Ivor Darreg
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2008-06-22T18:30:09Z
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'''Ivor Darreg''' ([[May 5]] [[1917]] - 1994) was a leading proponent of and [[composer]] of [[microtonal music|microtonal]] or "[[xenharmonic]]" music. He also created a serie of [[experimental musical instrument]]s.
Darreg, a contemporary of [[Harry Partch]] and a close colleague of [[John Chalmers]] and [[Erv Wilson]], was one of America's leading theorists and practicioners of experimental intonation and experimental instrument building. Frequently he published his writings in his own Xenharmonic Bulletin.<ref>[http://www.frogpeak.org/fpartists/fpchalmers.html Frog Peak Artist: John Chalmers<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Darreg was born Kenneth Vincent Gerard O'Hara in [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]], [[Oregon]]. His father John was editor of a weekly Catholic newspaper and his mother was an artist. He dropped out of school as a teenager, but he has self-taught facilty in at least ten languages and had a basic understanding of all the sciences. His real love was music and electronics. Because of his choice of music, his father cast him out, and he and his mother set out on their own with little help from anyone. At that point he took on the name "Ivor," which means "man with bow" (from his cello-playing talents) and "Drareg" (the retrograde of "Gerard"), which he soon changed to "Darreg".
In the forties, Ivor built an [[Amplified Cello]], [[Amplified Clavichord]], and [[Electric Organ]], the Electric Keyboard Oboe and the Electric Keyboard Drum. The Amplified Clavichord and Electric Organ no longer exist, but the Electric Keyboard Oboe - like the organ, baed on blocking oscillator circuits and capable of microtonality -, the Electric Keyboard Drum, which uses buzzer-like relays, and the Amplified Cello are still working.
Darreg lived for much of his adult life in or near [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], then spent his final 9 years in [[San Diego]]. He coined the term "[[xenharmonic]]", designed and built many original microtonal [[musical instruments]], and wrote voluminous amounts of material about various [[musical tuning]]s. Perhaps his most important contribution to [[music theory]] was his idea that different tunings exhibit different "moods".
Darreg's informal network of microtonal musicians writing letters to each other later morphed into the more formal ''[[Xenharmonic Alliance]]'', one of the inspirations for the formation of the internet ''tuning list'', first based at [[Mills College]] and now hosted by [[Yahoo!|Yahoo]].
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
== External links ==
* http://www.sonic-arts.org/darreg/index.htm
* http://www.afn.org/~sejic/ivor.html
* http://www.furious.com/perfect/xenharmonics.html
* http://www.frogpeak.org/fpartists/fpdarreg.html
* [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/ Yahoo tuning group]
[[Category:1917 births|Darreg, Ivor]]
[[Category:1994 deaths|Darreg, Ivor]]
[[Category:20th century classical composers|Darreg, Ivor]]
[[Category:American composers|Darreg, Ivor]]
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[[nl:Ivor Darreg]]