Keys are so uncool

[Andrew Tarpinian]

On Oct 4, 2009, at 5:34 PM, Tony Hardie-Bick wrote:

> Andrew Tarpinian wrote:
>> Why is everyone now a days obsessed with NOT playing keys?
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVwPH2EYoOM&feature=related
>
> I think the 2D matrix of buttons and LEDs is the first physical  
> interface that
> truly reflects the compositional process. Plenty have likened  
> composition to
> painting. Most modern music could be said to follow the design pattern
> established by Eric Satie, in which the role of the narrative is  
> replaced by
> various parts each reflecting the whole, and the movement between  
> them is more a
> reflection of changes in the physical or psychic state of the  
> listener/dancer
> than a story in the mind with a beginning and end. I think this  
> takes music back
> to its primordial state, and into the future, simultaneously. This  
> interface is
> a physical manifestation of that movement.

I was hoping you would answer this.

It seems very machine though, there is not a lot of connection to  
expression. Like a hardware piano roll, you would never really want to  
"play" a piano roll, but yet these type of grid interfaces are  
commonly used for playing.

I really have the urge to break away from traditional composing  
structures, but first I really need to fully understand what makes the  
traditional style what it is and why it is what it is. So this is  
helpful.