Editing Microtonality (section)

==Terminology==

=== Microtone ===
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|caption=[[Quarter tone]] [[Accidental (music)|accidentals]] residing outside the Western [[semitone]]: <br>quarter tone flat, [[flat (music)|flat]], (two variants of) three quarter tones flat;<br>quarter tone sharp, [[Sharp (music)|sharp]], three quarter tones sharp
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''Microtonal music'' can refer to any music containing microtones. The words "microtone" and "microtonal" were coined before 1912 by [[Maud MacCarthy (Omananda Puri)|Maud MacCarthy Mann]] in order to avoid the misnomer "[[quarter tone]]" when speaking of the [[Shruti (music)|srutis]] of Indian music.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Mann | first = Maud (MacCarthy) | date = 16 January 1912 | title = Some Indian Conceptions of Music |journal=Proceedings of the Musical Association, 38th Session (1911–1912) | page = 44}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal | author-link = Alexander John Ellis | last = Ellis | first = Alexander J. | date = 25 May 1877 | title = On the Measurement and Settlement of Musical Pitch |journal=[[Journal of the Society of Arts]]| volume = 25 | number = 1279 | page = 665}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Meyer | first = Max | date = July–October 1903 | title = Experimental Studies in the Psychology of Music |journal=[[American Journal of Psychology]]| volume = 14 | number = 3–4 | pages = 192–214| doi = 10.2307/1412315 | jstor = 1412315 }}</ref> 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''.<ref name=Donval-2006-p119>{{cite book | last = Donval | first = Serge | date = 2006 | title = Histoire de l'acoustique musicale | location = Courlay | publisher = Fuzeau | isbn = 978-2-84169-152-4 | type = paperback | page = 119}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | author-link = Gilbert Amy | last = Amy | first = Gilbert | date = 1961 | contribution = Micro-intervalle | encyclopedia = Encyclopédie de la musique | editor-first = François | editor-last = Michel | others = in collaboration with [[François Lesure]] and Vladimir Fèdorov | location = Paris | publisher = Fasquelle}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qQcTAQAAMAAJ&q=%22micro-intervalle%22 | entry = Micro-intervalle | encyclopedia = Nouveau Larousse encyclopédique | edition = Second | editor-first = Yves | editor-last = Garnier | volume = 2: Kondratiev-Zythum | page = 1011 | location = Paris | publisher = Larousse | isbn = 978-2-03-153132-6| title = Nouveau Larousse encyclopédique: Kondratiev-Zythum | year = 1998 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Wallon | first = Simone | year = 1980 | title = L'allemand musicologique | series = Guides Musicologiques | location = Paris | publisher = Editions Beauchesne | isbn = 2-7010-1011-X | page = 13}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Whitfield | first = Charles | year = 1989 | title = L'anglais musicologique: l'anglais des musiciens | series = Guides Musicologiques | location = Paris | publisher = Editions Beauchesne | isbn = 2-7010-1181-7 | page = 13}}</ref> "Microinterval" is a frequent alternative in English, especially in translations of writings by French authors and in discussion of music by French composers.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Battier | first1 = Marc | first2 = Thierry | last2 = Lacino | date = 1984 | title = Simulation and Extrapolation of Instrumental Sounds Using Direct Synthesis at IRCAM (''A Propos'' of ''Resonance'') | journal = Contemporary Music Review | volume = 1 (Musical Thought at IRCAM, edited by Tod Machover) | pages = 77–82| doi = 10.1080/07494468400640081 | hdl = 2027/spo.bbp2372.1982.033 | hdl-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Boulez | first = Pierre | year = 1958 | title = At the Ends of Fruitful Land ... | translator-first = Alexander | translator-last = Goehr | journal = [[Die Reihe]] | volume = 1, Electronic Music | edition = English | pages = 22–23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Rae | first = Caroline | year = 2013 | contribution = Messiaen and Ohana: Parallel Preoccupations or Anxiety of Influence? | title = Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception | editor1-first = Robert | editor1-last = Fallon | editor2-first = Christopher | editor2-last = Dingle | pages = 164, 174n40 | location = Farnham | publisher = Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. | isbn = 978-1-4094-2696-7}}</ref> In English, the two terms "microtone" and "microinterval" are synonymous.