19 note Halberstadt keyboards?

I've gotten some people over at midi-contest.com interested in meantone,
and I was wondering if anyone sold something which could be used as an
easy route into extended meantone, such as a 19-note Halberstat
keyboard with seven splut black keys, etc.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <gwsmith@s...> wrote:
>
> I've gotten some people over at midi-contest.com interested in
meantone,
> and I was wondering if anyone sold something which could be used as an
> easy route into extended meantone, such as a 19-note Halberstat
> keyboard with seven splut black keys, etc.

Gene, what makes you think that a 19-note Halberstat keyboard with
split keys would be easy? It certainly wouldn't be easy to play, once
you started using the remote keys in the circle of 19 fifths.

Perhaps it would be an easy route *into* meantone, but it would be a
much more difficult route after about the first hour or so. Much
better to go generalized, which *gets easier* after the first hour or
so.

--George

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <gwsmith@s...> wrote:

> I've gotten some people over at midi-contest.com interested in
meantone,
> and I was wondering if anyone sold something which could be used as an
> easy route into extended meantone, such as a 19-note Halberstat
> keyboard with seven splut black keys, etc.

Another question along the same lines is whether there is a plugin
which will make Sibelius or Finale output pitch bends in some meantone
system from a score in standard notation.

Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> I've gotten some people over at midi-contest.com interested in meantone,
> and I was wondering if anyone sold something which could be used as an
> easy route into extended meantone, such as a 19-note Halberstat
> keyboard with seven splut black keys, etc.

I've been privately corresponding with another list member about just that very topic. He sent me a link, and now I can't find it! It has to do with a 19-note-per-octave harpsichord (not Vicentino's archicembalo), with two adjacent black keys where one would normally be, and a single narrow black key between E-F and B-C.

I've never played a split-black key keyboard, but I think I'd have problems with one - namely the tendency to hit both black keys at once, since I have large fingers and hands. I'd like to have one of the adjacent black keys shorter and raised higher than the other, like on Nahhas's 17-per-octave "Oriental Piano" that I posted about a couple weeks ago. There might be a problem with reaching those short black keys (or whatever color they may be), so I also suggested adding a lower and forward row of keys intended to be played with the thumb. I wish I had the means to cut some pieces of wood and build a non-playing test model to see how these two keyboard designs feel in the hand.

Whatever the case, I do not like Yamaha's patented 19-tone design. The extra seven keys are WAY too far forward, and square-shaped instead of long, which would cause serious problems for weighted-action keys. I'd like to see that patent again, but the USPTO website isn't working right because they're doing a little reorganizing.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <gwsmith@s...> wrote:
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <gwsmith@s...> wrote:
>
> > I've gotten some people over at midi-contest.com interested in
> meantone,
> > and I was wondering if anyone sold something which could be used as
an
> > easy route into extended meantone, such as a 19-note Halberstat
> > keyboard with seven splut black keys, etc.
>
> Another question along the same lines is whether there is a plugin
> which will make Sibelius or Finale output pitch bends in some meantone
> system from a score in standard notation.

***I've certainly never seen anything like this for Sibelius, either on
the Sibelius website or anyplace else...

J. Pehrson

Such a plug-in needs to be designed from scratch.
----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph Pehrson
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 18 Nisan 2005 Pazartesi 2:09
Subject: [tuning] Re: 19 note Halberstadt keyboards?

Gene Wrote:
>
> Another question along the same lines is whether there is a plugin
> which will make Sibelius or Finale output pitch bends in some meantone
> system from a score in standard notation.

***I've certainly never seen anything like this for Sibelius, either on
the Sibelius website or anyplace else...

J. Pehrson