- I haven't heard microtonal music on piano since my 1990 Electronic music theory class at Hampshire College so it's been 25 yeas for my ears smile emoticon I was judging the piano itself and the nature of hearing 1/4 tones in a novel context rather than the musical piece, as the video was about the piano for me and not about a 20 second portion of a longer song. Ok, this will cause 99.999998% of you to go screaming in terror but... it makes beautiful beats and harmonics - although its hard to hear at first. Just create some extra slots inbetween the tones in your mind and listen to the dissonance playing with itself. But... THEN they had to add the violins. I'd omit the violins completely. They were smearing it. I expect a LOT of disagreement on this. I'd love to play it, so long as I had a rotten tomato shield around me. === [two notes disagreeing with my hacking of the piece] === I'm part of a group for people with Perfect Pitch: I have perfect pitch - both kinds - and in the comments I saw 20 different people cringing in their comments. A lifetime ago (22 years), my friend took me to various places to play pianos. I wrote about it in 1994 in a writing exercise that was mainly focused on my amazement at the potential for human interconnectivity on the Internet. :Meet a younger me: ===Ken's Skills, Mar 23, 1994=== These years of being jacked into the telephone lines, talking with people from around the world, has made me a better thinker, and a better writer. I am at a point now, with my writing, that I have successfully transmitted my feelings and empathy to people whom I will never meet. I have gotten compliments on my writing, which isn't a common occurrence on the Internet. Years of practice communicating on similar forums have given me the ability to motivate people as well. For example, for a period of a month and a half, I went to various piano stores around the New Jersey area to try out the many different makes of grand pianos out there. Every time I came back from a trip, I posted a message to a forum where people interested in pianos and piano playing participate, describing my feelings on the pianos that I played, and include contact information if interested in trying them out themselves. One of my trips was to try out a new, almost legendary piano, the Fandrich piano. The Fandrich piano is a small upright piano that has been designed to sound and feel like a grand piano. Many people in that group were quite interested in my findings. Because of my review of the Fandrich piano, a man in Texas contacted the Fandrich people, and is buying a Fandrich piano! He is spending $11,000 because of my advice, and he hasn't even played the piano for himself yet. Needless to say, Barb Fandrich, the wife of the designer, was very pleased and called me from Washington State to thank me for my positive review (which the gentleman from Texas faxed to her). Ken's Skills, Mar 23, 1994. Part of the exercises. ======== So, that's why I would hack at the piece in this case: I wanted to review the piano as well as the subjective cognitive switch from hearing a piano in its typical tempered-but-always-not-quite-perfect pitch, into a 1/4 tone split. I enjoy dissonant music as well as microtones, particular in indian music with the Sitar. So, that's why I would want to leave the violins out. They smeared the tones and made it difficult to distinguish the violin from piano for a few seconds. Before then, I was hearing the overtones ringing which the violins cut short. == In another vein, I can also hack at music pieces I listen to: "How I would've done it differently" if it was my piece. I can also appreciate the intent of the composer, the abilities of the performers, the technical quality of the instruments, and the experience of the piece itself in a few ways. Honestly, what I want is to get my hands on this piano and make some music with it. I can imagine many possibilities with it, including a piece with swirling dissonance, as well as one with an awkward purity.