MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND TUNINGS

Above are some of the most common Anaphorian instruments; Lake Aloe (vibraphone-like instrument), Mt. Meru (bass bars), and Fifth Mesa (marimba)

This is only one of the many versions of Mt. Meru found in Anaphoria in both tuning and layout. This particular instrument encompasses 9 tones from the same Eikosany as Lake Aloe. Built and reconstructed with David Mota.mp3. sample 2MB

Fifth Mesa, a marimba-like instrument made out of Padouk, spans 3 1/3 octaves, extending an octave lower than Lake Aloe. Built and reconstructed with David Mota.

This instrument known as the Crib of Brass was destroyed while in Los Angeles during the Northridge Earthquake. Its tuning of 36 tones to the octave contained a full Combination Product Set using 1-3-5-7-9-11 (more below under tuning)

OTHER ANAPHORIAN INSTRUMENTS

Besides these instruments, there are a host of retuned Western instruments retuned after they were abandonded during the great misionary expulsion. Almost all of these have been incorporated into the Shadow Theatre where they are tuned into a scale known as Meta-Slendro (more can be found on this scale in the Wilson Archives under The Scales of Mt.Meru. Due totheir appearances being decievingly unaltered, we have not included them at this time.

Anaphorian legend states that music was given to mankind by the Earth goddess Danae and Sky god Kukuk. It was in the famous cave of Celudore where they would meet in embrace. In gratitude to their hosts, they left behind a stone carving over the opening of the cave. This tablet, the Tablet of Celudore (shown above), is one of the most ancient artifacts in Anaphoria. Archeologist have placed the dates of this tablet between 8,500 to 3,700 years old with a preference for earlier estimates. Composed of unknown cryptic symbols, it took the Indian mathematician Deep Kama to realize it as a representation of a figure known in her country as Mt. Meru (known also as Pascal Triangle, seen below, in the west). Kama conceded that being older than its counterpart in India opens up the possibility of the two sharing a common origin.

As manifestations of sacred impulses, Anaphorian scales exhibit very specific constructs inspired by organic as well as geometric analogies. Numbers in Anaphoria are seen as "divine objects" found in the creative imagination that function as the intermediary between the spiritual and the material. In this inner "temple" these two worlds are seen to coexist and only in this temple do new scales come about. Observation has caused Anaphorians to believe that whereas a plant still preserves it first limbs and branches throughout its growth, scales preserve their more ancient forms yet develop into predictable but unexpected constructs. With the realization of scales into concrete instruments, this inner temple becomes an outer temple that encompasses whole groups of people in a shared experience.

In the 1980's, individuals in Anaphoria first became aware of various scales of the American/Mexican theorist Erv Wilson. For the next few years there existed a great controversy over the coincidence that his scales and systems appeared to solve many of the dilemmas confronting Anaphorian theory that had developed into heated debate The outcome of this controversy was the rejection of his scales by "official" academic circles only to find the masses of practicing musicians and ensembles widely adopting his scales. On the other hand many of these people were disappointed that Wilson did not (at least publicly) share there own spiritual conceptions. He did in fact exhibit respect for their inclinations.