xen keyboards, Graham Breed, Mr. Halberstadt

>The number of notes you can reach with one hand is far more important if
>you're playing live than recording each part to a sequencer. And having
>interchangeable keyboard mappings means each needn't be as useful on its
>own as if that were all you had.

Graham, please understand that I'm not dissing any plans you may have. I
strongly believe there's worlds to be done with a retuned halberstadt and a
sequencer -- Brian McLaren has produced hours of such material. It's just
my choice to spend my time obtaining a keyboard that suits me, and then
learning to play it, rather than learning to play one that doesn't, even
though the latter option could be a fruitful one. It's just my choice.
It's what brought me to this list. In fact, theory for me is just a means
to a keyboard design.

Now, I know I've said that a retuned halberstadt isn't "serious". That's
based on some very careful thought about what made the Halberstadt so good
for 12-tone tunings in the past 1000 years. See, I believe the keyboard
has had no small impact on music as we know it -- in fact, I believe it
gave birth to western music. What I'm saying is, I doubt there will ever
be a serious genre of music based on retuned halberstadts. If somebody
proves me wrong on that, I certainly wouldn't complain, but...

Like it or not, serious keyboard music is played "live". The ability for
one person to control a large number of resources in real time with his
hands is not a small deal. It forces a certain understanding of music.
Serious keyboards (ones that are up for consideration as a standard) are
expected to do a wide variety of things -- like rehearsing a choir. You
simply cannot rehearse a choir in JI with a halberstadt.

>A diminished triad contains two minor thirds. Either could be subminor,
>and with the right keyboard you can try all three versions to see which
>you want. And do that really easily.

And how would the ability to an octave prohibit this choice?

>Sure, if you've got one.

I'm saying there are good reasons to get one! That it is worth the effort.
And the expense is not prohibitive! How could anybody believe such a
thing? Do you drive a car? Live under a roof? Use a PC?

>> Caring about what voicings I can reach is arbitrary?
>
>Insisting on reaching an octave with one hand is arbitrary.

No, it isn't. What I insist upon, to be clear, is to be able to reach at
least the interval of equivalence with a single hand. As it is, much
beautiful music would be lost by making the halberstadt bigger so that,
say, Oscar Peterson could reach _only_ an octave. Yes, it is true that by
making such a strict rule, I imply a sudden change of goodness that doesn't
exist. Yes, I'd probably take a keyboard on which I could only reach a
15/8 if it appeared on my doorstep. But every bit you loose, you loose a
bit. The IE is a good goal to set, because it is the point at which you no
longer need two hands to play every interval in the tuning.

>You can play cool music on a bad instrument. My contention is that
>extended mappings allow you to do cool things that wouldn't otherwise be
>possible. And if you're interested in the right scales, it may be worth
>rebuilding a keyboard to make them work better. So long as that's
>understood, no problem.

Understood, and agreed.

-Carl