Re: Piano (Dave Hill)

>To get music being heard which really brings out the
>full capabilities and beauty of the piano, we need to
>make it possible one way or another to get more notes
>per octave from it

Right on!

>two or more complementarily tuned pianos

Nah.

>accurately shift the pitch sounded by individual strings (as in pedal
>used for harps?).

Orchestral harps do have these pedals, and it seems that they would make
fantastic microtonal instruments! But this method would probably not work
on the piano, because of the tension involved. At best, the machinery
needed to accurately control that type of tension would be at least as
space-consuming as more strings.

If we want a mechanical linkage, we seem to be confined to a single plane,
and the maximum seems to be around 33 notes per octave (on a small
fortepiano), which should be enough to pacify most of us.

If we allow an electric action to stimulate the strings, we can have boxes
of them placed around the room, so there's really no limit. Sort of a pipe
organ (the ultimate microtonal instrument) for string lovers.

Carl