Orthotonophonium
An orthotonophonium (based on the Greek words ορθός = correct, τόνος = tone and φωνή = sound ) is a harmonium with 72 pitches per octave, on which pure intervals and chords can be played in all diatonic keys .
functionality
When playing intervals and chords in equal tuning , acoustic beats inevitably occur . This "friction" can be avoided on an orthotonophonium, since the pitch of a certain tone in different keys can be chosen so that only pure intervals sound. As a result, there are not only twelve keys available within an octave as on a piano , but that the player has a choice of several keys for each semitone so that the corresponding tone can be tempered higher or lower . This means that enharmonic mix-ups do not occur when playing music , since a high-aged tone has a different pitch than the lower -aged tone that is one second higher (and vice versa).
With an orthotonophonium, modulations can be played with pure tuning .
historical development
The development of keyboard instruments with pure tuning goes back to the considerations of the Italian music theorists Gioseffo Zarlino and Nicola Vicentino in the 16th century. Zarlino strived to be able to reproduce the mid-tone tuning on a single instrument in all keys without having to retune the instrument. Zarlino therefore proposed an instrument with 19 keys per octave in order to be able to play in the nineteen-step tuning . The Archicembalo , which was equipped with two manuals and 36 keys per octave, was built according to Vicentino's specifications .
The American engineer Henry Ward Poole developed an enharmonic organ around 1850 on which the fingering did not have to be changed when the keys were changed. In 1863, Perronet Thompson built an organ with 65 keys per octave, which could be intoned in 21 different minor and major keys. The physicist Hermann von Helmholtz also experimented with a similar instrument at this time .
The orthotonophonium goes back to the Leipzig physicist Arthur von Oettingen , who took up the problem of reproducing pure intervals in the 1870s. He developed the idea for an Enharmonium in which the octave is divided into 72 or 53 pitches, and with which almost any chord with pure thirds, fourths and fifths can be played. The first instrument of this type was not developed and built until 1914.
literature
- Karl Traugott Goldbach: Arthur von Oettingen and his orthotonophonium in context , in: Yearbook of the State Institute for Music Research, Prussian Cultural Heritage / State Institute for Music Research Berlin, pp. 192–227, volume 2008/2009, Mainz (2009)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Henry Ward Poole: Key-board for Organs, United States Patent, Number 73,753, January 28, 1868
- ↑ Perronet Thompson: Principles and Practice of Just Intonation, illustrated on the Enharmonic Organ, 7th Edition, London (1863)
- ↑ Hermann von Helmholtz: Application of the Pure Intervals in Singing , Supplement XVIII, in: The Doctrine of Sound Sensations as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, F. Vieweg, Braunschweig (1863), accessed on September 9, 2014
- ↑ Klaus Gernhardt, Hubert Henkel, Winfried Schrammek: Organ instruments, harmoniums, catalog, volume 6, Museum of Musical Instruments at Karl Marx University, Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig (1983); Description of the orthotonophonium in the Museum for Musical Instruments at the University of Leipzig
- ^ Orthotonophonium (Musical Instrument Museum) in the German Digital Library , accessed on September 9, 2014