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The Gravikord is a 24 string electric double bridge-
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
invented by Robert Grawi in 1984, which is closely related to both the
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...
n kora and the
mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...
. It was designed to employ a separated double tonal array structure making it possible to easily play cross-rhythms in a
polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music ( cross-rhyt ...
ic musical style in a modern electro-acoustic instrument. The Gravi-kora is a similar instrument, also developed by Grawi, which is tuned identically to a traditional 21 string kora.


Description

The Gravikord is based on the West African kora. It is made of welded stainless steel tubing, with 24 nylon strings but no resonating gourd or skin. The
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...
is made from a machined synthetic material with an integral piezo-electric sensor. There are two handles located in elevation near the middle of the bridge. The bridge is curved to follow the arc of a strum from the hands which hold the shortened raised handles directly in the palms. A metal crossbar at the top of the bridge functions as a mechanical tone control and bridge stabilizer. The instrument connects to an amplifier like an electric guitar. The playing technique is similar to that of the kora: the player plucks the strings with the thumb and index finger of each hand. Because each hand can play "with" or "against" each other, simple techniques can produce music of great rhythmic complexity. However, the
tuning Tuning can refer to: Common uses * Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component * Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice ** Guitar tunings ** Piano tuning, adjusti ...
of the Gravikord is not the same as a kora, and playing techniques are not directly compatible.


African roots

Because of the deep cultural significance of cross-rhythms to sub-Saharan African music, several instruments from there have been designed to more easily generate cross-rhythms. Instruments such as the kora, donso ngoni, and
mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...
organize the notes in a uniquely divided alternate array, rather than the linear
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
to treble structure common to many western instruments. On these instruments, both hands can play freely across the entire tonal range of the instrument, rather than one hand being primarily in the bass and the other in the treble. Also, the fingers of each hand can play independent rhythmic patterns, which can easily cross over from treble to bass and back, either smoothly or with varying amounts of
syncopation In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...
. This can all be done within the same tight tonal range, without the left and right hand fingers ever physically encountering each other. These simple rhythms will produce complex cross-rhythms including repeating on beat/ off beat pattern shifts that would be very difficult to create by any other means. This characteristically African structure allows simple playing techniques to combine, producing polyrhythmic music of great beauty and complexity.


History

Grawi originally desired an instrument on which he could play polyrhythms more easily than on the
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
, and he refined the Gravikord's design over several years to meet this goal. The first prototype, made in 1974, was acoustic, and had a
bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...
and
fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...
basket resonator with an animal skin head and a large bamboo neck. These first Gravikords already differed from the kora by having the tuning mechanisms removed from the neck and placed at the base, and an extensively re-designed bridge which also incorporated a kalimba that could be played simultaneously with the strings. Their tuning also differed, as they had 25 strings that were tuned symmetrically using a variation of the
Hugh Tracey Hugh Travers Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. From the 1920s through the 1970s, Tracey made over 35,000 recordings of African folk music. He popularized the ...
kalimba tuning system. Grawi made several unique prototypes during this period using
wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...
,
aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
, and other materials, with features including
stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
output and variable pitch,''Experimental Musical Instruments'', April 1988, Volume III, Number 6, pp. 4-7. and finally patented the Gravikord in 1984. In the finished Gravikord, the body is made entirely of
welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...
stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's r ...
tubing. There is no
resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...
; the tones of the twenty-four strings are amplified by a piezo-electric pickup in the bridge, and the instrument is made for natural and comfortable playing in a sitting or standing position.''Gravikords Whirlies & Pyrophones'', Bart Hopkin, CD/Book, Ellipsis Arts, 1996, pp. 82-83 (see
''AllMusic'' review
.


