drawings.
Tuning Devices: gives a rundown of the different types of tuning aids available, how they are used, what they cost, and where to purchase them. [Additional Keywords: pitch pipes, tuning forks, electronic audio tuners, strobe tuners, cycles per second, frequency, tonometers, overtones, beating.]

“Organizations & Periodicals”. 2 pages
A Reference Guide to 17 useful associations, foundations, journals, festivals, and societies relating to new instruments, their performance, history, and research.

“Books”. 1 page; 2 drawings.
Tony Pizzo of Vermont writes about his forthcoming book of instrument designs tentatively titled The Maker-Played Instrument. (Note: This book was later cancelled by the publisher and never published.) The designs are primarily adaptations of South American, African, and Asian string and percussion instruments.
British organologist Hugh Davies of London reports that the three volumes of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments includes over 300 entries on 20th century instruments, mostly written by himself. [Additional Keywords: materials, koras, gopichands, stick zithers, bulbul tarangs.]

“Voice Modifiers”:. 1/2 page.
A call for information on instruments that alter or enhance human vocal sounds, such as mirlitons, kazoos, zobos, face-masks, or Eskimo children¹s games using the oral cavities.]

“A New Instrument at the Exploratorium–The Pentaphone”: by Bart Hopkin. 1/2 page.
A brief description of Jonathan Glasier’s new instrument using five sets of tuned bars, made of paduk, bamboo, magnesium, aluminum, and travertine marble. Similar to Harry Partch’s instruments for its geometric beauty, it is tuned to a pentatonic scale, uses a symbolic system of shapes and colors to express pitch relationships, and is housed in a Pagoda-like structure in San Francisco’s Exploratorium science center. [Additional Keywords: marimbas, exhibits, museums]