Re: TD 647 correction: standard 61 keyboard is _five_ octaves!

> From: "M. Schulter" <MSCHULTER@VALUE.NET>
>
> Hello, there, and I'd agree that a 61-note keyboard (four octaves in a
> conventional mapping with 12-note octaves of one sort or another) is a
> widely recommended minimum standard. As a TX802 user specializing in
> medieval and Renaissance music, I may be "the exception that proves the
> rule," as I'll shortly discuss.

While correcting errors in one's own posts on a public forum is often a
luxury whose omission can save bandwidth as well as a bit of
embarrassment, in this case I feel it important my slip of the keyboard
stating that a standard 61-note keyboard (MIDI or otherwise) has _four_
octaves, when of course it has _five_.

My concern here is that an unwary reader could conceivably take my slip as
accurate information, and conclude that the widely accepted minimum
standard for a keyboard of at least 61 notes means a model with four
octaves, when of course the standard means "at least five."

Very likely my slip was in a way Freudian: I must have been focusing on my
own unusual configuration with two four-octave keyboards (49 notes each,
not 61) -- quite ample, if you regard the music of Monteverdi or
Frescobaldi from the era around 1600 as "ultra-modern." By the time of
Bach, a 61-note keyboard was becoming more common -- which means five
octaves, as opposed to my Renaissance standard of four.

More generally, for a usual layout with 12-note octaves, the formula for
the number of keys on a keyboard with n octaves would be

12n + 1

This is true because on modern keyboards with we typically have all 12
keys for a chromatic scale (however tuned or tempered, electronically or
otherwise) in each octave, plus an extra note at the top doubling the
lowest note of the instrument at some octave.

Thus a four-octave keyboard would have four octaves of 12 notes each,
e.g. C2-B2, C3-B3, C4-B4, C5-B5 (in this MIDI notation C4 is middle C),
plus the high note C6 (four octaves above the lowest note C2). In a more
traditional notation, we have the octaves C-B, c-b, c'-b', and c''-b'',
plus the high note c'''. Thus we have (12 x 4) + 1 or 49 notes in all.

Likewise one possible range for a 61-note keyboard, the usual minimum
recommendation for MIDI, would be C2-C7 or C-c'''', with five octaves of
12 notes each (C2-B2, C3-B3, C4-B4, C5-B5, and C6-B6) plus a high note C7.
Here we have (12 x 5) + 1 or 61 notes in all.

Thus the minimum recommended keyboard (medievalists like myself aside, for
whom a "full four octaves" may elicit a certain "Wow!") has 61 keys and
five octaves. Incidentally, I recall reading this recommendation on
minimum keyboard range in a book on MIDI published in the late 1980's or
so; five octaves or more has apparently been an accepted guideline for
quite a while.

Most respectfully,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net

On Wed, 24 May 2000, M. Schulter wrote:

> own unusual configuration with two four-octave keyboards (49 notes each,
> not 61) -- quite ample, if you regard the music of Monteverdi or
> Frescobaldi from the era around 1600 as "ultra-modern." By the time of
> Bach, a 61-note keyboard was becoming more common -- which means five
> octaves, as opposed to my Renaissance standard of four.

Yes, the 61 note keyboard was becoming more common, but it wasn't the same
61 notes they give in a modern synth. It was more like the f or g in the
third octave below middle c to the f or g in the third octave above --
GG-g''' would be my harpschord's range. Much more useful than CC-c''''
like the syths give you.

And for clavichords. which really were the in-house keyboard in Germany,
fretted four octaves C-c''', with maybe a couple of extra notes up top
were standard till after 1750 or so.

Judy