ABOUT THE RECORDINGS
Track 1: This is the Prelude Number One for 19 tone guitar — but here, Ivor plays it in the 31-tone equal system on his refretted guitar. Ivor used the term "transfer" to describe playing a composition in a different tuning than it was originally composed in.
Track 2: Prelude No. 1 for 31 tone guitar. Unlike the previous chromatic melodic piece, this composition centers around the subtly changing triadic harmonies made possible in 31 equal tones per octave.
Track 3: This 31-equal electric guitar piece is an early recorded improvisation with a highly microtonal theme.
Track 4: 19 equal refretted guitar, with Ivor riffing on the theme of Purple Bedroom Blues (1975).
Track 5: Ivor briefly describes the Elastic Tuning Organ and its unique musical properties.
Track 6: On the Enharmonic Tetrachord (1963) for 22-tone organ. Ivor uses the Greek enharmonic genus with its characteristic quartertone to get around the 22-tone equal tuning's lack of a diatonic scale. A whole tone uses 4 steps in 22 equal, so 5 whole tones C D F G A take 20 of the steps in 22 equal, leaving only single scale-steps for the remaining 2 notes. This pattern w w 1/4 w w w' is entirely non-diatonic and sounds inherently non-Western.
Track 7: 17 tone equal composition for the Elastic Tuning Organ. The 17 tone equal tuning has vividly powerful sounding melodic major thirds, but harmonically, the major third in 17 sounds grating because of its intensely rough beats. Here, Ivor avoids the major triad in favor of the neutral and minor triads, which sound far more euphonious in the 17-tone equal system than the major triad.
Track 8: On the Augmented Seventh (1965) for 22-equal organ. Ivor here explores a peculiar harmonic progression possible only in 22.
Track 9: 19 tone equal elastic tuning organ piece (1963) based around the very different-sounding diminished triad in 19, which sounds much smoother than its 12-tone equal counterpart.
Track 10: This piece is the Automation March for Ivor's electric keyboard drum. In 1948, the phone company replaced its commutator-interruptor relay circuits with rotary dial encoders. Ivor salvaged some of the commutator-interrupters and made a pitched percussion instrument out of them. Each relay sounds its own distinctive pitch.
Track 11: This is the Duel for Celli in 19, contrasting a pizzicato line in the bass with an audibly microtonal melody on top.
Track 12: First demo recording of Ivor's new megalyra instrument in 1975. A 6-foot-long wooden beam strung with amplified resonant piano strings in octaves, the megalyra produces a truly awesome deep bass.
Track 13: Another essay in the 19 equal system using Ivor's Elastic Tuning Organ. This one dates from 1965.
Track 14: Ivor tunes his Elastic Tuning Organ to a just intonation tuning with two septimal intervals (ratios of 7, i.e., 7/4, 8/7), based loosely on A. J. Ellis' Harmonical.
Track 15: This JI piece extends the previous small-integer-ratio tuning to include the 7/6 and 12/7 in place of the normal E-flat of the conventional minor mode.
---Notes by McLaren