source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 08:41:32 -0800 Subject: Post from Brian McLaren From: John Chalmers nFrom: mclaren Subject: arcana & incunabula -- No one seems to have noticed or remarked that Mr. Fortuin has accomplished something that has the potential to utterly revolutionize microtonality. His 2-D generalized MIDI keyboard controller is nearly identical in design to several of Erv Wilson's hexagonal keyboard grids, and is the single finest generalized keyboard extant for MIDI synths. In fact... it is the ONLY generalized keyboard extant for MIDI synths (!) The profound importance of this breakthrough cannot be underestimated. As Paul Rapoport has sagely observed, "[the fact] that ET's have not been used more widely despite the ability of most synthesizers to produce them may be because playing them on a keyboard of the familiar design [7 white keys, 5 black keys, standard piano keyboard] is nearly impossible. [Rapoport, P., "The Structural Relationship of Fifths and Thirds in Equal Temperaments," J. Mus. Theory, 1993, pg. 352] I urge Mr. Fortuin in the strongest possible terms to either start some sort of company that makes available these generalized hexagonal-key MIDI keyboards to xenharmonists who want them for whatever you want to charge, or a kit, or technical details, or whatever you wish. But the vast importance of this hex key 2-D keyboard with a Bosanquet layout is hard to adequately describe. This is what we've been waiting for. This is what we all need. I've asked Gary Morrison to design and build and market a 2-D generalized MIDI keyboard, and he has displayed not the slightest interest. And the lack of such a generalized 2-D MIDI keyboard is holding back the progress of microtonality. This, because the primary advantage of such a 2-D Bosanquet-type generalized MIDI klavier is that it will permit large numbers of equal temperaments to be fingered consistently and without difficulty. This is *vital* to the progress of microtonality. Please think about working with STEIM or licensing their technology to make your clavette generalized MIDI Bosanquet keyboard available to a wider public, Mr. Fortuin. Nota bene: you might be surprised to learn that the essential design of this keyboard was invented & patented by Hermann Pedtke in Germany in 1932(!) --mclaren Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 17:53 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA16541; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 17:54:34 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA14184 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA02144; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 08:54:31 -0800 Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 08:54:31 -0800 Message-Id: <61961118165116/0005695065PK1EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu