pianistic attitudes [was]: [tuning] how to compose. post one of two

jpehrson@rcn.com schrieb:

> However, keyboardists are starting to *rule* for xenharmonics!
> Finally *we* have the advantage with the instantaneous adjustments!
>
> It's the keyboard revenge, at long last, after many years
> of "confinement!" :)
>

Contrariwise.

It's hopefully the end of keyboard bound composers exerting
_their_ rule over other, inherently more flexible musicians.

End the tyranny of the "one proper instrument"!

Accept comma shifts as signs of modulations in monophonic
music!!

Down with equal step sizes within a tetrachord!!!

Slide where keyboarders want a glissando!!!!

Two more serious questions on related topics that people here
might know about, although they never came up since I have been
reading along:

Are the layouts of "generalized keyboards" any different in
principle from the knobs on a bayan or bandoneon? (My guess is
No, so why hasn't anybody propagated microtonality in a
community of players who are (to a certain degree) already
technically equipped to deal with it fluently?)

Not too many years ago, Kurzweil announced a rather longish
touch sensitive MIDI controller (maybe called "Continuum") that
I never saw in the shops. Has anybody gotten to play around with
it? Does anybody use it? (Again, the idea has been implemented
before on some prohibitively expensive instruments by Buchla and
the guys who make or are associated with the Lime notation
program, and way before MIDI on the trautonium. Why do piano
players rule?)

anything but discrete,
klaus

--- In tuning@y..., jacky_ligon@y... wrote:

/tuning/topicId_unknown.html#28721

>
> Express yourself - grab that pitch wheel and whammy your way to
> paradise!
>
> Jacky Ligon
>

Well, Jacky, the only problem is, on some of these full scale MIDI
*piano* keyboards, there is no pitch bend wheel! It's regrettable...

_______ ________ ______
Joseph Pehrson

--- In tuning@y..., jpehrson@r... wrote:
> --- In tuning@y..., jacky_ligon@y... wrote:
>
> /tuning/topicId_unknown.html#28721
>
> >
> > Express yourself - grab that pitch wheel and whammy your way to
> > paradise!
> >
> > Jacky Ligon
> >
>
> Well, Jacky, the only problem is, on some of these full scale MIDI
> *piano* keyboards, there is no pitch bend wheel! It's
regrettable...
>
> _______ ________ ______
> Joseph Pehrson

You know what would be cool? Add on steel guitar type knee levers and
pedals for bends and retuning. And I'm just the guy to suggest it and
do nothing about it!

John Starrett

jacky_ligon@yahoo.com schrieb:

> The sadness for me is that many (electronic) keyboardists neglect to
> use one of the most important and expressive features of the
> instrument:
>
> *The Pitch Wheel*.
>
["... the spinning wheel, baby!" (Lord Buckley)]

Well, I think it's the education fostering reverence for an old
instrument that was most prevalent in the olden days before
Edison cylinders and all that came after. It's a valid approach,
and it keeps a lot of great literature alive. But electronic
keyboards aren't pianos and needn't be keyboards, and composing
is or can be different from piano playing.

I did one gig in my live with a cheapo synthesizer. I played it
between my knees and had both hands free for the pitchwheel and
the joystick. Nobody ever commented on the looks ;o) , however,
I got compliments galore for my synth playing, among others from
other owners of that same synth. Of course, I had my own patches
for this technique, and what I was pushing up and down was just
some 12tET cluster: cheapo synth.

klaus

It seems nobody ever touched that Continuum thingy?