Small Pianos & Big Strings
San Diego new music collective Figmentum presents a spring performance featuring the Harmonic Canon II, a unique instrument first created by the iconoclastic composer Harry Partch. Comprised of 44 strings with moveable bridges laid over a large wooden soundboard, the Harmonic Canon II resembles an overgrown koto. Or a gigantic dulcimer. Or a really large guitar. Played by fingers, picks, or mallets, this unique voice utilizes its many strings to inhabit the microtones - the small, in-between pitches of our typical major or minor scale - exploring an expanded spectrum of tonality. The Harmonic Canon II will make its debut as part of an unlikely assemblage of three toy pianos, single crotale, clarinet, and flute with the Figmentum new music collective at the 10th Avenue Arts Center in Downtown San Diego on May 12th, 7:00pm.