97 keys, one octave

August 14, 2023 8:31 AM

Bösendorfer’s legendary Model 290 Imperial concert grand piano has 97 keys that cover a full eight octaves. Sauter’s Microtone upright piano also has 97 keys, but they only cover a single octave. It’s one of 15 “metamorphoser” piano designs patented by microtonal music pioneer Julián Carillo; the prototypes, built by Sauter, were introduced at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. This Microtone piano is tuned “with only 1/16 step between the keys so that on this instrument what appears to be a fifth actually sounds 1/16-step less than a half-step,” i.e. 96 steps per octave; the other designs had 36, 48, 60 or some other number of steps per octave. See and hear the Microtone in action in this performance of Bruce Mather’s Étude pour piano en seizième de ton (2001).
posted by mcwetboy (22 comments total)

The performance of the étude sounds in parts like me tuning my guitar. I wonder if there's a way to build a keyboard instrument where you have to also 'find' the pitch the way you do on an fretless stringed instrument like a violin. That would enable playing in just intonation. I have nothing resembling perfect pitch, but hearing pieces played in the actual key (where the flats and sharps are in fact separate tones) sounds surprisingly more harmonious (although I don't notice it when playing on a piano unless it's compared to a justly intoned piece)
posted by dis_integration at 9:12 AM on August 14, 2023

1/16 of a semitone, AKA 6.25¢ is at or below the "just noticeable difference" for a typical human listener.

anyway, it's a chance to share my favorite microtonal song...
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 9:34 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Rachmaninoff Sonata #2 played on a Bösendorfer Model 290 Imperial.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 9:49 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Craftsmanship. Very heavy craftsmanship.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 9:56 AM on August 14, 2023

This got me searching YouTube for microtonal music, and I came across the Lumatone Isomorphic Keyboard. So cool!
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:56 AM on August 14, 2023

I am now trapped into thoughts of the infinity piano that keeps dividing and dividing until the nanotonal and picotonal spaces
posted by MonsieurPEB at 11:10 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

zenos octave
posted by dis_integration at 11:53 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

Who, pray tell, can tune that Microtone?
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:23 PM on August 14, 2023

That Étude pour piano en seizième de ton could absolutely land on the next Metroid soundtrack.
posted by cortex at 12:43 PM on August 14, 2023

I wonder if Ivan Wyschnegradsky ever got his hands on one of those. He reputedly had a special 2-keyboard quarter-tone piano built for himself, but in performance his music is usually played on two or more pianos.
posted by misteraitch at 12:52 PM on August 14, 2023

That Mather piece is cool!

Who, pray tell, can tune that Microtone?

A computah!
posted by rhizome at 12:55 PM on August 14, 2023

This is so cool!

When I conceive of new music in my head, there are definitely notes that aren't there in western musical notation. It's very common that I have a melody in my head, and there are two distinct notes, but when I actually play or sing the melody I find that one of the notes isn't "real," and I have to either just make them the same note or change the interval to a third or something. There really is so much about how we think about music that is not just subjective, but arbitrary. Someday mainstream music will probably find a way to escape the tyranny of "A through G," as well as of "beats per measure."

I'm certainly not going to be the one to do it. I've tried the stuff that works in my head in real life, and it definitely does not work. It will take a true genius to get that ball rolling.
posted by mellow seas at 12:58 PM on August 14, 2023

It’s easy to escape the tyranny of standard tuning - just sing a capella or tune your instrument by ear! Old folk and blues recordings are a great place to explore nonstandard tonality - the natural inclination of vocal harmony to alternate intonations was part of Harry Partch’s inspiration. One way to look at tuning is mathematical, but another is just what sounds good or interesting!
posted by q*ben at 2:11 PM on August 14, 2023

I wonder if there's a way to build a keyboard instrument where you have to also 'find' the pitch the way you do on an fretless stringed instrument like a violin.

Such an instrument exists! I have seen a video of Johnny Greenwood (of Radiohead) playing it. It has keys, presumably for registering dynamics and sustain, but for pitch there is a ring which is looped around the finger. The ring is suspended in between two lengths of fabric cord looped continuously around pulleys on either side of the instrument, so that when the performer moves their finger, the cord turns the pulleys allowing for fine pitch control, vibrato, and so forth.

Most digital keyboards have a pitch bend wheel which is functionally similar, the main difference being they usually (but not always!) have springs to return them to center automatically. They can be used to great effect; a performer who immediately comes to mind is Jordan Rudess.
posted by dbx at 3:38 PM on August 14, 2023

Would it be cruel to send this to my buddy with perfect pitch?
posted by Jode at 3:50 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Now I must confess that I didn't fully read every comment before posting, because qxntpqbbbqxl's lumatone link features the very same Jordan Rudess. Whaddya know!

May as well comment on the original post, too! By the second half of the performance, I found myself quite enjoying that etude. Like, really digging it in a way that really surprised me. Fantastic!
posted by dbx at 3:51 PM on August 14, 2023

Needs a way so you can bend notes like on a harmonica, perhaps pulling a key left or right ....
posted by mbo at 4:13 PM on August 14, 2023

dbx, sounds like Greenwood is playing an Ondes Martenot. One of the earliest synthesizers. Early electronic instruments were much closer to micro tonality because coming up with a reliable keyboard to produce intervals was actually pretty difficult, and many oscillators were tuned manually.

More recently new MPE controllers like the Osmose are giving more organic pitch bending possibilities.
posted by q*ben at 4:51 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

They're starting to make keyboards now that allow you to change pitch by moving the keys side-to-side, and thereby play microtonally, without having to mess with any special levers or wheels. In particular, there is the Osmose and the Seaboard.

On edit, jinx!
posted by epimorph at 5:06 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

my favorite microtonal song...

TMBG; those dog drawings are swell.

(I was gonna say something about LaMonte Young, looks like he's on a new thread..)
posted by ovvl at 5:07 PM on August 14, 2023

The Mather piece makes me angry. Anxious and angry. It's so painful and slow and off-balance and monophonic, it succeeds in eliciting a very strong emotion; It makes me supremely uncomfortable, and it feels expressly designed to do that. It's like a musical interpretation of a rising panic attack. Powerful stuff, but I'd rather take the Rachmaninoff piece or this one by Sevish
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:26 PM on August 14, 2023

I was a little disappointed by this Mather piece. It was nice but I would like to hear a little more exploration of the keyboard and some chords. Possibilities for crazy harmony are endless and I hope some brave soul will try something a little more adventurous, maybe a cycle of 17ths or something.
posted by charlesminus at 5:53 PM on August 15, 2023