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Microtone

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The Microtone is an interval measure that is sufficiently precise for all thinkable musical and music-science purposes. Besides its high accuracy, it is of a very high neutrality since it favors neither twelve-tonality nor even the octave.

One microtone (1µt) is defined as one millionth of the Tone.

The Microtone Challenge

A microtone is indeed a very small interval: 4904 microtones make one cent, and 5884949 an octave.

Two sounds different only by 1µt produce a very slow beat; depending on the frequency one have to wait more or less to recocnize it. The beat frequency is

  • at the upper limit of the hearing range (20 kHz) 7 minutes
  • in the range of the highest acoustic sensibility (4 kHz) 35 minutes
  • at the lower limit of the hearing range (16 Hz) 7 days

Given this, will it be ever possible to make a microtone experience at all?

German: xenharmonie/Mikroton

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