Microtonal music: Difference between revisions

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== Terminology ==

Many dictionaries define microtonal music as music that employs intervals smaller than a semitone. However, in contemporary practice, "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.

Several terms have been proposed with more or less similar definitions. A notable example is "'''xenharmonic music'''", coined by [[Ivor Darreg]], which describes music that sounds significantly different from 12edo.

== History ==

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.

== See also ==

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* [[Whynotnot by Carlos Augusto Scalassara Prando]]

* [[Microtone]]

* [[Microtonal]]

* [[Mesotonal]]

* [[Approaches to musical tuning]]

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 == Terminology ==
+Many dictionaries define microtonal music as music that employs intervals smaller than a semitone. However, in contemporary practice, "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.
 Several terms have been proposed with more or less similar definitions. A notable example is "'''xenharmonic music'''", coined by [[Ivor Darreg]], which describes music that sounds significantly different from 12edo.
+== History ==
+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.
 == See also ==
@@ Line 16: / Line 21: @@
 * [[Whynotnot by Carlos Augusto Scalassara Prando]]
 * [[Microtone]]
-* [[Microtonal]]
 * [[Mesotonal]]
 * [[Approaches to musical tuning]]