Archiphone
The archiphone by Neonvox
The archiphone is a historic analog electronic instrument from 1970. Since that year, four archiphones were built by Herman van der Horst of the firm Neonvox in Wilp, Gelderland, commissioned by Anton de Beer. Two of these archiphones are in the possession of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation.
The layout of the keyboard is essentially the same as that of the Fokker organ. The keys are closer together, allowing for faster playing. Transistor oscillators form the sound source and are mounted on removable circuit boards. There are approximately 40 different timbres, evenly distributed over the 8- and 4-foot “registers.” The unique aspect of the archiphone is its microtonal keyboard design. The instrument is played on an unusual five-octave keyboard (from c – c) with 333 keys (white like piano keys, black for sharps, blue for half-sharps, dark gray for flats, and gray for half-flats), based on Huygens’ microtonal 5th-tone scale (Christiaan Huygens, who in 1691 rejected well-tempered tuning and argued for the 31-tone system). The sound is generated using the organ-register method: combinable pipe organ, piano, woodwinds, flute, trumpet, strings, and a series of mixable filters, vibrato, and bass/treble settings, all controllable with manual sliders. The archiphone is housed in a lacquered wooden case that, together with a 50-watt amplifier and speaker boxes, makes it relatively easy to transport.
The instrument was inaugurated on November 1, 1970, at the Teylers Museum. Anton de Beer quickly wrote a demonstration piece with various “tricks” using higher harmonics and pure thirds and sevenths. A scene from Joel Mandelbaum’s opera The Dybbuk was also performed with the archiphone, accompanied by a vocal quartet and a violin duo.
Several compositions have been written for the archiphone since 1970, including works by Adriaan Fokker, Henk Badings, Anton de Beer, Joel Mandelbaum, and Bill Coates. An instructional method was produced by Anton de Beer: Guide for the use of the archiphone (1976).
The four archiphones are now located at:
1–2. Huygens-Fokker Foundation (Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Piet Heinkade 5, Amsterdam)
3. William Bromhead Coates (140 Station Street, Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia)
4. Webster College (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
Description of the manufacturer
The archiphone has a keyboard range of five octaves (from c – c) and can be divided into two octaves for the bass and three for the treble. Both bass and treble have ten registers. For the bass side, it is numbered A; for the treble, B. The registers include the following voices:
| Stops 1 and 2 | – woodwinds |
| Stops 3 and 4 | – flute – soft reed quality |
| Stops 5 and 6 | – trumpet tone |
| Stop 7 | – string tone |
| Stop 8, 9, 10 | – mixing filters |
Tone controls may be used separately or in combination with each other. Each of the two channels is fed into a separate amplifier and corresponding speaker. Panel C compises six controls:
| 1 | – tremolo depth |
| 2 | – tremolo speed |
| 3 and 4 | – preset keys to produce either piano (percussion) or organ-tone. This is an optional extra. |
| 5 and 6 | – separate volume controls for bass and treble octaves. |
Panel D.
| 1 | – pilot light |
| 2 | – on-off mains switch |
| 3 | – when in off position: the keyboard is divided in two bass and three treble octaves. |
| – when in on position: bass and treble octaves are coupled in which case Panel A controls the right-hand speaker, Panel B the left-hand one. |
The archiphone has two pedals. The left-hand pedal controls speaker volume. The right-hand panel is used whenever a sustain effect is to be achieved. Its function is comparable to the loud pedal on the piano. The keyboard is made up of 333 keys; key switches are of the reed contact type, which is basically a tiny switch inside a glass tube; the switch is activated by a ring magnet. The keys are made out of hard plactic material in five colours:
| white | – for the naturals |
| black | – for the sharps |
| light-grey | – for semi-flats |
| dark-grey | – for flats |
| blue | – for semi-sharps |
Plug-in printed circuit boards are used throughout. The unit is portable. Two 50-Watt amplifiers, frequency range 20 – 80,000 Hz. Two speaker boxes, each equipped with one Lowther speaker with a range of 25 – 22,000 Hz. Approximate overall measurements 116 × 40 × 15 cm. The instrument is housed in a cabinet which can be supplied in different kinds of wood finished with high-grade lacquers.
The concert archiphone of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (2017)