Tuning

The Gravikord is tuned to a
diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...
. Its standard scale is in the key of G major/E minor. It has 24 strings, 12 on each side, and is structured like an extended Hugh Tracey kalimba, an already westernized African instrument. The range of notes on both sides are the same and tuning is strictly in an alternate arrangement (except for the lowest bass note), so that the playing is equivalent between the left and right hands. This is reflected in the way the holes are drilled in the neck and the choice of string lengths and weights. A constant finger picking pattern will produce a constant musical pattern throughout the instrument's range. Throughout the playing range the notes of a scale rise strictly alternately and symmetrically, making all the intervals of adjacent strings on each side of the bridge in thirds. Directly opposite strings are consecutive notes in a scale. Octaves switch sides and are always in a constant spacing. Like the kora, the player tunes the instrument to the desired scale before playing.
Gravikord general diatonic tuning:
Left: Sol1, Fa2, La2, Do3, Mi3, Sol3, Ti3, Re4, Fa4, La4, Do5, Mi5.
Right: Do2, Mi2, Sol2, Ti2, Re3, Fa3, La3, Do4, Mi4, Sol4, Ti4, Re5.
Tuning in G major/E minor:
Left Hand: D, C, E, G, B, D, F#, A, C, E, G, B.
Right: G, B, D, F#, A, (middle)C, E, G, B, D, F#, A.


The Gravi-kora

Although the Gravikord is closely related to the kora, the musical knowledge of
griots A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...
and traditional kora players does not directly transfer to Gravikord playing. The notes are not where they expect them to be and the bridge and hand playing positions are also different. Grawi developed the Gravi-kora for these musicians. The Gravi-kora is set up tonally just like traditional koras. It has 21 strings, 11 on the left hand side, and 10 on the right. The instrument is held by hooking the little fingers around the handles, which are positioned below the straight sided bridge. The hand placement enables easy string muting while playing with the hand pads. However, the range of notes is not the same on both sides of the bridge. The left side is shifted more to the bass register starting with a cluster of the four lowest notes together. The right side is skewed more to the treble, ending with a cluster of the three highest notes. This is reflected in the way the holes for the strings are drilled in the neck, and the length and weight of strings used, which results in an asymmetric layout of tones where most of the strings directly opposite each other in the middle section of the bridge are tuned in octaves. This is a popular kora tuning.
Gravi-kora general diatonic tuning:
Left: Fa1, Do2, Re2, Mi2, Sol2, Ti2, Re3, Fa3, La3, Do4, Mi4.
Right: Fa2, La2, Do3, Mi3, Sol3, Ti3, Re4, Fa4, Sol4, La4.
Tuning in F major/D minor:
Left Hand: F, C, D, E, G, Bb, D, F, A, C, E.
Right: F, A, (middle)C, E , G, Bb, D, F, G, A.


Playing

Although both instruments are normally tuned to a
diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...
, on slower pieces, accidentals can be created by sharping individual notes. This is accomplished by pushing and tensioning the section of the string behind the bridge with one finger while playing the string normally. This is similar to a technique used in Japanese
koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...
playing. For faster chromatic pieces a
pitch shifter Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are called pitch shifters. Pitch and ti ...
can be used to make the instrument fully chromatic. This can be set to momentarily jump shift the entire instrument's tuning one-half step up or down, or it can be set on continuous pitch shift change which enables playing the instrument in
dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson (guitar company), Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. ...
,
slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...
, or
pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...
styles. Since the Gravikord and the Gravi-kora produce no conflicting acoustic sound, they can be played with guitar effects such as
delay Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can * '' The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film People * B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and ac ...
,
distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...
,
reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...
units, or
wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...
s.


Musical notation

Gravikord Music for the Gravikord can be written in the grand staff, and people who cannot read music can play standard music scores. Because of its double structure and symmetric tuning system, all the notes on one side of the bridge correspond to the lines of the musical staff and all the notes on the other side correspond to the spaces. So, whatever key the music is written in, determine where the
root note In music theory, the concept of root is the idea that a chord can be represented and named by one of its notes. It is linked to harmonic thinking—the idea that vertical aggregates of notes can form a single unit, a chord. It is in this sens ...
is, and let this be the position of the instrument’s root note. If it is on a line, the other strings on that side of the bridge will correspond to the other staff lines, and all the notes on the opposite side of the bridge will correspond to the spaces. If the written musical root lies in a space then the opposite is true. The player can then read the music as if it were written in a
tablature Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
designed for the Gravikord. Gravi-kora Music for Gravi-kora can also be written in the grand staff, but Gravi-kora scores can also be written on a single G clef, following the Keur Moussa system. This system was created for the kora by Brother Dominique Catta of the Keur Moussa Monastery in Senegal. The seven low notes that should be written on the F clef are replaced by Arabic or Roman numerals and written on the G clef. More than 200 scores already written for kora solo or kora and Western instruments can therefore be played on the Gravi-kora.


