Personal events

Outside events

1928

b. Jun 11, Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua, Mexico

1929

Teoria de la Música: Sistema Natural y Natural-Aproximado (fifth ed.) by Augusto Novaro is published

1932

A Theory of Evolving Tonality by Joseph Yasser is published

1933

Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce is published by Harvard University Press

1934

Introduced to the reed organ at home

1934-1941

Discovers the organ is “missing keys”—tones that he’s been accustomed to hearing growing up, from local indigenous and Mexican musics; and the sound of nature

1939

The Greek Aulos by Kathleen Schlesinger is published

1941

Moves to Rainier, Oregon

1942-1945

Begins checking out books from the University of Oregon on Indian raga music

Begins permuting pitches in 12, to arrive at scales not in books

Realizes the third derived from the chain of 5ths sounds unusual

1946

Joins US Air Force (after missing opportunity to join Navy) and is stationed in Japan

1947

Introduced to musical harmonics and harmonic series by a fellow airman. On learning this, "everything started clicking". Erv considers this his first breakthrough

1948

Introduced to Japanese pentatonic scales by Hisao Tanabe.

Hears an 8/7 for the first time, on a 78 rpm record of Japanese court music. The experience was "emotionally shattering"

1949

Genesis of a Music by Harry Partch is published

Tillman Schafer builds 19-tone instrument at Mills College

1950

Discharged from Air Force and under the GI Bill attends BYU to study music

1951

Reads A Theory of Evolving Tonality and realizes sub-divisions other than 12 are possible. Erv considers this his second breakthrough

Reads Genesis of a Music

Independently discovers logarithms, and begins using base 2 early. Prefers this measuring system over cents

1952-1962

Systematically explores equal divisions, to understand their efficiency in approximating JI intervals

1952

Leaves BYU, unable to learn about the "missing keys" and unable to interest the music faculty in his ideas

Moves to Los Angeles, intending to study with Halsey Stevens at USC, but can’t afford it

1953

Works at McDonald-Douglas in Santa Monica

Meets John Rechey, who knows Harry Partch and provides his address

Begins corresponding with Harry Partch

1962-1965

Plays 41-tone guitar in coffeehouses with John McAllister with the group Hybrid Mutants

1962

Meets John Chalmers, by way of Ivor Darreg and Tillman Schafer

1963

Begins corresponding with John Chalmers on Diaphonic Cycles and subsequent bi-cyclic scales

A Generalization of the Connection Between the Fibonacci Sequence and Pascal's Triangle by Joseph A. Raab is published

1964

Involved in an automobile accident and suffers amnesia

Meets Harry Partch in person in Van Nuys. Harry has to show Erv their correspondence to remind Erv that they knew each other previously

Harry Partch moves to Van Nuys from Petaluma

1965

Develops the counterpart to Harry Partch’s Diamond, the Eikosany

Develops with Harry Partch and builds the 43-tone Quadrangularis Reversum at UCLA

1966

Effort is made to build the Eikosany keyboard in collaboration with Robert Moog, but is unsuccessful

1967

Publishes 3-, 5-, and 7- limit 22-tone constant structure scales

Builds a 22-tone, 7-limit marimba

1968

The Sound of Feeling by Gary David is released using the Eikosany on various tracks

Recurrent Sequences and Pascal's Triangle by Thomas M. Green is published in Mathematics Magazine, vol 41, no 1

1969

Develops the Hexany and other Combination Product Set structures. Erv says the idea was inspired by the weightlessness of the moon missions

Delusion of the Fury by Harry Partch is performed at UCLA and recorded on Columbia Records

1970

Corresponds with Adriaan Fokker on Combination Product Sets

1973

Discovers the applicability of the Stern-Brocot tree to scale systems, in an "attempt to understand the implications and ramifications of Yasser's notions of organic evolution". Calls his tree the "Scale Tree"

1974

Genesis of a Music, second edition is published, with illustrations by Erv

Xenharmonikôn I is published

1975

Corresponds with John Chalmers on Moments of Symmetry

Hackleman-Wilson clavichord is designed

Kraig Grady begins studying with Erv

1977

Ombres de la Lune is composed by Lydia Ayers using a bi-cyclic Diaphonic scale, the HelixSong

1980

Cipher EP is released. Subsequently, several guitars tuned to Erv’s 1967 22-tone, 7-limit scale are used in performance

1982

The film Embryo Without Tears is presented by Kraig Grady playing live instruments tuned to the Centaur (a 7-limit constant structure scale) and the Eikosany

1983

Divisions of the Tetrachord by John Chalmers is published

1993

Discovers the Mt Meru family of scales, based on sequences derived by recurrently summing numbers of the possible diagonals of the Pascal Triangle. Idea is introduced in Thomas M. Green’s paper

1997

Wilson Microzone keyboard is released

1998

From On High by Marcus Hobbs is released using various Wilson scale models

2000

Develops the Gral Keyboard approach to mapping a Moment of Symmetry onto the generalized keyboard grid

2001

Come Alive by Stephen Taylor is recorded using "continuous MOS", as suggested by Erv

2002

Tempered Dekanies by Greg Schiemer is recorded

2006

Last print issue of Xenharmonikôn (vol 18) is published

2012

Wilsonic is released

2013

Surfing the Sonic Sky video about Erv’s work is released

2016

d. Dec 8 (88 years), Camarillo, CA

2017

Xenharmonikôn  online is inaugurated

2018

Microtonality and the Tuning Systems of Erv Wilson by Terumi Narushima is published

2020

Lumatone generalized keyboard is released, with some default keyboard mappings of Erv’s design

2021

Infinitone is released