Erv Wilson

Ervin "Erv" McDonald Wilson (11 June 1928, Colonia Pacheco, Mexico — 8 December 2016, Camarillo, California, USA) was an influential Mexican-American music theorist and inventor of microtonal scales and tunings. He originated from a small Mexican village in the mountains of Chihuahua, born and raised in the family of Mormon "mule-and-wagon" pioneers from Utah. Ervin began playing the reed organ at six, learning notation from his mother and soon encountering the limitations of conventional music intervals. In 1943, Wilsons moved back to the United States. While serving in the US Air Force, Erv discovered musical harmonics and harmonic series from a fellow airman in Japan. In 1948, a University Of Tokyo professor, Hisao Tanabe, also told twenty-year-old Ervin about pentatonic scales in ancient Japanese court music. After returning from his overseas military service, Wilson briefly studied music theory at Brigham Young University. He dropped out in his sophomore year, though — frustrated with BYU professors who refused to comprehend his concept of "missing" keys in the conventional 12-TET scale — and relocated to California to work as an independent scholar. Wilson systematically explored all equal octave divisions above the conventional 12-tones, creating original scales of 17, 19, 22, 31 and 41 tones. He invented unique sequences based on complex mathematical theories: recurrence relations, Pascal's triangle, generalized Fibonacci series, binomial coefficients, the Co-Prime grid and other diamonds, Farey Series and Stern-Brocott trees. Erv once described himself as "natural approximationist of (circa 1927) Novaro School," referring to one of his major influences, Mexican composer and music theorist Augusto Novaro Adame Gómez (1891—1960). Wilson also mentioned Russian-American organist and musicologist Joseph Yasser (1893—1981), who inspired him to think of musical scales as "living" manifestations similar to a crystal or plant. The incomplete list of prominent composers, musicians, instrument builders and academic researchers who collaborated with Erv Wilson, or referred to him as a significant influence, includes: ♬ Harry Partch — Erv suggested Quadrangularis Reversum's design and assisted Partch with building the instrument. He also provided diagrams for the 1949 book, "Genesis of a Music." ♬ Stephen James Taylor — Los Angeles-based composer and visual artist who made The Sonic Sky documentary about Wilson. ♬ Marcus W. Hobbs — American microtonal electronic musician, composer and 3d graphics designer who created the "Wilsonic" iPad app in 2014, an interactive collection of Wilson's tunings. ♬ Todd Manley, a percussionist who composed and performed several pieces on Erv's HelixSong instrument (made of two-inch aluminum tubing). He was also a roommate of Wilson and composer Danny Elfman in West Hollywood. ♬ Lydia Ayers — Hong Kong-based freelance composer and flutist wrote "Ombres de la Lune" for Wilson's HelixSong instrument in 1977. ♬ David Rosenthal (3) worked with Erv on several Partch-influenced instruments tuned to 41 to the 13-limit diamond. ♬ Adriaan D. Fokker — Dutch music theorist who discussed the possibilities of 31-equal in correspondence with Wilson. ♬ Paul Rapoport — Canadian musicologist. USA ♬ Jose Garcia — American composer who co-founded LA microtonal post-punk band Cipher (8) in 1977, performing in Wilson's seven-limit 22-tone scale. ♬ Emil Richards with his Microtonal Blues Band ♬ Chuck Jonkey — eclectic composer, musician, and filmmaker ♬ Gary David — multi-instrumentalist, arranger and vocalist ♬ Daniel Wolf — composer. Australia ♬ Terumi Narushima — composer and sound designer specializing in microtonal tunings, senior lecturer at the University Of Wollongong. In 2017, she published a book Microtonality and the Tuning Systems of Erv Wilson. ♬ Kraig Grady — US-Australian composer & sound artist ♬ Warren Burt — composer, performer, video artist, and instrument maker ♬ Greg Schiemer — electronic music composer and instrument builder.