Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a

semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...

, 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 An equal temperament is a musical temperament or Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning system that approximates Just intonation, just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequency, frequencie ...

Terminology

Microtone

''Microtonal music'' can refer to any music containing microtones. The words "microtone" and "microtonal" were coined before 1912 by Maud MacCarthy Mann in order to avoid the misnomer " quarter tone" when speaking of the srutis of Indian music. Prior to this time the term "quarter tone" was used, confusingly, not only for an interval actually half the size of a semitone, but also for all intervals (considerably) smaller than a semitone. It may have been even slightly earlier, perhaps as early as 1895, that the Mexican composer Julián Carrillo, writing in Spanish or French, coined the terms ''microtono''/''micro-ton'' and ''microtonalismo''/''micro-tonalité''. In French, the usual term is the somewhat more self-explanatory ''micro-intervalle'', and French sources give the equivalent German and English terms as ''Mikrointervall'' (or ''Kleinintervall'') and ''micro interval'' (or ''microtone''), respectively. "Microinterval" is a frequent alternative in English, especially in translations of writings by French authors and in discussion of music by French composers. In English, the two terms "microtone" and "microinterval" are synonymous. The English analogue of the related French term, ''micro-intervalité'', however, is rare or nonexistent, normally being translated as "microtonality"; in French, the terms ''micro-ton'', ''microtonal'' (or ''micro-tonal''), and ''microtonalité'' are also sometimes used, occasionally mixed in the same passage with ''micro-intervale'' and ''micro-intervalité''. Ezra Sims, in the article "Microtone" in the second edition of the ''

Harvard Dictionary of Music ''The Harvard Dictionary of Music'' is a standard music reference book published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. The first edition, titled ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', was published in 1944, and was edited by Willi Apel. ...

'' defines "microtone" as "an interval smaller than a semitone", which corresponds with

Aristoxenus Aristoxenus of Tarentum (; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Ancient Greece, Greek Peripatetic school, Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musi ...

's use of the term '' diesis''. However, the unsigned article "Comma, Schisma" in the same reference source calls

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...

schisma In music, the schisma (also spelled ''skhisma'') is the interval between the syntonic comma (81:80) and the Pythagorean comma which is slightly larger. It equals or ≈ 1.00113, which corresponds to 1.9537 cents (). It may also ...

, and

diaschisma The diaschisma (or diacisma) is a small interval (music), musical interval defined as the difference between three octaves and four perfect fifths plus two just major third, major thirds (in just intonation). It can be represented by the ratio 2 ...

"microintervals" but not "microtones", and in the fourth edition of the same reference (which retains Sims's article on "Microtone") a new "Comma, Schisma" article by André Barbera calls them simply "intervals". In the second edition of ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', Paul Griffiths,

Mark Lindley Mark Lindley (born 11 February 1937) is a musicologist, historian of modern India, and a teacher of economics. Born in Washington, D.C., he studied at Harvard University (A.B.), the Juilliard School of Music (M.S.) and Columbia University (D. Phi ...

, and Ioannis Zannos define "microtone" as a musical rather than an acoustical entity: "any musical interval or difference of pitch distinctly smaller than a semitone", including "the tiny

enharmonic In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that ar ...

melodic intervals of

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, the several divisions of the

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

into more than 12 parts, and various discrepancies among the intervals of

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is a musical tuning, tuning system in which the space between notes' frequency, frequencies (called interval (music), intervals) is a natural number, whole number ratio, ratio. Intervals spaced in thi ...

or between a sharp and its enharmonically paired flat in various forms of mean-tone temperament", as well as the Indian sruti, and small intervals used in

Byzantine chant Byzantine music () originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of East ...