<ref>{{cite book | last = Maclagan | first = Susan J. | year = 2009 | title = A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist | location = Lanham, MS, and Plymouth | publisher = Scarecrow Press, Inc. | isbn = 978-0-8108-6711-6 | page = 109}}</ref> 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''.<ref name=Donval-2006-p119 /><ref>Donval (2006), p. 183.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author-link = :fr:Franck Jedrzejewski | last = Jedrzejewski | first = Franck | year = 2014 | title = Dictionnaire des musiques microtonales: 1892–2013 | trans-title = Dictionary of Microtonal Musics: 1892–2013 | language = fr | location = Paris | publisher = L'Harmattan | isbn = 978-2-343-03540-6 | pages = [[List of Latin phrases (P)#passim|passim]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Rigoni | first = Michel | year = 1998 | title = Karlheinz Stockhausen: ... un vaisseau lancé vers le ciel | language = fr | edition = Second, revised, corrected, and enlarged | series = Musique de notre temps: compositeurs | location = Lillebonne | publisher = Millénaire III Éditions | isbn = 978-2-911906-02-2 | page = 314}}</ref>

[[Ezra Sims]], in the article "Microtone" in the second edition of the ''[[Harvard Dictionary of Music]]'' defines "microtone" as "an interval smaller than a semitone",<ref>{{cite book | last = Apel | first = Will | year = 1974 | title = The Harvard Dictionary of Music | edition = Second | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | publisher = Harvard University Press | page = 527}}</ref> which corresponds with [[Aristoxenus]]'s use of the term ''[[diesis]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Richter | first = Lukas | year = 2001 | chapter = Diesis (ii) | title = [[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] | edition = Second | editor1-first = Stanley | editor1-last = Sadie | editor1-link = Stanley Sadie | editor2-first = John | editor2-last = Tyrrel | editor2-link = John Tyrrell (musicologist) | location = London | publisher = Macmillan Publishers}}</ref> However, the unsigned article "Comma, Schisma" in the same reference source calls [[Comma (music)|comma]], [[schisma]], and [[diaschisma]] "microintervals" but not "microtones",<ref>Apel (1974), p. 188.</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite book | last = Barbera | first = André | year = 2003 | chapter = Comma, Schisma | title = Harvard Dictionary of Music | edition = Fourth | editor-first = Don Michael | editor-last = Randel | page = 193 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | publisher = The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | isbn = 978-0-674-01163-2}}</ref> In the second edition of ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Paul Griffiths]], [[Mark Lindley]], 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]] melodic intervals of [[ancient Greece]], the several divisions of the [[octave]] into more than 12 parts, and various discrepancies among the intervals of [[just intonation]] or between a sharp and its enharmonically paired flat in various forms of [[mean-tone temperament]]", as well as the Indian [[Shruti (music)|sruti]], and small intervals used in [[Byzantine chant]], [[Arabic music#Characteristics of Arabic music|Arabic music theory]] from the 10th century onward, and similarly for [[Persian traditional music]] and [[Turkish music]] and various other Near Eastern musical traditions,<ref name="Griffiths-Lindley-Zannos-2001">{{cite book | last1 = Griffiths | first1 = Paul | first2 = Mark | last2 = Lindley | first3 = Ioannis | last3 = Zannos | year = 2001 | chapter = Microtone | title = [[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] | edition = Second | editor1-first = Stanley | editor1-last = Sadie | editor2-link = John Tyrrell (musicologist) | editor2-first = John | editor2-last = Tyrrell | location = London | publisher = Macmillan Publishers}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite book | last = Von Gunden | first = Heidi | year = 1986 | title = The Music of Ben Johnston | location = Metuchen (New Jersey, USA) and London (England) | publisher = The Scarecrow Press, Inc. | isbn = 0-8108-1907-4 | page = 59}}</ref> as "enharmonic microtones",<ref>{{cite book | last = Barbieri | first = Patrizio | year = 2008 | title = Enharmonic instruments and music 1470–1900 | location = Latina, Italy | publisher = Il Levante Libreria Editrice | isbn = 978-88-95203-14-0 | page = 139}}</ref> 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 scale]]s".<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Rudi Blesh | last = Blesh | first = Rudi | year = 1946 | title = Shining Trumpets: A History of Jazz | location = New York | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | page = 234}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cutting |first=Court B|date=2019-01-17 |title=Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale |url=http://emusicology.org/article/view/6316 |journal=[[Empirical Musicology Review]]|volume=13 |issue=1–2 |page=84 |doi=10.18061/emr.v13i1-2.6316 |issn=1559-5749|doi-access=free }}</ref> It was used still earlier by [[William Gray McNaught|W. McNaught]] with reference to developments in "modernism" in a 1939 record review of the ''Columbia History of Music, Vol. 5''.<ref>{{cite journal | last = McNaught | first = W. | date = February 1939 | title = Gramophone Notes |journal=[[The Musical Times]]| volume = 80 | number = 1152 | pages = 102–104| doi = 10.2307/923814 | jstor = 923814 }}</ref> In German the term ''Mikrotonalität'' came into use at least by 1958,<ref>{{cite book | last = Prieberg | first = Fred K. | date = 1958 | title = Lexikon der Neuen Musik | location = Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich | publisher = K. Alber | page = 288}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Prieberg | first = Fred K. | date = 1960 | title = Musica ex machina: über das Verhältnis von Musik und Technik | location = Berlin, Frankfurt, and Vienna | publisher = Verlag Ullstein | pages = 29–32, 210–212, ''[[List of Latin phrases (I)|inter alia]]''}}</ref> 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''<ref>{{cite book | last = Zaminer | first = Frieder | date = 2006 | chapter = Harmonik und Musiktheorie im alten Griechenland | title = Geschichte der Musiktheorie, Vol. 2 | editor1-link = Thomas Ertelt | editor1-first = Thomas | editor1-last = Ertelt | editor2-link = Heinz von Loesch | editor2-first = Heinz | editor2-last = von Loesch | editor3-first = Frieder | editor3-last = Zaminer | location = Darmstadt | publisher = Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft | isbn = 3-534-01202-X | page = 94}}</ref> while "Mikroton" seems to prevail in discussions of the [[avant-garde music]] and music of Eastern traditions.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}<!-- search results on Google overwhelming dominated by commercial links to Mikroton Recordings --> The term "microinterval" is used alongside "microtone" by American musicologist Margo Schulter in her articles on [[medieval music]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/pyth.html | last = Schulter | first = Margo | date = 10 June 1998 | title = Pythagorean Tuning and Medieval Polyphony | publisher = Medieval Music and Arts Foundation | editor-first = Todd | editor-last = McComb | access-date = 2 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/marchetmf.html | last = Schulter | first = Margo | date = 2 March 2001 | title = Xenharmonic Excursion to Padua, 1318: Marchettus, the Cadential Diesis, and Neo-Gothic Tunings | publisher = Medieval Music and Arts Foundation | editor-first = Todd | editor-last = McComb | access-date = 2 February 2016}}</ref>

=== Microtonal ===
The term "microtonal music" usually refers to music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from Western twelve-tone [[equal temperament]]. Traditional Indian systems of 22 [[Śruti (music)|śruti]]; Indonesian [[gamelan|gamelan music]]; Thai, Burmese, and African music, and music using [[just intonation]], [[meantone temperament]] or other alternative tunings may be considered microtonal.<ref name="Griffiths-Lindley-1980">{{cite book | author1-link = Paul Griffiths (writer) | last1 = Griffiths | first1 = Paul | author2-link = Mark Lindley | first2 = Mark | last2 = Lindley | year = 1980 | chapter = Microtone | title = [[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] | editor-first = Stanley | editor-last = Sadie | editor-link = Stanley Sadie | volume = 12 | pages = 279–280 | location = London | publisher = Macmillan Publishers | isbn = 1-56159-174-2}}</ref><ref name="Griffiths-Lindley-Zannos-2001"/> Microtonal variation of intervals is standard practice in the African-American musical forms of [[spirituals]], [[blues]], and [[jazz]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Cook | first1 = Nicholas | first2 = Anthony | last2 = Pople | year = 2004 | title = The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music | location = Cambridge and New York| publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 0-521-66256-7 | pages = 124–126}}</ref>

Many microtonal equal divisions of the octave have been proposed, usually (but not always) in order to achieve approximation to the intervals of [[just intonation]].<ref name="Griffiths-Lindley-1980"/><ref name="Griffiths-Lindley-Zannos-2001"/>

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'".<ref>{{cite book | last = Strangways | first = A. H. Fox | year = 1914 | url = https://archive.org/details/musicofhindostan025091mbp | title = The Music of Hindostan | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | page = 127n1}}</ref> Modern Indian researchers yet write: "microtonal intervals called shrutis".<ref>{{citation | last1 = Datta | first1 = Asoke Kumar | first2 = Ranjan | last2 = Sengupta | first3 = Nityananda | last3 = Dey | first4 = Dipali | last4 = Nag | date = 2006 | title = Experimental Analysis of Shrutis from Performances in Hindustani Music | location = Kolkata | publisher = ITC Sangeet Research Academy | isbn = 81-903818-0-6 | page = 18}}</ref> In Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in the 1910s and 1920s the usual term continued to be ''Viertelton-Musik'' (quarter tone music<ref>{{cite book | last = Möllendorff | first = Willy von | date = 1917 | title = Musik mit Vierteltönen | location = Leipzig | publisher = Verlag F. E. C. Leuckart|lccn=22022338|oclc=5842096 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2015}}<!--The mere fact that this book uses "Viertelton" in the title is not sufficient to verify that it was the usual term in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.-->), and the type of intervallic structure found in such music was called the ''Vierteltonsystem'',<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hába | first = Alois | date = 1921 | title = Harmonische Grundlagen des Vierteltonsystems | journal = Melos | volume = 3 | pages = 201–209}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Hába | first = Alois | date = 1922 | title = Vývoj hudební tvorby a theorie vzhledem k diatonice, chromatice a čtvrttónové soustavě | journal = Listy hudební matice| volume = 1 | pages = 35–40, 51–57}}</ref> 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)).<ref>{{cite book | last = Capellen | first = Georg | date = 1908 | title = Fortschrittliche Harmonie- und Melodielehre | location = Leipzig | publisher = C. F. Kahnt Nachfolger | page = 184}}</ref> 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]]'',<ref>{{cite book | last = Riemann | first = Hugo | date = 1967 | chapter = Vierteltonmusik | title = [[Riemann Musiklexikon]]: Volume 3, Sachteil | edition = Twelfth fully revised | editor1-link = Wilibald Gurlitt | editor1-first = Wilibald | editor1-last = Gurlitt | editor2-link = Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht | editor2-first = Hans Heinrich | editor2-last = Eggebrecht | location = Mainz | publisher = B. Schott's Söhne | pages = 1032–1033}}</ref> and in the second edition of the popular ''Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon''.<ref>{{cite book | editor1-first = Carl | editor1-last = Dahlhaus | editor2-link = Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht | editor2-first = Hans Heinrich | editor2-last = Eggebrecht | editor3-first = Kurt | editor3-last = Oehl | date = 1995 | title = Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon in vier Bänden und einem Ergänzungsband, Volume 4 | trans-title = Brockhaus Riemann Music Lexicon in Four Volumes and a Supplementary Volume | edition = Second | location = Mainz | publisher = Atlantis-Schott Musikbuch-Verlag | page = 304}}</ref>

[[Ivan Wyschnegradsky]] used the term ''ultra-chromatic'' for intervals smaller than the semitone and ''infra-chromatic'' for intervals larger than the semitone;<ref>{{cite journal | last = Wyschnegradsky | first = Ivan | date = 1972 | title = L'Ultrachromatisme et les espaces non octaviants |journal=[[La Revue musicale]]| number = 290–91 | pages = 84–87}}</ref> this same term has been used since 1934 by ethnomusicologist Victor Belaiev (Belyaev) in his studies of Azerbaijan and Turkish traditional music.<ref>{{cite book | last = Belyaev | first = ((Victor M. [Беляев, В. М.])) | year = 1971 | chapter = Азербайджанская народная песня (1960) | trans-chapter = Azerbaijan Folk Songs | editor-first = Victor | editor-last = Belyaev | title = О музыкальном фольклоре и древней письменности | trans-title = On Musical Folklore and Ancient Literature | location = Moscow | publisher = Sov'etskii Kompozitor | pages = 108–156}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Belyaev | first = ((Victor M. [Беляев, В. М.])) | year = 1971 | chapter = Турецкая музыка (1934) | trans-chapter = Turkish Music | editor-first = Victor | editor-last = Belyaev | title = О музыкальном фольклоре и древней письменности | trans-title = On Musical Folklore and Ancient Literature | location = Moscow | publisher = Sov'etskii Kompozitor | pages = 163–176}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first = Victor | last = Belaiev | title = Turkish Music [abridged English version]|journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]| volume = 21 | number = 3 | date = July 1935 | pages = 356–367| doi = 10.1093/mq/XXI.3.356 }}</ref> A similar term, ''subchromatic'', has been used by theorist Marek Žabka.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Žabka | first = Marek | date = Fall 2014 | title = Dancing with the Scales: Subchromatic Generated Tone Systems |journal=[[Journal of Music Theory]]| volume = 58 | number = 2 | pages = 179–233| doi = 10.1215/00222909-2781769 }}</ref> [[Ivor Darreg]] proposed the term ''xenharmonic'' in March 1966;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Web archive of Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 1 - Xenarmonia A' (March 1966) |url=http://www.tonalsoft.com/sonic-arts/darreg/xallianc.htm |access-date=2024-12-24 |website=www.tonalsoft.com}}</ref> see [[Xenharmony|xenharmonic]] music. The [[Austria]]n composer {{ill|Franz Richter Herf|de}} and the music theorist Rolf Maedel, Herf's colleague at the [[Mozarteum University of Salzburg|Salzburg Mozarteum]], preferred using the Greek word ''ekmelic'' when referring to "all the pitches lying outside the traditional twelve-tone system".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hesse | first = Horst-Peter | date = Winter 1991 | title = Breaking into a New World of Sound: Reflections on the Austrian Composer Franz Richter Herf (1920–1989) |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]| volume = 29 | number = 1 | pages = 212–235| doi = 10.2307/833077 | jstor = 833077 }}</ref> Some authors in Russia<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | year = 1990 | lang = ru | contribution = Микрохроматика | trans-contribution = Mikrochromatika / Microchromatics | title = Музыкальный энциклопедический словарь | trans-title = Musical Encyclopedic Dictionary | page = 344 | location = Moscow | publisher = Sov'etskaya Entsiklopediya}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | year = 2007 | lang = ru | contribution = Микрохроматические интервалы | trans-contribution = Mikrochromaticheskie Intervali / Microchromatic Intervals | title = Музыкальный словарь Гроува | trans-title = Grove Music Dictionary | edition = Second | page = 563 | location = Moscow | publisher = Praktika}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Akopyan | first = Levon | language = ru | title = Музыка ХХ века. Энциклопедический словарь | trans-title = Music of the Twentieth Century: An Academic Dictionary | pages = 353–354 | location = Moscow | publisher = Praktika}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Tsenova | editor-first = ((V. S. [Ценова, В. С.])) | year = 2007 | title = Теория современной композиции | trans-title = The Theory of Modern Composition | language = ru | location = Moscow | publisher = Muzyka | pages = 65, 123, 152 etc.}}</ref><ref>{{citation | first1 = Y. [Ю. ХОЛОПОВ] | last1 = Kholopov | first2 = L. [л. КИРИЛЛИНА] | last2 = Kirillina | first3 = T. [Т. КЮРЕГЯН] | last3 = Kyuregyan | first4 = G. [г. ЛЫЖОВ] | last4 = Lyzhov | first5 = R. [Р. ПОСПЕЛОВА] | last5 = Pospelova | first6 = V. [В. ЦЕНОВА] | last6 = Tsenova | year = 2006 | title = Музыкально-теоретические системы | trans-title = Musical-Theoretical Systems | language = ru | location = Moscow | publisher = Kompozitor | pages = 86 etc. | url = http://www.kholopov.ru/mts-kholopov%20(etc).pdf }}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Kholopov | first = Yuri N. [ю.н.холопов] | year = 2003 | title = Гармония. Теоретический курс | trans-title = Harmony: Theoretical Course | language = ru | location = St Petersburg | publisher = Lan | isbn = 5-8114-0516-2 | pages = 172 etc. | url = http://www.kholopov.ru/harmony/kholopov-harm-theor.pdf }}</ref> and some musicology dissertations<ref>{{cite thesis |last= Klishin |first= A. G. |date= 2010 |title= Проблемы музыкального строя в начале Нового времени | trans-title = Problems of Musical Structure in the Early Modern Era |type= PhD diss. | location = Moscow |publisher= [[Moscow Conservatory]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last= Gurenko |first= N.A. [Гуренко Н.А] |date= 2010 |title= Микрохроматика И. Вышнеградского: История, теория, практика освоения | trans-title = The Microchomatics of I. Wyschnegradsky: History, Theory, Practice, Development |type= PhD diss. |publisher= [[Urals Mussorgsky State Conservatoire]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last= Polunina |first= E. N. [Полунина Е.Н.] |date= 2010 |title= Микрохроматика в музыкальном искусстве позднего Возрождения | trans-title = Microchromatics in Music of the Late Renaissance |type= PhD diss. | location = Vladivostok |publisher= Far East State Academy of Arts }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last= Rovner |first= A. A. |date= 2010 |title= Сергей Протопопов: композиторское творчество и теоретические работы | trans-title = Sergey Protopopov: composer's output and theoretical works |type= PhD diss. | location = Moscow |publisher= [[Moscow Conservatory]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last= Nikoltsev |first= I. D. |date= 2013 |title= Микрохроматика в системе современного музыкального мышления | trans-title = Microchomatics in Contemporary Musical Thought |type= PhD diss. | location = Moscow |publisher= [[Moscow Conservatory]] }}</ref><ref>More references can be located on the ''disserCat'' website, at {{cite web | url = http://www.dissercat.com/search?keys=%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%85%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0 | title = Поиск диссертаций | trans-title = Search for dissertations}}</ref> disseminate the term [[:ru:Микрохроматика|''микрохроматика'']] (microchromatics), coined in the 1970s by [[Yuri Kholopov]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | author-link = Yuri Kholopov | last = Kholopov | first = Yuri Nikolaevich [Холопов Ю.Н.] | date = 1976 | chapter = Микрохроматика | trans-chapter = Microchromatics | title = Музыкальная энциклопедия | trans-title = Musical Encyclopedia | volume = 3 | pages = 587–589 | location = Moscow | publisher = Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopedia [Great Soviet Encyclopedia]}}</ref> to describe a kind of 'intervallic genus' ([[:ru:Роды интервальных систем|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]], 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 (music)|tonic]]"; see a clarification in Kholopov [2000]<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Yuri Kholopov | last = Kholopov | first = Y. N. [Холопов Ю.Н.] | date = 2000 | chapter = Микро и последствия | trans-chapter = Micro and consequences | title = Музыкальное образование в контексте культуры | trans-title = Music education in the cultural context | pages = 27–38 | location = Moscow | publisher = Gnessins Music Academy}}</ref>). Other Russian authors use the more international adjective 'microtonal' and have rendered it in Russian as 'микротоновый', but not 'microtonality' ('микротональность').<ref>{{cite book | last = Kogut | first = Gennady. A. | date = 2005 | title = Микротоновая музыка | trans-title = Microtonal Music | language = ru | location = Kyiv | publisher = Naukova Dumka | isbn = 966-00-0604-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis | last = Adèr | first = ((Lidiâ Olegovna [Адэр, Лидия Олеговна])) | date = 2013 | title = Микротоновая музыка в Европе и России в 1900–1920–е годы | trans-title = Microtonic music in Europe and Russia in the 1900s–1920s | type = Non-doctoral diss. | location = St. Petersburg | publisher = [[Saint Petersburg Conservatory|Gosudarstvennaâ Konservatoriâ imeni N.A. Rimskogo-Korsakova]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Pavlenko | first1 = Sergej Vasil'evič | first2 = Igor' | last2 = Kefalidi | first3 = Viktor Alekseevič | last3 = Ekimovskij | date = 2002 | title = Микротоновые элементы: Беседа | trans-title = Microtonal Elements: A Conversation | journal = Музыкальная Академия [Muzykal'naâ akademiâ] | volume = 2 | pages = 21–24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dissercat.com/search?q=%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B9&year=&cat= |title=Поиск диссертаций: микротоновый – Результат поиска, документов найдено: 14 | trans-title = Dissertation search: микротоновый – Search result, documents found: 14 |website=disserCat | access-date = 14 December 2020}}</ref> However, the terms 'микротональность'<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dissercat.com/search?q=%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C&year=&cat= |title=Поиск диссертаций: микротональность – Результат поиска, документов найдено: 1 | trans-title = Dissertation search: микротональность – Search result, documents found: 1 |website=disserCat | access-date = 14 December 2020}}</ref> and 'микротоника'<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dissercat.com/search?q=%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0&year=&cat= |title=Поиск диссертаций: микротоника – Результат поиска, документов найдено: 1 | trans-title = Dissertation search: микротоника – Search result, documents found: 1 |website=disserCat | access-date = 14 December 2020}}</ref> are also used. Some authors writing in French have adopted the term "micro-intervallique" to describe such music.<ref>{{cite book | last = Criton | first = Pascale | date = 2010 | chapter = Variabilité et multiplicité acoustique | trans-chapter = Variability and acoustic multiplicity | title = Manières de faire des sons | trans-title = Ways of making sounds | language = fr | editor1-link = Antonia Soulez | editor1-first = Antonia | editor1-last = Soulez | editor2-first = Horacio | editor2-last = Vaggione | pages = 119–133 | series = Musique-philosophie | location = Paris | publisher = L'Harmattan | isbn = 978-2-296-12959-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author-link = :fr:Franck Jedrzejewski | last = Jedrzejewski | first = Franck | year = 2004 | contribution = Alois Hába et l'expérimentation micro-intervallique | title = L'attraction et la nécessité: Musique tchèque et culture française au XXe siècle | editor1-first = Xavier | editor1-last = Galmiche | editor2-first = Lenka | editor2-last = Stránská | pages = 169–175 | location = Paris | publisher = [[Paris-Sorbonne University|Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)]] | isbn = 978-80-86385-27-3}}</ref> Italian musicologist Luca Conti dedicated two of his monographs to ''microtonalismo'',<ref>{{citation | last = Conti | first = Luca | date = 2005 | title = Suoni di una terra incognita: il microtonalismo in Nord America (1900–1940) | trans-title = Sounds of an unknown land: microtonalism in North America (1900–1940) | language = it | location = Lucca | publisher = Libreria musicale italiana}}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Conti | first = Luca | date = 2008 | title = Ultracromatiche sensazioni: il microtonalismo in Europa (1840–1940) | trans-title = Ultrachromatic sensations: microtonalism in Europe (1840–1940) | language = it | location = Lucca | publisher = Libreria musicale italiana}}</ref> which is the usual term in Italian, and also in Spanish (e.g., as found in the title of Rué [2000]<ref>{{cite journal | last = Rué | first = Roberto | date = 2000 | title = Diatonismo, cromatismo y microtonalismo: Una interpretación estructuralista | trans-title = Diatonism, chromaticism and microtonalism: A structuralist interpretation | language = es | journal = Música e investigación: Revista del Instituto Nacional de Musicología "Carlos Vega" | trans-journal = Music and research: Magazine of the National Institute of Musicology "Carlos Vega" | volume = 4 | number = 7–8 | pages = 39–53}}</ref>). 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".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Chou | first = Wen-chung | date = April 1971 | title = Asian Concepts and Twentieth-Century Western Composers |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]| volume = 57 | number = 2 | pages = 211–229}}</ref>

The term "macrotonal" has been used for intervals wider than twelve-tone equal temperament,<ref>{{cite web | date = n.d. | url = http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Macrotonal | archive-url = https://archive.today/20160714151212/http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Macrotonal | url-status = dead | archive-date = July 14, 2016 | title = Macrotonal | work = Xenharmonic Wiki blog at macrospaces.com | access-date = 3 February 2016 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2020}} 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".<ref>{{cite book | last = Pressing | first = Jeff | date = 1992 | title = Synthesizer Performance and Real-time Techniques | location = Madison | publisher = A-R Editions | isbn = 978-0-89579-257-0 | page = 239}}</ref> The term "macrotonal" has also been used for musical form.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Spring | first1 = Glenn | first2 = Jere | last2 = Hutcheson | date = 2013 | title = Musical Form and Analysis: Time, Pattern, Proportion | location = Long Grove | publisher = Waveland Press, Inc. | isbn = 978-1-4786-0722-9 | page = 82}}</ref>

Examples of this can be found in various places, ranging from [[Claude Debussy]]'s impressionistic harmonies to [[Aaron Copland]]'s chords of stacked fifths, to [[John Luther Adams]]' ''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.<ref>{{citation | last = Adlington | first = Robert | date = 2004 | title = Louis Andriessen, De Staat | location = Hants, UK | publisher = Ashgate Publishing | page = 88}}
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