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Article ID: CBB001550724

Captivating Technologies: Reflections on the Equal-Tempered Diatonic Keyboard (January 2015)

Avanti, Peter (Author)

Technology and Culture
Volume: 56
Issue: 1
Pages: 150-183

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2015.0003

ISSN: 0040-165x

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This reflection on the diatonic keyboard and associated technologies in Western musical culture connects several histories not often related: music technology, production, the modern Western concept of knowledge and truth through reason, and the social or ethico-aesthetics of musical culture and their relation to Eurocentric ideology. I begin with observations on the Euro-American cultural embrace of instrumental reason, technology, and technological systems, particularly their relation to musical technologies, both hardware and software: mechanics, tuning, notation, publishing, manufacturing, electronics. Then I briefly revise the history of the keyboard, its emergence in Western musical culture from the ancient Greek/Egyptian hydraulis/organ to the equal-tempered pianoforte to the keyboard switches of today's digital synthesizers and controllers. Finally, with a nod toward the disruptions and aspirations of African American and European avant-garde innovations and experimentation, I offer considerations on the diatonic keyboard's continuing importance for today's musical culture and its tools of production.

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