, Arabic music theory from the 10th century onward, and similarly for

Persian traditional music Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music or Iranian classical music, refers to the classical music of Iran (historically known as '' Persia''). It consists of characteristics developed through ...

and Turkish music and various other Near Eastern musical traditions, but do not actually name the "mathematical" terms schisma, comma, and diaschisma. "Microtone" is also sometimes used to refer to individual notes, "microtonal pitches" added to and distinct from the familiar twelve notes of the chromatic scale, as "enharmonic microtones", for example. In English the word "microtonality" is mentioned in 1946 by Rudi Blesh who related it to microtonal inflexions of the so-called " blues scales". In Court B. Cutting's 2019 ''Microtonal Analysis of “Blues Notes” and the Blues Scale'', he states that academic studies of the early blues concur that its pitch scale has within it three microtonal “blue notes” not found in 12 tone equal temperament intonation. It was used still earlier by W. McNaught with reference to developments in "modernism" in a 1939 record review of the ''Columbia History of Music, Vol. 5''. In German the term ''Mikrotonalität'' came into use at least by 1958, though "Mikrointervall" is still common today in contexts where very small intervals of early European tradition (diesis, comma, etc.) are described, as e.g. in the new ''Geschichte der Musiktheorie'' while "Mikroton" seems to prevail in discussions of the

avant-garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elem ...

and music of Eastern traditions. The term "microinterval" is used alongside "microtone" by American musicologist Margo Schulter in her articles on

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

Microtonal

The term "microtonal music" usually refers to music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from Western twelve-tone

. Traditional Indian systems of 22

śruti ''Śruti'' or shruti (, , ) in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism. Manusmriti states: ''Śrutistu vedo vijñeyaḥ'' (Devanagari: ...

; Indonesian gamelan music; Thai, Burmese, and African music, and music using

meantone temperament Meantone temperaments are musical temperaments; that is, a variety of Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning systems constructed, similarly to Pythagorean tuning, as a sequence of equal fifths, both rising and descending, scaled to remain within th ...

or other alternative tunings may be considered microtonal. Microtonal variation of intervals is standard practice in the African-American musical forms of spirituals,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. Many microtonal equal divisions of the octave have been proposed, usually (but not always) in order to achieve approximation to the intervals of

. Terminology other than "microtonal" has been used or proposed by some theorists and composers. In 1914, A. H. Fox Strangways objected that "'heterotone' would be a better name for śruti than the usual translation 'microtone'". Modern Indian researchers yet write: "microtonal intervals called shrutis". In Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in the 1910s and 1920s the usual term continued to be ''Viertelton-Musik'' (quarter tone music), and the type of intervallic structure found in such music was called the ''Vierteltonsystem'', which was (in the mentioned region) regarded as the main term for referring to music with microintervals, though as early as 1908 Georg Capellan had qualified his use of "quarter tone" with the alternative term "Bruchtonstufen (Viertel- und Dritteltöne)" (fractional degrees (quarter and third tones)). Despite the inclusion of other fractions of a whole tone, this music continued to be described under the heading "Vierteltonmusik" until at least the 1990s, for example in the twelfth edition of the '' Riemann Musiklexikon'', and in the second edition of the popular ''Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon''. Ivan Wyschnegradsky used the term ''ultra-chromatic'' for intervals smaller than the semitone and ''infra-chromatic'' for intervals larger than the semitone; this same term has been used since 1934 by ethnomusicologist Victor Belaiev (Belyaev) in his studies of Azerbaijan and Turkish traditional music. A similar term, ''subchromatic'', has been used by theorist Marek Žabka. Ivor Darreg proposed the term ''xenharmonic'' in March 1966; see xenharmonic music. The

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n composer and the music theorist Rolf Maedel, Herf's colleague at the Salzburg Mozarteum, preferred using the Greek word ''ekmelic'' when referring to "all the pitches lying outside the traditional twelve-tone system". Some authors in Russia and some musicology dissertations disseminate the term ''микрохроматика'' (microchromatics), coined in the 1970s by Yuri Kholopov, to describe a kind of 'intervallic genus' ( интервальный род) for all possible microtonal structures, both ancient (as enharmonic genus—γένος ἐναρμόνιον—of Greeks) and modern (as quarter tone scales of Alois Haba); this generalization term allowed also to avoid derivatives such as ''микротональность'' (microtonality, which could be understood in Russian as a sub-

tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitch (music), pitches and / or chord (music), chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived ''relations'', ''stabilities'', ''attractions'', and ''directionality''. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or ...