Reception

In 1988, '' Guitar Player Magazine'' published an article on the Gravikord, saying that "even though the Gravikord has a
high-tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
, modern-sculpture look, it actually has its roots in the African kora, a double strung harp... polyrhythmic music, plus the sound of the
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
ese
koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...
, African kalimba (thumb piano) and the African kora... rawibegan experimenting with bamboo double-strung harps that would allow him to perform separate
melodies A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinati ...
or accompaniments with each hand. Influences range from jazz,
Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ...
, to
Balinese gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
and
American folk music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
." This article also included a technical description of the instrument as well as a patent drawing of the Gravikord.''Guitar Player'', February 1988, pg 12. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
included the Gravikord in the show "Enduring Rhythms" (New York City, October 3, 1996 – August 3, 1997). In an article about this exhibition in ''The New York Times'', Rita Reif wrote "The show stoppers include a Gravikord, an electronically amplified stringed instrument that sounds like an earthy harp. In their shapes and sounds, Mr. Moore (
curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
of the show) said, these instruments also represent a kind of continuity in 'the layered rhythms, the mixed
timbres In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...
, and all that movement which is so African.'"''The New York Times'', Sunday December 15, 1996, Pg h45. In March 2018, the Gravikord became a permanent exhibit in the Museum's Andre Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments.''Gravikord at Metropolitan Museum of Art''
/ref> In 2000,
Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...
listed ''Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones'', a collection of recordings of experimental musical instruments, in a list of the finest 500 albums of all time.''Vanity Fair'', November 2000, pg 176.


Performers

Gravikord Robert Grawi has recorded several CDs, as a solo player and with the Gravikord Duo and the Gravikord Ensemble. The Gravikord Duo consists of Grawi on Gravikord and percussion, and Pip Klein on flute; the Gravikord Ensemble adds David Dachinger on bassoon. Peter Pringle of Canada has recorded an improvisation for Gravikord & theremin, and Ziko Hart of Australia has recorded original solo music on the Gravikord. Gravi-kora Foday Musa Suso featured an early version of the Gravi-kora in recordings with
Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he hel ...
, and on his own CD ''New World Power''. Daniel Berkman of San Francisco and Jacques Burtin have also produced original recordings.


Discography

* 1988 – ''Making Waves'' – Bob Grawi (Take That Music) * 1990 – ''New World Power'' – Foday Musa Suso (Island Records) * 1991 – ''Rising Tide'' – Bob Grawi (Take That Music) * 1996 – ''Cherries & Stars'' – Bob Grawi (Take That Music) * 1998 – ''Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones'' – Bob Grawi and Multiple Artists (Ellipsis Arts) * 2005 – ''Calabashmoon'' – Daniel Berkman (Magnatune) * 2008 – ''Le Chant de la Foret'' – Jacques Burtin (Bayard Musique) * 2009 – ''Heartstrings'' – Daniel Berkman (Magnatune) * 2015 – ''Headlands'' – Daniel Berkman * 2015 – ''From The Heart'' – Ziko Hart (Mad CDs) * 2017 – ''Getting a Good One'' – Bob Grawi (Take That Music)


Articles

The Gravikord has an entry in the ''Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments''. Other articles describing or referencing the Gravikord have appeared in the following publications: ''Curio Magazine'', ''Daily News'', ''Dirty Linen'', ''Experimental Musical Instruments'', ''Folk Harp Journal'', ''Gravikords Whirlies & Pyrophones'', ''Guitar Player Magazine'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, ''New Sounds'', ''Science News'', ''Smithsonian Magazine'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'',''The Washington Post'', Sunday, February 16, 1986. and ''Vanity Fair'', among others.


See also

* Electric harp * Kora *
Mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...
*
Music of Africa Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and othe ...
*
Polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music ( cross-rhyt ...


References


External links


Gravikord web siteMetropolitan Museum of Art Gravikord page
* {{Authority control 1986 musical instruments Amplified instruments Experimental musical instruments Harps String instruments