The Gravikord is a 24 string electric double bridge-

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has 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 orchestras or ...

invented by Robert Grawi in 1984, which is closely related to both the

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

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 Tine (structural), tines, played by holding the instrument ...

. 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-rh ...

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 (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

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 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

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 Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

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 (music), off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of ...

. 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 stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, 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 mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

and

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

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 structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

, and other materials, with features including

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to 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 configurat ...

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

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

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 reso ...

; 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 a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) 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 eith ...

. 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 Tone Layout

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: or (in N'Ko: , or in French spelling); also spelt Djali; or / ; ) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. Griots are masters of communicating stories and history orally, w ...

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 bridge layout

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.

The Chief Adjuah's Bow

This is a new model of the Gravikord which Bob Grawi designed in collaboration with jazz musician Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah aka Christian Scott. It is a 20 stringed instrument with a taller variation of the Gravi-kora's bridge resulting in wider inter-string spacing, with redesigned raised handles shorter than on the Gravi-kora, more like the Gravikord, allowing mid-string hand positioning, and holding the instrument in a natural manner. In addition it has a third small handle welded across the lower neck as a hand rest for playing one rank of strings with both hands. Since the taller bridge is less stable it also incorporates a back stay from the top of the bridge to the tuner block.

Playing

Although both instruments are normally tuned to a

, 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 playing. For faster chromatic pieces a pitch shifter 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 owned by 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. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

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 that ...

, or

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

styles. Since the Gravikord and the Gravi-kora produce no conflicting acoustic sound, they can be played with guitar effects such as delay,

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 signal ...

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

units, or

wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of effects pedal designed for electric guitar that alters the timbre of the input signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The peda ...

Musical notation

Gravikord Music for the Gravikord can be written in the

grand staff In Western musical notation, the staff"staff" in the Collins English Di ...

, 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 the music theory of harmony, the root is a specific note that names and typifies a given chord. Chords are often spoken about in terms of their root, their quality, and their extensions. When a chord is named without reference to quality, it ...

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 tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...

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 or 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 ...

, 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 is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese koto, 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 (), 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 combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

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 (; ; , ; ) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones (played with mal ...

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 A patent application or patent may contain drawings, also called patent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of its embodiments (which are particular implementations or methods of carrying out the invention), or the prior art. The drawing ...

of the Gravikord.''Guitar Player'', February 1988, pg 12. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

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 , 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 particular ins ...

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 of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instruments ...

, 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 (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

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. In 2024 a new album featuring the Gravikord on many cuts, was released - "New Modern Strings" – by Blake Leyh (Xenotone) 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 musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

, 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) * 2023 - ''Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning'' – Chief Xian a Tunde Adjuah (Ropeadope) * 2024 -
New Modern Strings
' – Blake Leyh
Xenotone

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.

References

External links

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