Cithares Aurore

Today at Musicora (Paris' spring music exhibition) I bought two beautiful
zithers, which are perfectly usable for microtonal music. One is diatonic
(two octaves, 15 steels strings of three different thickness, lowest note is
central C) and one is chromatic (two octaves also, 25 strings, lowest note
G like the violins 4th string). The design is extremely simple, just strings
mounted over two curved bridges on a more or less round box, the form of
which is determinate by three exponentional curves. Strings are about 1 cm
apart an can be tuned with tuning pegs fixed in the wood, just like the
harpsichord.
The simplicity, especially of the diatonic zither, makes the instrument
extremely favourable for music teaching: initiating young children to melody
and harmony. Of course, as a teacher, I will sneak in some microtonality!
This zither, called Cithare Aurore in French, has been invented, if you may
say so, by Martial MURRAY in 1995. He received an award for it by the French
Ministry of Education. Even if most of time the zither will be used by
children or old people, both of them learning music for the first time in
their life, the construction is absolutely professional and the sound is as
pure as you can imagine, even if you play very loud. (It's much louder than
an harpsichord, but not as loud as a concert harp.) Martial assured me that
the highest string can be tuned up at least two whole tones above its
normal pitch, so all kinds of microtonal tunings are possible. I hope to use
the chromatic zither very soon in one of Maurice Ohana's ensemble pieces. He
prescribes a 18tET zither in several of his compositions.

The price is unbelievable: 750 FF (about 110$) for the diatonic and 980 FF
for the chromatic one. They weigh slightly over 2 kilos and can be send
straight from Martial's workshop all over the world. He's got a web-site in
French with some pictures of the instrument:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cithares.martial.murray/AURORE.HTM

I go on tuning, Wim