Ivor Darreg

About Ivor Darreg

Ivor Darreg (1917–1994) was an American microtonal musician, composer, instrument builder, electronics experimenter, and writer associated with the development of experimental and xenharmonic music on the U.S. West Coast.

Darreg was known for designing and building experimental microtonal instruments, composing and recording music using alternative tuning systems, writing about xenharmonics and electronic music, and participating in the West Coast microtonal music community.

Brief Bio by Jonathan Glasier

Ivor Darreg was born and raised to age eighteen by his parents in Portland, Oregon. Ivor’s father was editor of a Catholic weekly in the Northwest, and there was plenty of opportunity for intellectual pursuits. At the age of seven, Ivor started playing the piano. His interest was fanned by his artistic mother (an oil painter), but his father never understood how important Ivor’s music was to him. From age eight, Ivor helped with the proofing of the weekly and was already reading a wide range of material by the age of ten.

It was at this time that Ivor began to develop his interest in foreign languages. Ivor’s father was on the textbook commission, and Dr. Schmidt, a friend of his father who was a professor of languages, taught Ivor German. Because of his father’s interest in French history, Ivor was exposed to the French language, and at age twelve, his mother was learning sculpture from a Russian, and Ivor learned the fundamentals of the Russian language. At fourteen, Ivor met the people who ran the Esperanto club of Portland, and at twenty-three he learned Spanish. Throughout the years, Ivor has done translations for a number of people, and his language prowess has often helped the editors of Interval.

But it was music that was to be the focus of this brilliant young man, and being of scientific bent, he was interested in the hows and whys of the nature of same. At age fourteen, Ivor began playing the cello, and his first trials at composition had already been tried by that time. As his interest and dedication to music grew, the rift between Ivor and his father grew, so that by the time Ivor was seventeen, he and his mother made a split from his father and there was very little contact thereafter. Ivor and his mother moved to San Francisco to rooming houses and hotels, and by this time Ivor had changed his name from Girard to Darreg (sort of a retrograde). Both Ivor’s father and his uncle, who was a bishop in Great Falls, Montana, had visions of Ivor being a priest and carrying on in the family religious tradition, but Ivor’s heart was elsewhere.

Ivor’s interest in the new field of electronics was growing at this time. It began when, at age eleven, Ivor heard the theremin played on the radio. At age fourteen he met a man with a ham radio licence and began learning about the fundamentals of electronics. This interest was fueled by magazines, acquaintances, and meetings with the Portland Ham Radio Club. Practicing with oscillators and listening to ring modulator effects spurred an interest that culminated in the building of the Electric Keyboard Oboe.