, which is subordinate to the dominating tonality, especially in the context of European music of the 19th century) and ''микротоника'' (microtonic, "a barely perceptible tonic"; see a clarification in Kholopov

000 Triple zero, Zero Zero Zero, 0-0-0 or variants may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * 000, the size of several small List of screw drives, screw drives * 0-0-0, a Droid (Star Wars)#0-0-0, dro ...

. Other Russian authors use the more international adjective 'microtonal' and have rendered it in Russian as 'микротоновый', but not 'microtonality' ('микротональность'). However, the terms 'микротональность' and 'микротоника' are also used. Some authors writing in French have adopted the term "micro-intervallique" to describe such music. Italian musicologist Luca Conti dedicated two of his monographs to ''microtonalismo'', which is the usual term in Italian, and also in Spanish (e.g., as found in the title of Rué

. The analogous English form, "microtonalism", is also found occasionally instead of "microtonality", e.g., "At the time when serialism and neoclassicism were still incipient a third movement emerged: microtonalism". The term "macrotonal" has been used for intervals wider than twelve-tone equal temperament, or where there are "fewer than twelve notes per octave", though "this term is not very satisfactory and is used only because there seems to be no other". The term "macrotonal" has also been used for musical form. Examples of this can be found in various places, ranging from

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's impressionistic harmonies to

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

's chords of stacked fifths, to

John Luther Adams John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska, where he lived from 1978 to 2014. His orchestral work ''Become Ocean'' was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize ...

' ''Clouds of Forgetting'', ''Clouds of Unknowing'' (1995), which gradually expands stacked-interval chords ranging from minor 2nds to major 7thsm. Louis Andriessen's ''De Staat'' (1972–1976) contains a number of "augmented" modes that are based on Greek scales but are asymmetrical to the octave.

History

The Hellenic civilizations of ancient Greece left fragmentary records of their music, such as the Delphic Hymns. The ancient Greeks approached the creation of different musical intervals and modes by dividing and combining

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...

s, recognizing three

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

of tetrachords: the enharmonic, the chromatic, and the diatonic. Ancient Greek intervals were of many different sizes, including microtones. The enharmonic genus in particular featured intervals of a distinctly "microtonal" nature, which were sometimes smaller than 50 cents, less than half of the contemporary

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

of 100 cents. In the ancient Greek enharmonic genus, the tetrachord contained a semitone of varying sizes (approximately 100 cents) divided into two equal intervals called dieses (single "diesis", ); in conjunction with a larger interval of roughly 400 cents, these intervals comprised the perfect fourth (approximately 498 cents, or the frequency ratio of in

). Theoretics usually described several diatonic and chromatic genera (some as chroai, "coloration" of one specific intervallic type), but the enarmonic genus was always the only one (argumented as one with the smallest intervals possible). Archicembalo en Cents

Guillaume Costeley's "Chromatic Chanson", "Seigneur Dieu ta pitié" of 1558 used meantone (which almost exactly equals

19 equal temperament In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO ("Equal Division of the Octave"), 19-ED2 ("Equal Division of 2:1) or 19 Equal temperament, ET, is the musical temperament, tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps ...

) and explored the full compass of 19 pitches in the octave. The Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

composer and theorist

Nicola Vicentino Nicola Vicentino (1511 – 1575 or 1576) was an Italian music theory, music theorist and composer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance. He was one of the most progressive musicians of the age, inventing, among other things, a microtonal keyb ...

(1511–1576) worked with microtonal intervals and built a keyboard with 36 keys to the octave known as the archicembalo. While theoretically an interpretation of ancient Greek tetrachordal theory, in effect Vicentino presented a circulating system of quarter-comma meantone, maintaining major thirds tuned in

in all keys. In 1760 the French flautist published a treatise, ''L'Art de la flute traversiere'', all surviving copies of which conclude with a composition (possibly added a year or two after the actual publication of the volume) incorporating several quarter tones, titled ''Air à la grecque'', accompanied by explanatory notes tying it to the realization of the Greek enharmonic genus and a chart of quarter tone fingerings for the entire range of the one-keyed flute. Shortly afterward, in a letter published in the ''Mercure de France'' in September 1764, the celebrated flautist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin mentioned this piece and expressed an interest in quarter tones for the flute. Jacques Fromental Halévy composed a cantata "Prométhée enchaîné" for a solo voice, choir and orchestra (premiered in 1849), where in one movement (''Choeur des Océanides'') he used quarter tones, to imitate the enharmonic genus of Greeks. In the 1910s and 1920s, quarter tones received attention from such composers as

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...

