Enharmonic keyboard
An enharmonic keyboard is a
As an important device to compose, play and study
enharmonic keyboards are capable of producingThe term (divergence of scholar opinions)
"Enharmonic keyboard" is a term used by scholars in their studies of enharmonic keyboard instruments (organ, harpsichord, piano,[4] harmonium and synthesizer) with reference to a keyboard with more than 12 keys per octave. Scholarly consensus about the term's precise definition currently has not been established.[citation needed]
The New Grove Dictionary (2001) defines an "enharmonic keyboard" as "a keyboard with more than 12 keys and sounding more than 12 different pitches in the octave",[5] however the article does not specify the origin of the term. Rasch (2002) suggested applying the term "enharmonic keyboard" more precisely, to keyboards with 29–31 keys per octave.[6][page needed]
Barbieri (2007), in his turn, raised the objection that this use of the term is contrary to early theoretical works.[7][e][f]
Some modern scholars [e.g. Wraight & Stembridge (1994)] describe instruments with such keyboards as split-keyed instruments.[10][11][12]
Known realizations




One of the first instruments with an enharmonic keyboard was the archicembalo built by Nicola Vicentino, an Italian Renaissance composer and music theorist. The archicembalo had 36 keys per octave and was very well suited for meantone temperament.[g] Vicentino also had made one arciorgano in Rome and one arciorgano in Milan. Both pipe organs were equipped with enharmonic keyboards, like those of the archicembalo.[15] None of Vicentino's instruments survive.
Many instruments with enharmonic keyboards were built during the Renaissance and
With the advent of
The notes of each progressively-higher cardinality are appended to the outer edges of the lower-cardinality scale, such that each well-formed scale's note-controlling buttons are embedded, unchanged, within the set of those controlling the higher-cardinality scales. Hence, the skills gained in learning to play chromatic music on a chromatic Wicki keyboard can be applied, without modification, to performance on an enharmonic Wicki keyboard.
Isomorphic keyboards were not discovered until the latter half of the 19th century.[citation needed]
See also
Notes
- ^ "The concept of enharmonicity arises from the fact that certain tone pairs seem to refer to almost identical pitches. For example, from a given C we ... will find that the pitches of C♯ and D♭ are close to each other (exactly how close will depend on the methods we allow for finding them). C♯ and D♭ are obviously not identical, but they are close enough to be treated as identical in certain musical settings. Therefore, they are enharmonically equivalent. An enharmonic instrument is an instrument where multiple ways of producing enharmonically equivalent tones are available. For example, an enharmonic keyboard could have separate keys for C♯ and D♭, as well as for each tone in other enharmonic pairs such as D♯ / E♭, F♯ / G♭, G♯ / A♭ and A♯ / B♭. An enharmonic keyboard is thus guaranteed to have more than 12 keys per octave."[1]
- ^ "Enharmonic instruments should be understood as musical instruments presenting a number of pitches per octave that significantly surpasses the twelve notes of the standard western tuning systems (equal temperament, meantone tuning or whatever). This begins with harpsichords or organs with a few split upper keys, goes to keyboards with 17, 19, 31 or 43 notes per octave and ends with theoretical systems and ideas for instruments (less often the instruments themselves) up to far over 100 pitches per octave"[1]
- ^ "Note, however, that the extra keys need not be found among the sharps and flats. For example, Barbieri (2008), p. 20 shows an organ from the end of the 1400s with no extra black keys but with two E keys, one suitable for use in an E major chord, and another better fitted as the third in a C major chord".[2]
- ^ "Enharmonic music is music ... that is mostly to be found in the surroundings of enharmonic instruments. Without those instruments nearby, it makes little sense to produce such music".[2]
- ^
The only theoretical evidence that agrees with Rasch's usage is found in one (not yet published) manuscript by some Benedetto Bresciani, written c. 1719.
clavicembalo; Gioseffo Zarlino.[8]
- ^
"In 1548 Dominicus Pizaurensis has built harpsichord with 19 divisions of the octave by the order and description of G. Zarlino ... the earliest enarmonic instrument ... manufacture date of which is known exactly
- ^ The best description of archicembalo along with recordings using the rebuilt instrument can be found in Cordes (2007)[14] There are many other descriptions of archicembalo given by modern scholars, e.g. in Stembridge (1993), p. 54 ff
Citations
- ^ a b Jerkert (2010), p. 121.
- ^ a b Rasch (2009), p. 61.
