Thanks for your thoughtful response. It cleared up some things, and I beg the
list's indulgence to point those out.

Richard Dobson wrote:

> The point was, by example, that some great creative minds, spirits, can see
> unrealised potential in instruments or systems, which others are still
> striving to exploit to the full - without contradicting what is perceived to
> be the essential character of the instrument. It is an inevitable, dynamic,
> multi-dimensional process

> As for supposed 'developments', it is not often appreciated by non-players
> that in many cases the particular expressiveness of an instrument (assuming
> it is well designed in the first place) often arises especially from the
> things it ~cannot~  do.

I agree wholeheartedly with all of this. And I didn't get this from your
earlier post--I was interpreting your remarks as direct commentary on the worth
of the MIDI discussion, rather than as tangential (which is not to say
uninteresting).

>Where is this world in which 'pitch is never fixed'? Is 'never' a statement
>of a reality, or another moral imperative?

I was referring to a growing tendency in new music to treat pitch as either a
constant variable (use of gliss., microtone inflection, etc. as a strong
compositional element--everywhere from blues to Ferneyhough) or as a variable
from composition to composition (as in, for instance, the post-Partch
microtonal schools). Should this trend continue into general preference, the
piano will either have to be adapted or risk being used for  only older music.
Most orchestral instruments are capable of microtonal adjustments through
alternative fingerings alone. The piano is lacking in this respect. I wasn't
aware I was speaking in moral imperatives. But I suppose in this case I wasn't
being clear.

>One absolutely final point - I think that if we are truly confident of the
>musical worth of what we do, we have no need to argue the extinction or
>obsolescence of the competition!

Again, I didn't think I was arguing for extinction or obsolescence (and I don't
see historical music as competition, really, if that's what you mean).

For the rest of your post, I will reply in private.
--
Carlton Joseph Wilkinson
http://excaliber.net/alex/wilkwrks.htm