microtonal piano writing strategies

> 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?

The first "go" is by hand. I just notate it in complete 17 or 19--tet notation, where G# is different from Ab, and so on.

When I composed the 17tet thing . . .I just typed this one-super-piano version into Finale, and then copied it between 2 pianos. (I saved a copy of the original 1 piano version, so I could refer to it later if necessary). then I went in, and for each piano, "subtracted out" the notes that that given piano couldn't play. Then I went back and added in notes necessary to make rhythm and so on easier.

I should say that if you're the kind of person who writes "at the piano" this will be a bit problematic.

I often write stuff by imagining contours, using some logical thought (like "this will probably sound cool" and so on), some inner ear, and sometimes I sit at a 12-tone piano and sorta play a melody and think, "OK, it will be a screwey micro-y version of this . . . "

Once I have copied out and modified the 2 piano parts in Finale, I record each one separately from my sequencer, tuning the device to each different tuning. Then I play them togehter and decide about any changes. I then make the changes to the score, and begin this paragraph's actions again. Repeat until satisfied!

> 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

Yeah, once you go above 7, it seems that what you really have is "more notes to make 7-note scales from". In a sense, no one can really write for, say, 19 tones.