Ervin Wilson is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

/American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (dual citizen) music theorist

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

. Despite his avoidance of academia, Wilson has been influential on those interested in microtonal music

Microtonal music

Microtonal music is music using microtones—intervals of less than an equally spaced semitone. Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave.-Terminology:...

 and just intonation

Just intonation

In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...

, especially in the areas of scale, keyboard, and notation design. Among his developments are Moments of Symmetry

Generated collection

In diatonic set theory, a generated collection is a collection or scale formed by repeatedly adding a constant interval in integer notation, the generator, also known as an interval cycle, around the chromatic circle until a complete collection or scale is formed...

, Combination Product Sets, Golden Horograms, scales based on recurrence relation

Recurrence relation

In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation that recursively defines a sequence, once one or more initial terms are given: each further term of the sequence is defined as a function of the preceding terms....

s (scales of "Mt. Meru"), and mapping scales to the generalized keyboard

Generalized keyboard

Generalized keyboards are musical keyboards with regular, tile-like arrangements usually with rectangular or hexagonal keys, and were developed for performing music in different tunings...

. He cites Augusto Novaro and Joseph Yasser as influences.

Wilson also breeds corn, and is sometimes credited as the first to suggest the use of blue corn

Blue corn

Blue corn is a variety of maize grown in northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, particularly in the states of Arizona and New Mexico....

 in tortilla chip

Tortilla chip

A tortilla chip is a snack food made from corn tortillas, which are cut into wedges and then fried . Corn tortillas are made of corn, vegetable oil, salt and water. Although first mass-produced in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, tortilla chips are considered to be a Mexican food, known as tostados...

s.

Musicians influenced by Wilson

• Warren Burt
  Warren Burt
  Warren Burt is an Australia-based composer of American birth. He is known for composing in a wide variety of new music styles, ranging from acoustic music, electroacoustic music, sound art installations, and text-based music...
  
  
• Kraig Grady
  Kraig Grady
  Kraig Grady is a US-Australian composer/sound artist. He has composed and performed with an ensemble of microtonal instruments of his own design and also worked as a shadow puppeteer, tuning theorist, filmmaker, world music radio DJ and concert promoter...
  
  
• Terumi Narushima
• Harry Partch
  Harry Partch
  Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
  
   
• Rod Poole
• Glen Prior
• Emil Richards
  Emil Richards
  Emil Richards, born Emilio Joseph Radocchia on September 2, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a percussionist who plays a variety of different percussion instruments.-Biography:...
  
  
• Marcus Satellite
• Greg Schiemer
• Stephen James Taylor
  Stephen James Taylor
  Stephen James Taylor is a Los Angeles based composer best known for his film and TV scores with 4 Emmy nominations , 2 Annie nominations and a DVD-X Award on "Best Original Score to date...
  
  
• Daniel James Wolf
  Daniel James Wolf
  Daniel James Wolf is an American composer.- Studies :Wolf studied composition with Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, and La Monte Young, as well as musical tunings with Erv Wilson and Douglas Leedy and ethnomusicology . Important contacts with Lou Harrison, John Cage, Walter Zimmermann...
  
  

External links

• The Wilson Archives at Anaphoria.com
• One Person's Introduction to the Work of Erv Wilson
• Xenharmonikon - Informal Journal of Experimental Music
• Golden Horogram's introduction and explanation by David J. Finnamore
• The Sonic Sky - site (with video) about the the musical realm of Erv Wilson, and the vast universe of his musical structures