A piano with microtones
mainI am listening to the first release on Geoffrey Smith’s ‘fluid piano’, an instrument that contains tuning mechanisms that can be operated by the player to produce tonalities used in non-western cultures.
It ticked the boxes of Arts Council England, which paid for its development.
The first release is of Indian ragas.
I’m loving it.
What about tuning mechanisms – temperaments – which *were* used in western music: can it do those?
It seems: yes, of course – you just adjust the strings with the mechanism when you know the tuning mode.
But you seemingly would have to tune in equal temperament first and then in a second step tune the desired unequal temperament. Not exactly labour saving for that purpose.
That’s true… Maybe the basis position of the shifting screws is the equal temperament? Because otherwise, the player is at sea.
Here is a performance of an Indian raga on the fluid piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ti6HUX5xQ
The video is from 2009, wonder what happened to the project?