, Julián Carrillo, Alois Hába, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, and Mildred Couper.

Alexander John Ellis Alexander John Ellis (14 June 1814 – 28 October 1890) was an English mathematician, philologist and early phonetician who also influenced the field of musicology. He changed his name from his father's name, Sharpe, to his mother's maiden nam ...

, who in the 1880s produced a translation of Hermann Helmholtz's ''On the Sensations of Tone'', proposed an elaborate set of exotic just intonation tunings and non-harmonic tunings. Ellis also studied the tunings of non-Western cultures and, in a report to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, stated that they used neither equal divisions of the octave nor just intonation intervals. Ellis inspired Harry Partch immensely. During the Exposition Universelle of 1889,

heard a Balinese

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

performance and was exposed to non-Western tunings and rhythms. Some scholars have ascribed Debussy's subsequent innovative use of the whole-tone (six equal pitches per octave) tuning in such compositions as the ''Fantaisie for piano and orchestra'' and the Toccata from the suite '' Pour le piano'' to his exposure to the Balinese gamelan at the Paris exposition, and have asserted his rebellion at this time "against the rule of

" and that the gamelan gave him "the confidence to embark (after the 1900 world exhibition) on his fully characteristic mature piano works, with their many bell- and gong-like sonorities and brilliant exploitation of the piano's natural resonance". Still others have argued that Debussy's works like '' L'isle joyeuse'', '' La cathédrale engloutie'', '' Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'', '' La mer'', '' Pagodes'', '' Danseuses de Delphes'', and '' Cloches à travers les feuilles'' are marked by a more basic interest in the microtonal intervals found between the higher members of the overtone series, under the influence of Helmholtz's writings. Emil Berliner's introduction of the phonograph in the 1890s allowed much non-Western music to be recorded and heard by Western composers, further spurring the use of non- tunings. Major microtonal composers of the 1920s and 1930s include Alois Hába (quarter tones, or 24 equal pitches per octave, and sixth tones), Julián Carrillo ( , 36, 48, 60, 72, and 96 equal pitches to the octave embodied in a series of specially custom-built pianos), Ivan Wyschnegradsky (third tones, quarter tones, sixth tones and twelfth tones, non octaving scales) and the early works of Harry Partch (just intonation using frequencies at ratios of prime integers 3, 5, 7, and 11, their powers, and products of those numbers, from a central frequency of G-196). Prominent microtonal composers or researchers of the 1940s and 1950s include Adriaan Daniel Fokker ( ), Partch (continuing to build his handcrafted orchestra of microtonal just intonation instruments), and

Eivind Groven Eivind Groven (8 October 1901 – 8 February 1977) was a Norwegian composer and music-theorist. He was from the traditional region of Vest-Telemark and had a background in the folk music of the area. Biography Groven was born in the village ...

. Digital synthesizers from the Yamaha TX81Z (1987) on and inexpensive software synthesizers have contributed to the ease and popularity of exploring microtonal music.

Microtonality in electronic music

Electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

facilitates the use of any kind of microtonal tuning, and sidesteps the need to develop new notational systems. In 1954,

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

built his electronic '' Studie II'' on an 81-step scale starting from 100 Hz with the interval of 5^1/25 between steps, and in '' Gesang der Jünglinge'' (1955–56) he used various scales, ranging from seven up to sixty equal divisions of the octave. In 1955, Ernst Krenek used 13 equal-tempered intervals per octave in his Whitsun oratorio, ''Spiritus intelligentiae, sanctus''. In 1979–80 Easley Blackwood composed a set of '' Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media,'' a cycle that explores all of the equal temperaments from 13 notes to the octave through 24 notes to the octave, including 15-ET and 19-ET. "The project," he wrote, "was to explore the tonal and modal behavior of all

f these F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounc ...

equal tunings..., devise a notation for each tuning, and write a composition in each tuning to illustrate good chord progressions and the practical application of the notation". In 1986,

Wendy Carlos Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos; November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer known for electronic music and film scores. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before moving to New Y ...

experimented with many microtonal systems including

, using alternate tuning scales she invented for the album ''

Beauty In the Beast ''Beauty in the Beast'' is a studio album from the American keyboardist and composer Wendy Carlos, released in 1986, on Audion Records, her first for a label other than Columbia Records since 1968. The album uses alternate musical tunings and mus ...

