yurshta

The piano is tuned so that an Eb and a D# are the same black key, likewise Gb and F# or Bb and A# etc. etc. A middle C played a rank beginner will sound essentially the same as one played by the greatest modern virtuoso Vladimir Azhkenazy.

This is not the case for instruments like the violin or guitar. In reality an Eb is not exactly the same as a D# or C# not the same as Db. The piano cannot differentiate between these two close sounds. One theory including quarter tones described a 72 tone scale which is far to complicated to be usable by anyone anytime anywhere. Hindu music definitely differentiates between these subtle tones and uses a scale much more complex than the full piano Chromatic or 12 tone scale. The violinist and guitarist can slide notes and bend them somewhat, just as a good singer bringing out subtle variations, so that no performance of the same piece ever sounds exactly the same even when done by the same artist.

That's just the way the piano and other keyboard instruments like organ are set up. The average tuning was developed largely by J.S. Bach.

There is an interesting website out there if I can remember the name about voice chanting or the Buddhist practice of singing more than one note at the same time during religious chants. Done properly the human voice can create overtones which sound simultaneously with the fundamental tone for an effect that many describe as otherworldly. I forget right now the name of the website where an American woman if I remember right spent time in Tibet and learned "throat singing" or whatever she called it. Some tracks of her
creating vocal harmonics are on her website. If I can remember it later, I'll post the link here.

Creating harmonics on the piano is possible where heavy chords are played with full pedalling effects. Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor which is so well known is the best example of creating overtones or harmonics on the piano. It has been named (not by the composer) The Bells of Moscow because of this fact. Rachmaninoff's trademark was perhaps his huge chords sometimes each hand playing six notes at one time (a little pianistic trick any pianist learns sooner or later.)

According to this lady's website modern (Western) music is actually completely out of sync and out of tune which causes deplorable effects on the minds of the listeners. To some extent this is true esp. of the piano, but not so of the violin or guitar or similar instruments. The piano's version of say D#, Eb in reality is averaged so is not exactly EITHER. So the piano is definitely an instrument that is always out of tune if you want to be technical about it.

The "deplorable" effects on the spirituality of Western man she described are beyond my ability to comprehend as I, for one, do not recognize the "spiritual" realm as usually understood: supernatural blah blah. However grand music can be in the hands of a master performer, the performance is down to earth physical. All of music is essentially creating sound waves in air. No air, no music except inside one's mind, and that music is largely reconstructed from memory traces.

As for whatever I heard those few times in deep meditation, that strange otherworldly music that was indescribable both in beauty and complexity, I have no answer for that. I was taping into something, where the deepest core of myself, or something otherwise, but I don't know what. It's best to remain agnostic where insufficient data is available.