THE MEGALYRA INSTRUMENT CONCEPT

Ivor Darreg, September 1980

1. A straight-line pattern in simple colors and black and white, in a sort of grid. In this case, the fret-lines crossing the strings at right angles, and it so happens that the color-coding for the Just arid 12-tone scales painted on the Megalyra family of instruments' boards as fret-lines, produces a typical Mondrian pattern.

2. The Totem-Pole Image--accidentally discovered when I had repeatedly to stand the instruments erect while working on them. (Original idea of course was to have the instruments horizontal to be played in the manner of steel guitars which they are, only bigger.) If Mondrian had made totem-poles, they would have looked like this.

3. The Ultramodern-Art Appeals That is to say, something which is an abstract sculpture as well as a musical instrument. The visual and acoustic aspects indeed are about equal. As of 1980, these instruments have been exhibited in art galleries as well as being played in public. They have been accepted as members of the class of Sound Sculptures, a new art movement.

4. The fret-lines are a Comparison Chart. In those instruments so far built, they compare Just Intonation with the 12-tone equal Temperament. Conceivably, other systems could be compared this way. Thus we have a merger of industrial design (color-coding) , visual art, mathematics, music, and the educational angle: teaching people the proportions and ratios of intervals as well as the difference between the tuning-systems shown and represented in the diagram.

5. The Organ Builder's Method of Additive Synthesis: a compound tone is produce~ by combining different pitch-levels--in this case, the first four members of the harmonic series of ratios 1:2:3:4, or expressed in musical terms, the fundamental, octave, twelfth, and fifteenth--e.g. Contra C, Great C, Great G, and Tenor C, or 33, 66, 99, and 132 Hz, combining to produce the lowest note on the Megalyra.

6. Chorus Effect--on the organ, many ranks of pipes for each pitch; on the piano, three strings to a note over much of the instrument; on some harpeichords, several strings to a note. In the Megalyra family, from 3 to 8 string6 to a note. The compound tones mentioned above will have 12 to 16 strings at the various pitch-levels.

7. The de-trivializing of the steel guitar idea. The Megalyra has depth and dignity and is equal to any serious music. The Hawaiian or steel guitar.was almost killed off in the 1940s by its very restricted tuning and the trivial music played on it. The other instruments of the Megalyra family provide a great variety of new chords and tunings, thus putting the steel guitar idea on an equal footing with any other instruments.

8. Balancing the tension by putting strings on BOTH sides of a board, or all FOUR sides of a wooden beam or this can be done on metal-frame instruments also. In effect, two or four instruments in one, saving floor space and weight and making them portable.

9. Brilliance by having one set of pickups very close to the bridge. Only recently has this become at all common with electric guitars, fretted or steel.

10. Long strings. There is no substitute for adequate string length.

11. For the Megalyra contrabass, big enough speqker boxes. Even the best amplifier will be no use if the loudspeakers are not capable of adquate reproduction of low frequencies, and if the enclosure is too small.

12 The resultant bass on certain organs--32-foot effect from 16-foot-pitch pipes. This can be done on a suitable Megalyra.

MEGALYRA AND RELATED INSTRUMENTS BY IVOR DARREG