''. "This whole formal discovery came a few weeks after I had completed the album, ''Beauty in the Beast'', which is wholly in new tunings and timbres". In 2016, electronic music composed with arbitrary microtonal scales was explored on the album ''Radionics Radio: An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies'' by British composer Daniel Wilson, who derived his compositions' tunings from frequency-runs submitted by users of a custom-built

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

replicating radionics-based electronic soundmaking equipment used by Oxford's De La Warr Laboratories in the late 1940s, thereby supposedly embodying thoughts and concepts within the tunings. Finnish artist Aleksi Perälä works exclusively in a microtonal system known as the Colundi sequence.

Limitations of some synthesizers

The

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

1.0 specification does not directly support microtonal music, because each note-on and note-off message only represents one chromatic tone. However, microtonal scales can be emulated using pitch bending, such as in

LilyPond LilyPond is a computer program and file format for music engraving. One of LilyPond's major goals is to produce scores that are engraved with traditional layout rules, reflecting the era when scores were engraved by hand. LilyPond is cross-pla ...

's implementation. Although some synthesizers allow the creation of customized microtonal scales, this solution does not allow compositions to be transposed. For example, if each B note is raised one quarter tone, then the "raised 7th" would only affect a C major scale.

Microtonality in rock music

Early microtonal guitars focused on issues with the 12-tone equal temperament system. In 1829, Thomas Perronet Thompson designed the Enharmonic Guitar that featured small holes where frets could be inserted. Later developments from Luthier René Lacôte and Paul Kochendorfer include an adjustable ebony-mounted frets and levers to simultaneously adjust multiple frets. A form of microtone known as the blue note is an integral part of

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

and one of its predecessors, the blues. The blue notes, located on the third, fifth, and seventh notes of a diatonic major scale, are flattened by a variable microtone. Joe Monzo has made a microtonal analysis of the song "Drunken Hearted Man", written and recorded by the delta blues musician

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

. Musicians such as Jon Catler have incorporated microtonal guitars like 31-tone equal tempered guitar and a 62-tone

guitar in blues and

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

music. English rock band

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

has used microtonal string arrangements in their music, such as on "How to Disappear Completely" from the album '' Kid A''. American band

Secret Chiefs 3 Secret Chiefs 3 (or SC3) is an American experimental rock group led by guitarist/composer Trey Spruance (of Mr. Bungle and formerly, Faith No More). Their studio recordings and tours have featured different lineups, as the group performs a wide ...

has been making its own custom "microtonal" instruments since the mid 1990s. The proprietary tuning system they use in their '' Ishraqiyun'' aspect is ratio-based, not equal temperament. The band's leader Trey Spruance, also of Mr. Bungle, challenges the terminology of "microtonality" as a development that instead of liberating tonal sensibility to a universe of diverse possibilities, both new and historical, instead mainly serves to reinforce the idea that the universal standard for "tone" is the (western) semitone. Australian band

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (KGLW) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Coo ...

utilises microtonal instruments, including custom microtonal guitars modified to play in 24-TET tuning. Tracks with these instruments appear on their 2017 albums '' Flying Microtonal Banana'' and '' Gumboot Soup'', their 2020 album '' K.G'', and their 2021 album '' L.W.'' American band Horse Lords uses

