2 piano microtonal writing strategy

Since someone mentioned it, here's my strategy for composing for 2 pianos which "share" notes.

I basically write a piece for one, 17- or 19-tet piano. Then, I distribute the notes between the 2 pianos, taking advantage of the overlaps to make rhythms easier. Sometimes you need to add notes to make rhythms easier, or just to make a given piano's part cooler-sounding or more fun to play.

So you don't need to think of it as writing for 2 pianos.

Writing for the Ives 24-tone situation (i.e. no overlap) would be much more of a challenge, I must say.

Thanks Christopher,

That makes sense. Maybe I should map my midi keyboard to 19 tones per octave and work from there. Right now I'm using a 12-chain of 19 and for that one piano would be enough. But using only one piano kinda misses the point of the concert. By the way, do you notate by hand when composing or do you use software?

/ Magnus

On Tue, 3 Apr 2007, Christopher Bailey wrote:

> I basically write a piece for one, 17- or 19-tet piano. Then, I
> distribute the notes between the 2 pianos, taking advantage of the
> overlaps to make rhythms easier. Sometimes you need to add notes to make
> rhythms easier, or just to make a given piano's part cooler-sounding or
> more fun to play.
>
> So you don't need to think of it as writing for 2 pianos.

I wrote one piece for two vibraphones tuned to meta slendro but one carried the series higher and had no tones in common.
I was notated conventionally since i had retuned existing vibes.
It really was a mind bender. It was like a couple with irreconcilable differences
In the end i am quite happy with just this tuning taking up to 12. Which made me better understand why even though the Indonesians have Pelog that would form a nice series at 9, they tune only 7.
More is not always better.
Something is lost sometimes like in poetry
Christopher Bailey wrote:
>
>
> Since someone mentioned it, here's my strategy for composing for 2 pianos
> which "share" notes.
>
> I basically write a piece for one, 17- or 19-tet piano. Then, I
> distribute the notes between the 2 pianos, taking advantage of the
> overlaps to make rhythms easier. Sometimes you need to add notes to make
> rhythms easier, or just to make a given piano's part cooler-sounding or
> more fun to play.
>
> So you don't need to think of it as writing for 2 pianos.
>
> Writing for the Ives 24-tone situation (i.e. no overlap) would be much
> more of a challenge, I must say.
>
> -- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/index.html>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main/index.asp> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Magnus Jonsson <magnus@...>
wrote:

> By the way, do you notate by hand when composing
> or do you use software?

I still want to know what's considered to be an acceptable
score. In particular, can you simply email a pair of Sibelius
files?

>> By the way, do you notate by hand when composing
>> or do you use software?
>
>I still want to know what's considered to be an acceptable
>score. In particular, can you simply email a pair of Sibelius
>files?

Dude, Aaron just said PDFs.

-Carl

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Magnus Jonsson <magnus@...> wrote:
>
> That makes sense. Maybe I should map my midi keyboard to 19 tones
> per octave and work from there. Right now I'm using a 12-chain of 19
> and for that one piano would be enough. But using only one piano
> kinda misses the point of the concert.

Here is what I do:
I use a keyboard that can be operated in a "split mode", i.e. the
upper and the lower half of the keyboard send to different midi
channels. Then I use a synth where each midi channel can be retuned
separately, tuned to one of the 12-subsets of 19. And, last, the sound
assigned to the lower half of the keyboard must be a few octaves
higher than the soumnd assigned to the upper half, so I can play all
19 tones in the same octave range.

This way, composing can be done on the instrument, and the results can
be tested under conditions that are reasonably close to the concert
situation.
--
Hans Straub