Have we reached the limit? Where is it going? [Bob asks]

[Bob]

What do you think is the next step in the evolution of the piano and its repertoire?

Combining the piano with some type of technology pops into my mind.

Who's writing new music for the piano?  Or new music in general?  The newest music I've seen is so complicated a musician has to spend a huge amount of time working on one piece.  I can't imagine a lot of those pieces surviving.

[willcowskitz]

www.justintonation.net

Start retuning your pianos now, there's a lot in music that the western world of classical music hasn't had much chance to find.

[matticus]

Combining the piano with some type of technology pops into my mind.

Some composers have experimented with writing music for piano & tape, piano & live electronics, keyboards etc; but the demands of extra equipment can make performance of this kind of music tricky.

Who's writing new music for the piano?  Or new music in general?  The newest music I've seen is so complicated a musician has to spend a huge amount of time working on one piece.  I can't imagine a lot of those pieces surviving.

I can imagine some of Beethoven's contemporaries making this kind of comment...

It generally takes new repertoire a while to propogate, but I've heard several good new pieces so far this millennium: James Dillon's "Book of Elements", Birtwistle's "Harrison's Clocks", Berio's piano sonata, Lachenmann's "Serynade", Sciarrino's nocturnes. I'm sure there's a great deal more.