- ^
Randel, Don Michael (2003). "Enharmonic keyboard". ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2– via Google books.
- ^ Tukhmanova (2005), pp. 23–26.
- ^ Meeùs, Nicolas (2001). "Enharmonic keyboard". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Retrieved 12 Oct 2012.
- ^ Rasch (2002).
- ^ Barbieri (2007).
- ^
"Le istitutioni harmoniche". euromusicology.zoo.cs.uu.nl (book review). 1558.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Burundukovskaya (2008), p. 185.
- ^ Stembridge, C. (1992). "Music for the cimbalo cromatico and other split-keyed instruments in seventeenth-century Italy". Performance Practice Review. 1: 5–43. .
- ^ Stembridge, C. (1993). "The cimbalo cromatico and other Italian keyboard instruments with nineteen or more divisions to the octave: Surviving specimens and documentary evidence". Performance Practice Review. 6 (1): 33–59. .
- ^ Wraight, D.; Stembridge, C. (1994). "Italian split-keyed instruments with fewer than nineteen divisions to the octave". Performance Practice Review. 7 (2): 150–181. .
- ^ [title not cited: re. Fokker's microtonal keyboard] (video) – via YouTube.
- ^
Cordes, Manfred (2007). Nicola Vicentions Enharmonik: Musik mit 31 Töne. Graz: ISBN 978-3-201-01884-5.
- ^ Barbieri (2008), pp. 309–313.
- ^ Suppig (1990).
- ^ Barbieri (2008), pp. 337–341.
References
- Barbieri, Patrizio (2007). "Pietro della Valle: the Esthèr oratorio (1639) and other experiments in the "stylus metabolicus". With new documents on triharmonic instruments" (PDF). Recercare. Rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica. XIX (1–2): 96–97. ISSN 1120-5741.
- Barbieri, Patrizio (2008). Enharmonic instruments and music 1470-1900. Latina, IT: Il Levante Libreria Editrice. pp. 309–313. ISBN 978-88-95203-14-0. Archived from the originalon 2009-02-15. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
- Burundukovskaya, E. (2008). "Italian harpsichord and clavichord 16th and 17th centuries" (PDF). Enarmonic instruments / Philology and art history. Bulletin of the ISSN 1994-2796. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2012-11-14.
- Jerkert, Jesper (2010). "Review of Patrizio Barbieri's Enharmonic Instruments and Music 1470–1900" (PDF). Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning [Swedish Journal of Musicology] (book review). 92: 121. ISSN 1653-9672.
- Meeùs, Nicolas (2001). "Enharmonic keyboard". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
- Randel, Don Michael, ed. (2003). "Enharmonic". ISBN 0-674-01163-5.
- Rasch, Rudolf (2002). Willimann, Joseph (ed.). "On terminology for diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic keyboards". Schweizer Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft [Swiss Annual for Musicology]. Chromatic and Enharmonic Music and Musical Instruments in the 16th and 17th Centuries. 22. Bern, CH: Peter Lang Publishing Group (published 2003): 21–33. ISSN 0259-3165. Archived from the originalon 2013-06-25.
- Rasch, Rudolf (2009). Gilmore, Bob (ed.). "Review of Patrizio Barbieri: Enharmonic Instruments and Music 1470-1900" (PDF). Thirty-One. The Journal of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation. 1. Amsterdam, NL: Stichting Huygens-FokkerCentre for Microtonal Music: 61.
- Suppig, Friedrich (1990) [1722]. Rasch, Rudolf (ed.). Labyrinthus musicus; Calculus musicus. Tuning and Temperament Library. Vol. 3 (manuscript facsimile ed.). Utrecht, NL: Diapason Press. ISBN 9070907178– via Google books.
- Tukhmanova, Z. (2005). "Enharmonic piano of prince V.F. Odoevsky". Старинная музыка [Early Music] (in Russian). 29–30 (3–4): 23–26. ISSN 1999-6810. Archived from the originalon 2013-03-03. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
Further reading
- Allen, John S. "The general keyboard in the age of MIDI". bikexprt.com.
- Khramov, Mykhaylo (December 2011). "On Amount of notes in octave" (PDF). Ninãd, Journal of the ITC-SRA. 25: 31–37. ISSN 0973-3787.
- Owen, Barbara (2006). "Enharmonic organ". In Bush, Douglas; Kassel, Richard (eds.). The Organ: An encyclopedia. New York, NY. pp. 183–184. ISBN 0-415-94174-1.)
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