One of the first shipping Tonal Plexus keyboards I built was purchased by the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where it is now used by guitarist David Fiuczynski and his students. I recently made some upgrades and improvements to this instrument. The upgrades included new firmware for the chips, new red front and back pieces for the body, countersinking the screws on the finishing strips, and new top panels for the keys.

New instruments come with all these improvements and refinements. The early keyboards like the one purchased by Berklee had some issues with the top panels, around the keys themselves, because the material was thin and flexible, and on some instruments this caused some warping of the surface; this was one of those instruments that had a problem. I show the former panel in the video, and you can see how flexible it is. Panels on currently shipping keyboards are thick and rigid, so warping is not a problem anymore. The firmware upgrade improves fader response and adds some useful options for how MIDI banks and patches are handled in presets. The other improvements are basically cosmetic, although the countersunk screws do change a minor tactile element of the design.

If you own one of the early Tonal Plexus keyboards and you would like to have these upgrades and improvements, please contact me to discuss it; I would be happy to give your instrument an overhaul and I know you would appreciate the difference.

After doing the work on Berklee’s keyboard, before shipping it back, I recorded this little video in which I point out the improvements, and then demonstrate something interesting about dominant 7th chords in Just Intonation.

Dominant 7th chords contain a diminished 5th between the 3rd and 7th, often called a tritone, although tritones are, strictly speaking, always augmented 4ths, not diminished 5ths (tritone = 3 tones = 3 whole tones in a row e.g. C to D to E to F# = C : F# = augmented 4th). The misnomer is indicative of the way pitches are named enharmonically in 12ET, where for example F# and Gb are the same pitch. In 12ET, two dominant chords can share the same pitches between their 3rds and 7ths, swapping roles of those pitches between the chords, because an augmented 4th and a diminished 5th use the same exact pitches. This can’t happen in Just Intonation. In Just Intonation, a diminished 5th will never be an augmented 4th. This video shows how in JI either the 3rd or 7th can be used as a common tone, but not both. One or the other common tones can be kept in a dominant 7th chord whose root is either an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth away, since those intervals are not the same in Just Intonation. Make sense?

Note: the captions in this video introduced blips into the audio for some reason and I couldn’t fix it; sorry about that!

A new work entitled the wayward, by composer Tim Mariën, based on transcriptions of four Harry Partch’s hobo-inspired compositions from the early 1940’s, will be premiered by the Ictus ensemble with Mike Schmid at the Kaaitheater in Brussles, Belgium on April 20th, 2010.

This event is noteworthy for many reasons, not the least of which is the relatively little exposure Partch’s music has received in Europe. The project itself is quite unique, as it involves the translation of music from one set of custom designed microtonal instruments to another, thus giving a fresh, contemporary perspective on Partch’s compositions.

Mariën writes, “Partch’s music demands from the listener either to accept it or to walk away from it. I never walked away from it.” Instead, he took on a considerable challenge, delving deeply into Partch’s works in order to bring them to life in a new form. I encourage you to visit the Ictus website and read the rest of what Mariën has to say there.

The concert will also feature a premiere of Mariën’s composition Toeënwâs for flute, trombone, 12-string fretless guitar, retuned reed organ, microtonal piano and percussion (guiro, retuned marimba, 3 tomtoms & bass drum). Mariën writes, “The title refers to a local flemish dialect: Toeën= toon (meaning tone) and wâs= wijs (meaning melody), the whole word refers to a situation where someone has achieved a little experience in an activity.”

I should mention the reason I know about all this; Tim Mariën owns a Tonal Plexus TPX6s, of which he says, “I use it mainly as a tool for composition. Anything which comes close to microtonality makes it worth switching it on.” So, I am pleased to have such a connection.

In general, I feel fortunate to be able to be in touch with so many interesting musicians from around the world who contact me because of the instruments and software I am creating. It’s exciting for me to be involved that way in the extraordinary musical activity going on around our world. What are you doing with your music? Whenever you can, attend events like this one to keep up your inspiration. Be creative!

UPDATE 04/26/2010: A review of the concert (very favorable!) has been posted online at MusicalCriticism.com

From the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times, email in-boxes and voicemail lines have been flooded with reports of flying saucers mounted on microtonal keyboards invading the peaceful airspace of the United States of America. The invasion began shortly after dawn on the East coast, and swept across the nation, causing inexplicable disruption of all upright, baby grand, and grand piano actions, as well as discombobulation of all standard twelve tone keyboard synthesizers. The flying instruments emitted strange and amazing sounds that boggled onlookers. Due to the acoustic disturbances, several early observers had been calling the crafts UFO’s (Unconventional Fantastic Omniphones) and they have since been identified as Tonal Plexus keyboards equipped with elegant built-in coffee cups and saucers.

H-Pi Instruments director Aaron Andrew Hunt has since claimed responsibility for the invasion, calling it an experimental Spring product release, combining microtonality with a refreshing beverage. Hunt apologized for all the hubub, saying “Ice coffee is really more appropriate now that the temperature has gone up and the sun is out … or maybe cold beer - I don’t really drink beer, so I didn’t think of that … maybe a nice lemonade, or sparkling grape juice? It’s totally your choice; reporters have been calling them ‘coffee cups’ I guess because they do look like coffee cups, but - and this is an important point! - that cup there was designed to be compatible with all fluids, not just coffee!”