, playing hand-modified guitars with repositioned frets. American band The Mercury Tree began incorporating microtonality in their 2014 album ''Countenance'', using quarter tones on the song "Vestigial". In their 2016 album ''Permutations'', they continued exploring quarter tones, and the track "Ether / Ore" was composed using the Carlos Alpha tuning. Their 2018 collaborative EP with Cryptic Ruse, titled ''Cryptic Tree'', utilized both 23-TET and 17-TET. The 2019 album ''Spidermilk'' and the 2023 album ''Self Similar'' both feature 17 notes per octave, with the latter also including tracks in 34-TET and 68-TET. Ventifacts, a prog-rock and folk songwriting duo between Ben Spees (of The Mercury Tree) and Damon Waitkus (of Jack O' the Clock) have made music which is exclusively microtonal. The tuning systems they use are free pitch, 24-TET, 17-TET, 22-TET, 10-TET and 20-TET. American band Dollshot used quarter tones and other microtonal intervals in their album ''Lalande''. American instrumental trio Consider the Source employs microtonal instruments in their music.{{Citation needed, date=July 2020 Australian alternative musician Jack Tickner uses a

guitar in releases like his 2018 EP ''Reassuring Weight''.

In the West

{{more citations needed section, date=July 2016

Western microtonal pioneers

{{div col, colwidth=27em * Henry Ward Poole (keyboard designs, 1825–1890) * Eugène Ysaÿe (Belgium, U.S.A., 1858–1931, used quarter tones in several of the Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27) *

Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...

(Italy, Germany, 1866–1924). Experimented with microtones, including third tones. *

(U.S.A., 1874–1954, quarter tones) * Julián Carrillo (Mexico, 1875–1965) many different equal temperaments, loo
here
o

(mostly Spanish but some English too) *

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

(Hungary, 1881–1945, rare uses of quarter tones) *

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanians, Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Biography En ...

(Romania, France, 1881–1955) (in '' Œdipe'' to suggest the enharmonic genus of ancient Greek music, and in the Third Violin Sonata, as inflections characteristic of Romanian folk music) *

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early w ...

(Poland, 1882–1937, used quarter tones on the violin in ''

Myths Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

'' Op. 30, 1915) * Percy Grainger (Australia, 1882–1961, particularly works for his "free music machine") *

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

(France, U.S.A., 1883–1965) * Mordecai Sandberg (Romania, Austria, Palestine, USA, Canada, 1897–1973) * Luigi Russolo (Italy, 1885–1947, used quarter tones and eighth tones on the ''Intonarumori'', noise instruments) * Mildred Couper (U.S.A., 1887–1974, quarter tones) * Alois Hába (Czechoslovakia, 1893–1973, quarter tones and other equal temperaments) * Ivan Wyschnegradsky (U.S.S.R. (Russia), France, 1893–1979, quarter tones, twelfth tones and other equal temperaments) * Harry Partch (U.S.A., 1901–1974, just intonation, including a system of 43 unequal tones to the octave) *

(Norway, 1901–1977, 53ET) * Henk Badings (The Netherlands, 1907–1987, 31ET) * Maurice Ohana (France, 1913–1992, third tones (18ET) and quarter tones (24ET) most particularly) * Giacinto Scelsi (Italy, 1905–1988, intuitive linear tone deviations, quarter tones, eighth tones) * Lou Harrison (U.S.A., 1917–2003, just intonation) * Ivor Darreg (U.S.A., 1917–1994) * Jean-Etienne Marie (France, 1919–1989, many different equal temperaments: 18ET, 24ET, 30ET, 36ET, 48ET, 96ET most particularly and polymicrotonality) * {{ill, Franz Richter Herf, de, , nl (Austria, 1920–1989, 72-equal temperament, "ekmelic" music) * Iannis Xenakis (Greece, France, 1922–2001, quarter and third tones most particularly, occasionally eighth tones) *

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

(Hungary, 1923–2006, '' Ramifications'' in quarter tone tuning, natural harmonics in his Horn Trio, later just intonation in his solo concertos) * Luigi Nono (Italy, 1924–1990, quarter tones, eighth tones and 16th tones) * Claude Ballif (France, 1924–2004, quarter tones) * Tui St. George Tucker (1924–2004) *

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

(France, 1925–2016) (first example of serial music with quarter tones in his pieces '' Le Visage nuptial'' and '' Polyphonie X'', but soon after abandoning microtonal elements) *

