The Maria

a 29-EDO piano harp

The Maria was born in 2010, when Paleo Nath
called a local piano shop, placing a standing
request for an antique piano that was beyond
repair. The piano's keys and mechanical parts
were removed, leaving a soundboard and a
wooden shell. Then, he sawed the front half off
the pianos wooden body, leaving the strings
exposed so it could be plucked like a harp.
Finally, the 289 strings were retuned to a unique
scale (29 EDO), which cannot be described by
traditional Western music theory. This tuning
system is partially responsible for the Maria's
ethereal, water-like sound.
The Maria can be played in a variety of ways. The instrument can be played upright or on its back. The strings
can be plucked one-by-one with long fingernails or with banjo picks attached to each finger, and the thumb. This
method allows the intuitive exploration of new harmonic structures and subtle melodies.
The small dents on the wooden body of the instrument are a result of playing percussively with drumsticks and
large mallets. Guitar picks of various thicknesses can be used to create enormous, haunting glissandos. By
striking the strings with small mallets, a water-like effect is achieved, because while an individual string can be
targeted as the primary note, nearby strings are also struck in the process. Most people who meet the Maria
choose one of these methods, which allow for the improvised creation of beautiful event based music, even for the
untrained musician.
When people see the Mara in person, they are always curious, and I encourage them to play it. I am always
astounded at what I hear. Untrained musicians can produce deeply emotional music on the Maria, coming up
with sounds Ive never heard it make before. It speaks to the fact that we all have something powerful to
say musically.
After beginning to experiment with microtonality, and finding myself lost in the sea of intonation systems
available at my fingertips, I decided to begin with a psychoacoustic analysis of the 12-tone equal temperament
system to which our ears have become accustomed.
The western ear is more discerning of fifths than of thirds. We are used to hearing a fifth that is 2 cents narrow,
and we are typically content with major and minor thirds that are 16 cents and 14 cents off, respectively. From
this, I realized why the consonant thirds and dissonant fifths of equal divisions of the octave such as 19 and 31
created harmonies that sound "floating," and do not resolve with the same finality as 12-EDO. The familiar
phenomena of Western harmony are driven by the engine of the consonant perfect fifth.
I searched for an equal temperament that had fifths that were closer to the harmonic ratio 3/2 than the narrow
tempered fifths of 12 tone temperament, with the aid of Microsoft Excel. The first, smallest equal temperament I
found that fit the bill was 29 tone.