Keyboard

This is interesting: http://gaussian.trota-mundos.com/blog/?p=492

"Since 1970 four archiphones have been built by Herman van der Horst
of the firm Neonvox in Wilp, Gelderland at the instigation of Anton de
Beer. The keyboard layout is essentially the same as on the
Fokker-organ. The keys are closer to one another, making more rapid
playing possible. Transistor oscillators are the tone source. It has
some 40 different timbres, equally divided between the 8- and 4-foot
"stops".

The instrument was introduced on 1 november 1970 at Teyler's Museum.
Anton de Beer had quickly written a demonstration piece with all kinds
of puns with higher harmonics and natural thirds and sevenths. One
scene of Joel Mandelbaum's opera The Dybbuk was also performed with
the archiphone accompanied by a vocal quartet and violin duo.

The archiphones are now (1987) at the following locations:
1-2. Haarlem (Huygens-Fokker Foundation);
3. Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia (William Coates);
4. St. Louis, Missouri, USA (Webster College).
Several compositions have been written for the archiphone since 1970,
for example by Adriaan Fokker, Henk Badings, Anton de Beer, and Joel
Mandelbaum. An instruction method was written by Anton de Beer: Guide
for the use of the archiphone (1976). "

Another pickup from my daily RSS feed from Technorati on the word
"microtonal". Put this in your feed reader to get your own:
http://www.technorati.com/watchlists/rss.html?wid=136245

Prent Rodgers