(Germany, 1928–2007, used and explored in his electronic works many microtonal concepts, non-octaving scales in ''Studie II'', just intonation in '' Gruppen'' and '' Stimmung'', occasional microtonal instrumental and vocal writing throughout '' Licht'') * Ben Johnston (U.S.A., 1926–2019, extended just intonation) * Joe Maneri (U.S.A., 1927–2009) * Ezra Sims (U.S.A., 1928–2015, 72-tone equal temperament) * Erv Wilson (1928–2016) * Carlton Gamer (U.S.A, 1929–2023, 7-tone, 19-tone, 22-tone, 31-tone equal temperament) * Alvin Lucier (U.S.A., b. 1931) * Joel Mandelbaum (U.S.A., b. 1932) * Krzysztof Penderecki (Poland, 1933–2020, quarter tones) * Easley Blackwood (1933–2023) * Alain Bancquart (France, b. 1934) (quarter tones and 16th tones) * James Tenney (U.S.A., 1934–2006, just intonation, 72-tone equal temperament) *

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...

(U.S.A., b. 1935, just intonation) *

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...

(U.S.A., b. 1935, just intonation) * John Corigliano (U.S.A., b. 1938, quarter tones) * Douglas Leedy (b. 1938, just intonation, meantone) *

(U.S.A., b. 1939, non-octaving scales) * Bruce Mather (Canada, b. 1939, different equal temperaments, following Wyschnegradsky) *

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

(Great Britain, b. 1943, quarter tones, 31ET in ''Unity Capsule'' for solo flute, 1976; quarter tones and eighth tones in ''La Chute d'Icare'', 1988) * Jukka Tiensuu (Finland, b. 1948, quarter tones, non equal temperament tunings) * Mathius Shadow-Sky (France, b. 1961, introduces acyclic nonoctave scales in 1980) {{div col end

Modern Western microtonal composers

{{div col, colwidth=27em * Clarence Barlow (1945–2023) * Gérard Grisey (1946–1998) (spectral approach to microintervals, quarter tones, eighth tones) * Max Méreaux (b. 1946) * Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) (b.1944) * Tristan Murail (b. 1947) (spectral approach to microintervals, quarter tones, eighth tones) *

Glenn Branca Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American avant-garde music, avant-garde composer, guitarist, and luthier. Known for his use of volume, scordatura, alternative guitar tunings, minimal music, repetition, drone (music), dronin ...

(b. 1948) * Elizabeth Brown (b. 1953) * Claude Vivier (1948–1983) * Dean Drummond (1949–2013) * Greg Schiemer (b. 1949) * Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949) * Warren Burt (b. 1949) * Manfred Stahnke (b. 1951) * James Erber (b. 1951) (quarter tones) * Rhys Chatham (b. 1952) * Kraig Grady (b. 1952) (invented acoustic instruments in just intonation & recurrent sequences) *

David First David First (born August 20, 1953) is an American composer and guitarist. His music most often deals with drones and interference beats, the latter aligning his music with that of Alvin Lucier. He has led the World Casio Quartet, Joy Buzz ...

(b. 1953) * Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) * James Wood (b. 1953) * Pascale Criton (b. 1954) (different equal temperaments, most particularly very dense ETs such as the 96ET) * Paul Dirmeikis (b. 1954) * Stephen James Taylor (b. 1954) * Pascal Dusapin (b. 1955) (different equal temperaments, notably the 48ET) * Kyle Gann (b. 1955) * Johnny Reinhard (b. 1956) (different equal temperaments, just intonation, polymicrotonally) * Dave Soldier (b. 1956) * Eric Mandat (b. 1957) * Erling Wold (b. 1958) * Michael Bach Bachtischa (b. 1958) * Lucio Garau (b. 1959) * Michael Harrison (b. 1959) (just intonation) * Martin Smolka (b. 1959) * Richard Barrett (b. 1959) * Georg Hajdu (b. 1960) * William Susman (b. 1960) * François Paris (b. 1961) * Franklin Cox (b. 1961) (quarter tones, twelfth tones, extended just intonation) * Daniel James Wolf (b. 1961) * Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (b. 1962) (quarter tones, eight tones) * Harold Fortuin (b. 1964) * Marc Sabat (b. 1965) (extended JI up to 23-limit) * Georges Lentz (b. 1965) * Jeffrey Ching (b. 1965) (quarter tones, ancient Chinese tunings, e.g. circle-of-fifths and just intonation) * Geoff Smith (b. 1966) * Peter Thoegersen (b. 1967) (Polymicrotonality) * Trey Spruance (b. 1969) * Elaine Walker (b. 1969) * Richard David James, aka Aphex Twin (b. 1971) *

