# Non-ET Notation



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

ET being Equal Temperament.

I want to write a piece for solo piano where all the keys are tuned to frequencies that you don't find in the traditional chromatic scale. So, for example, changing the A4 key to 460Hz instead of 440Hz, and all the other keys would be different too.

Do you know any pieces that do this, preferably ones with easily accessible scores so that I can see how composers notate it? I'm wondering if I would go about notating it so that it looks like an ordinary score so that you know which keys to hit, but I specify in a preface the individual frequencies that all the notes should be tuned to so that it sounds different. Or is there some other method?


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

the one you listed is the best method by far, the most concise and uncluttered system imaginable.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

chee_zee said:


> the one you listed is the best method by far, the most concise and uncluttered system imaginable.


I thought it seemed like a reasonably intuitive system to use. Now I'm just trying to find a damn notation program that will let me define the frequencies of each note!!!!


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

for playback? most likely none. do it by hand I say! or just ignore the playback in sibelius


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

chee_zee said:


> for playback? most likely none. do it by hand I say! or just ignore the playback in sibelius


I've found various programs that do it, but they're really fiddly, and many require programming knowledge that I don't have. The trouble is that while I ordinarily wouldn't rely on playback, I really need it for this because I can't retune my piano to know what it sounds like. :/


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Polednice said:


> I've found various programs that do it, but they're really fiddly, and many require programming knowledge that I don't have. The trouble is that while I ordinarily wouldn't rely on playback, I really need it for this because I can't retune my piano to know what it sounds like. :/


Keyboard notation, most especially, is merely a directive of Which key to depress - it could not get much clearer than that regardless of any alternate tunings the instrument may have been given.

Non-standard tuning IS fiddly  Your score will need a preface table of the specific tuning for any and all pitches so adjusted.

It might be possible to use a decent piano sample and then via a synthesizer 'tweaking' those samples, pitch for pitch, to what you want -- it will be a ton of tweaking, and labor-intensive 'fiddly.'

Before you grudge the labor of that, realize you are (supposedly) asking a real tuner to do that to a real piano.

If your piece is conceived for midi-only play, then practicality is no longer a consideration.

If meant to be performed by others, practically, no one is much willing or interested to go through all of that for one brief piece, either - once the tuning is determined, please ponder staying with that set of frequencies and making at least a suite, series of movements, or studies, the duration of which might make the time / money investment of altering the piano to your requirements worthwhile.

Easely Blackwood's essays into pieces for an octave divided into more than 12 even steps are in standard notation, the 'performances' being from synthesizer / sine wave generators. - another way to go.
Blackwood:
16 notes Andantino




13 notes Sostenuto




18 notes Allegro volantando





Terry Riley ~ Lands End (just intoned piano)





Le Monte Young ~ The Well-Tempered Piano (loosely based on just intonation, but Young's own idiosyncratic tuning)
This is link one of at least five up on youtube - it is an ongoing composition, so far running for hours.





For these quarter tone pieces, it appears from the illustration that Ivan Wyshnegrasky used a specially built dual manual piano.





ADD: P.s. other than the inevitable "at times pulling your hair(s) out" part of composition in any mode, have fun


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Indeed, I wouldn't dream of suggesting someone retune a piano so intensively for a 3-minute miniature! 

For reference, I managed to find an audio synthesis program that actually works. It's called SuperCollider, and requires gedit for Windows to work fully (just a fancy text editor). There are significant learning curves to these things, but it's worth it. I believe there are more powerful tools available such as Csound, but I've found their curves to be ridiculously steep.


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