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| "Microtonal"/"microtone" is a term closely related to xenharmonic music that sometimes generates some confusion.
| | #REDIRECT [[Microtonal music]] |
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| == Definition ==
| | [[Category:Terms]] |
| Dictionaries define microtonal music as music that employs intervals smaller than a semitone.
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| == History ==
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| Sometime before 1900, composer Julián Carrillo Trujillo performed experiments on a violin string, using a razor blade to achieve very precise intervals smaller than a semitone, which he called "microtono." Over a decade later, the music theorist Maud MacCarthy Mann began using the term "microtone" to describe Indian sruti intervals that were smaller than a semitone, to differentiate them from quarter tones. In the 1910's and 1920's, there was some discussion as to whether the term was appropriate, or if competing terms, such as "heterotone" or "fraction-tone" etc., would be clearer. By the 1930's, with interest in American Blues music booming, and with people like [[Ivor Darreg]] becoming active with new tuning methods, many more terms were proposed, but the terms "microtonal" and "xenharmonic" were most prominent in the English language by the end of the decade.
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| == Colloquial use ==
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| Generally, in colloquial use, "microtonal music" is any music that isn't [[12edo]], even if it is in a tuning system that does not use any intervals less than a 12edo semitone step.
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