The Diamond Marimba consists of six
parts: a lower base, four poles, and an upper platform. The Honduras
rosewood bars are mounted on a terraced platform that consists of
fourteen rows of bars. Beginning with the second row, each succeeding
row rises a half inch above the previous row, so that the difference
in height between the first and the last row equals 13 × 1/2 in.
= 6 1/2 in. Underneath the platform, Cris mounted quarter-wavelength
resonators to amplify the frequencies of the bars. The resonators
are made from cast acrylic tubes, and the stand poles, from cast
acrylic rods.
The marimba's central section consists of a diamond-shaped lattice
that includes seven ascending and seven descending diagonal rows
of bars. Each row includes seven bars. Rows that ascend from left
to right sound major tonalities, and rows that descend from left
to right sound minor tonalities. This musical design was inspired
by Max F. Meyer (1873-1967), who first described the concept of
a two-dimensional tonality diamond in his book The Musician's
Arithmetic, published in 1929.
Built: 1978, San Francisco, California
Rebuilt: 1989, San Francisco, California
Dimensions:
Total number of bars: 54.
Longest bar length: 16 ¾ in.
Shortest bar length: 7.0 in.
Height to first row: 34.0 in.
Height to last row: 40 ½ in.
Materials:
Honduras rosewood, birch, teak, acrylic, aluminum, brass, and steel.
Range:
Lowest bar: G below middle C.
Highest bar: Third E above high C. |
