Editing Microtonality (section)

=== