Editing Microtonality (section)

{{short description|Use in music of microtones (intervals smaller than a semitone)}}
{{For|sounds on the time scale shorter than musical notes|microsound}}
{{Redirect|Microtone|the slicing tool|Microtome}}
{{Image frame|width=250
|content=<score>{ \new Staff \with{ \magnifyStaff #2 \omit Score.TimeSignature } { \fixed c' <c disih g aisih>1 } }</score>
|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 tonality<ref>{{cite book | last = Boatwright | first = Howard | year = 1971 | chapter = Ives' Quarter-Tone Impressions | title = Perspectives on American Composers | editor1-first = Benjamin | editor1-last = Boretz | editor2-first = Edward T. | editor2-last = Cone | pages = 8–9 | location = Princeton | publisher = Princeton University Press | isbn = 978-0-393-02155-4}}</ref><br>[[File:Ives fundamental chord (quarter tones).ogg]]<br>[[File:Ives quarter tone fundamental chord arp.mid]]<br>Two examples of an Ives fundamental chord with quarter tones
}}

'''Microtonality''' is the use in music of microtones — [[interval (music)|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 [[Equal temperament#Twelve-tone equal temperament|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]].