Thursday, May 19, 2011

Irving Berlin’s Piano



Irving Berlin’s piano had a lever
and by shifting around the lever he changed
the key in which his piano produced sounds.

Irving Berlin wrote all his songs by playing
in the key G-flat—that’s all the black keys plus
two white keys—and he only learned fingerings
for chords in G-flat. When he wanted to play
in another key he’d use the same chord shapes
but reset the lever which physically changed
which strings inside the piano hammers struck.

I want to meet a woman who plays the flute.

I want to meet a woman who plays the flute
on a keyboard device and when the woman
wants to play a cello she pushes levers
that modify some oscillator waveforms,
change what other oscillators modulate,
reset which harmonics pass through what filters
and reshape an amplifier envelope.

Some dinosaurs like some sounds, some like others.

Through the parking lot you have to travel light.

























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