Paweł Mykietyn Paweł Jan Mykietyn (Polish pronunciation: ; born 20 May 1971) is a Polish award-winning composer and clarinetist. By the year 2012, Mykietyn had written two symphonies, cello, piano and violin concertos, St. Marc Passions for soprano, narrator ...

(b. 1971) * Yitzhak Yedid (b. 1971) * Fabio Costa (composer, conductor) (b. 1971) * Sander Germanus (b. 1972) * Yuri Landman (b. 1973) * Kristoffer Zegers (b. 1973) * Karola Obermueller (b. 1977) * Martin Suckling (b. 1981) * Saman Samadi (b. 1984) * Taylor Brook (b. 1985) * Michael Waller (b. 1985) * Mick Gordon (b. 1985) * Sean Archibald, aka Sevish, (b. 1988) *

Seppe Gebruers Seppe Gebruers (born May 9, 1990) is a Belgian musician, composer and improvisor. He is also a teacher and researcher at KASK conservatory Ghent. Gebruers plays both solo and in bands. His work ranges from jazz to contemporary classical music. G ...

(b. 1990)the quartertone pianos: http://www.playingwithstandards.com * Robin Haigh (b. 1993) * Jacob Collier (b. 1994) {{div col end

Western microtonal researchers

{{div col, colwidth=19em * Mordecai Sandberg (1897–1973) *

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ...

(1629–1695) * Julián Carrillo (1875–1965) * Adriaan Daniël Fokker (1887–1972) * Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893–1979) * Joseph Yasser (1893–1981) * Alois Hába (1893–1973) * Harry Partch (1901–1974) * Alain Daniélou (1907–1994) * Jean-Etienne Marie (1917–1989) * Erv Wilson (1928–2016) * Carlton Gamer (1929-2023) * Joel Mandelbaum (b. 1932) * James Tenney (1934–2006) *

(b. 1990) * Tom Zé (b. 1936) * Clarence Barlow (1945–2023) * Valeri Brainin (b. 1948) * Jacques Dudon (b. 1951) * William Sethares (b. 1955) * Georg Hajdu (b. 1960) * Bob Gilmore (1961–2015) * Marc Sabat (b. 1965) * Mathius Shadow-Sky (b. 1961) the nonoctave polyscalar music theory published online: http://centrebombe.org/dansleciel,lebruitdel'ombre.html#nonoctave {{div col end

References

{{Reflist

External links

{{commons category, Microtonal music * Aikin, Jim. 2003
Jim Aikin's article on alternative tuning in electronic music
* Anon. .d.
Nicola Vicentino (1511–1576)
. IVO: Sacred Music in the Italian Cinquecento outside Venice and Rome, edited by Chris Whent. Here Of A Sunday Morning website. (Accessed 19 August 2008) * Chalmers, John

* Loli, Charles. 2008.
Microtonalismo
. (Article on alternative tuning in Peruvian music) * Solís Winkler, Ernesto. 2004.

. (Accessed 19 August 2008) * Wilson, Erv.
Wilson Archives of papers on microtonal theory

Listen – Xenharmonic Wiki
– links to microtonal composers and compositions
Projects – Xenharmonic Wiki
– links to microtonal projects around the world
Offtonic Microtonal Synthesizer
a browser-based synth to explore microtonal tunings with a QWERTY keyboard
MidiPro.org
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123184038/http://midipro.org/ , date=2020-11-23 allows any sound card or synthesizer to play 48 microtones per octave, each separated by 1/8 step {{Microtonal music, state=expanded {{Musical tuning {{Timbre {{Modernism (music) {{Authority control

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Ancient Greek music Post-tonal music theory