the piano gets a reinvention - for real!

[ensho]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/23/composer-fluid-piano-geoff-smith


Composer reinvents the piano
'Fluid' instrument allows pianists to alter sound before or while they play


For a non-pianist, the idea of a microtonally fluid piano might seem either no big deal or baffling. But this weekend a composer will reveal the result of a 10-year mission – nothing less than the reinvention of one of the most important instruments in western music.

Geoff Smith believes he has come up with the first multicultural acoustic piano – what he has trademarked as a fluid piano – which allows players to alter the tuning of notes either before or during a performance. Instead of a pianist having a fixed sound, 88 notes from 88 keys, Smith's piano has sliders allowing them access to the different scales that you get in, for example, Indian and Iranian music. For good measure, Smith has included a horizontal harp.

The Guardian was last weekend given the first access to an instrument that is already generating considerable excitement – and it can be seen and heard on our website. It will be formally unveiled at the University of Surrey on Saturday and receive a London premiere at the Purcell Room in March.

Smith, a Brighton-based composer and performer, said: "The fluid piano is a western piano as we know it, similar to an early fortepiano, but because of the tuning mechanisms, suddenly, musicians can explore scales from the Middle East, from Iran."

Smith's instrument has been made by the Somerset-based Christopher Barlow and a light ash has been deliberately chosen as the wood – Smith said he did not want it to look like a dark coffin.

-snip-

"I've said to musicians they might feel insecure about this piano, they might feel scared. But if they embrace it they will have this big feeling of liberation, a big high."

-snip-

Smith, who has written scores for silent films and is a highly regarded player of the hammered dulcimer, has been invited to take his piano to a Chopin festival in Poland. But the dream is to get his fluid piano manufactured. "It has become a fundamental part of my life, because it's driven by a vision. It's not just about money, although I haven't got much money so of course I'd like to make some. Any money I have had has gone on this," he said. "The thing was, I always knew it would work – I wasn't like some crazy inventor."
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Pam Chowhan, Nikki Yeoh, and Matthew Bourne have learned to play it and will perform on Sat.

WOW!

[BurtWorm]

1. Amazing!

What a fascinating story! Thanks for posting that.

[The_Commonist]

2. I did something similar to that...

..20 years ago to an old piano that I had at the time.

This is not some major reinvention.
Only an old fart would think that.
This is little more than a bunch of hype.
There are kids out there today doing things that are much more interesting.

[ensho]

4. really?

nt

[tridim]

8. Circuit bending is quite a bit cooler IMO.

[kickysnana]

3. I believe that is called an organ or keyboard. n/t

[bfarq]

5. Interesting. Not very practical today

This is a big intellectual leap for the piano, but the first iteration isn't very practical. Notice that they didn't actually demonstrate ANY musical composition on it.

For those who aren't familiar with piano tuning, the piano uses the so-called "equal tempered" tuning. That is to say that each octave is tuned as a perfect interval (each octave higher being exactly double the beats per second of the lower octave.) But the 12 notes between each octave are simply tuned in equally spaced increments. That allows the piano to play in all the different keys used in Western music. But those intervals are a compromise. In other words, a "perfectly tuned" piano is out of tune on every note, but only a little, so our ears have come to accept this.

It all becomes apparent when playing chords (combinations of notes). The piano can't play ANY chord completely in tune. Take for example a simple major chord, which is formed by playing the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a major scale. If we are in the key of C (on the white keys) the major chord would be C-E-G. But the equal tempered E is way too sharp (too many beats per second) to resonate with the C and the G, so the chord sounds lifeless. Compare this with a good string quartet, trombone choir or barbershop quartet. The musician playing the E will instinctively lower that pitch, making the chord come to life. There are many other such adjustments world class musicians make to bring the chords to life. Collectively, this is known as "just intonation", which the piano cannot do.

Not until now. With this new piano, the pianist really can make those adjustments. But that would be extremely tedious. The next step should be to allow a computer to analyze the pitches in real time and make those just-intonation adjustments on behalf of the pianist. That would be exciting.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Sparkly]

13. Yes but

to prepare a piano before-hand, the current piano's strings could be tuned slightly higher or lower for given keys. (Not great for the piano, probably, but it could be done.)

[bfarq]

15. Yes, definitely

The piano could be set up beforehand to play in just intonation FOR ONE KEY. You would have to adjust the same notes in each octave. If a person were comfortable doing this, it could probably be do in 30 seconds, but you wouldn't be able to modulate to other keys unless you had enough rest time to make those adjustments.

I have played in churches that had their organs tuned for just intonation on one particular key. The organ sounded great in that key, but sounded like a train wreck in other keys.

Many modern pipe organs have electronic control systems. That doesn't reduce the authenticity of the instrument at all, IMHO. It makes a great instrument greater. I'm suggesting the same concept could apply to pianos. That is completely different from playing a piano-like voice on a synthesizer, which really does lost the essential character of the concert piano.

[Sparkly]

17. Right

Which is why I don't see its practical applications going far for western music, except new compositions designed for it.

Most of our ears are adjusted to the equal tempered piano, anyway.

[tridim]

6. Neat hack, but digital pianos can already do that.

The analog piano is pretty much an impractical instrument, second only to the pipe organ. They can't even be moved very far without having to pay to have them re-tuned.

[anigbrowl]

16. Indeed

I like microtonal music and experiment with it on occasion, but it's a lot more practical to do so on a sampler or similar electronic instrument. On the other hand, this one will keep working when the power goes out.

[jgraz]

7. Shit, I can barely play the current instrument

Why would I want to add that level of complexity? :shrug:

[walldude]

9. K&R brilliant.

[MilesColtrane]

11. Too bad it doesn't give you enough notes to play compositions by Harry Partch.

The maximum amount of notes per octave you could get on that piano is 17.

Partch used a 43 note scale.

[bridgit]

14. Ya'beat me to it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHBqFevy0k

[librechik]

20. that's a name you don't hear all that often

great man--instant tone change? Try instant instrument change. Or none at all.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. dang!

[Cetacea]

18. Recommend!

[dysfunctional press]

19. i reinvented a piano as wall art.

[AlienGirl]

21. Neat! Years ago I lived next door to the guy that came up with the extra pedal

I could hear him practicing every day. His kids and mine used to play together.

Unfortunately, he died of an ovedrdose a few years ago. :-(

Tucker

[MilesColtrane]

22. You lived next door to a ghost?

Albert Steinway patented the sustenuto pedal in 1874.

[AlienGirl]

23. This guy:

http://daxjohnson.com/bio.htm

Layering their natural acoustic sounds and his 4th Pedal invention (a method only Dax is known for), one can hear the voice of a harp mingled with a string section or hollow percussion sounds and the hum of a synthesizer pit against the impression that someone is reaching into the piano to pluck the strings.