microtonal music
Sign in to saveAlso known as microtonalism, microtonality, microtonic music
Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal intervals per octave. In other words, a microtone may be thought of as a note that falls "between the keys" of a piano tuned in equal temperament.
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- Commons category
- Microtonal music
- topic's main category
- Category:Microtonality
- different from
- microtome
- facet of
- modernism
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~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
15 sectionsContents
- Terminology
- Microtone
- Microtonal
- History
- Microtonality in electronic music
- Limitations of some synthesizers
- Microtonality in rock music
- In the West
- Western microtonal pioneers
- Later Western microtonal composers
- Western microtonal researchers
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
{{Image frame|width=175 |content={ \new Staff \with{ \omit Score.TimeSignature } { \fixed c' 1 } } |caption=Composer Charles Ives chose the chord above as a good candidate for a "fundamental" chord in the quarter tone scale, akin not to the tonic but to the major chord of traditional tonalityFile:Ives fundamental chord (quarter tones).oggFile:Ives quarter tone fundamental chord arp.midTwo examples of an Ives fundamental chord with quarter tones }}
Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal intervals per octave. In other words, a microtone may be thought of as a note that falls "between the keys" of a piano tuned in equal temperament.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “microtonal music” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.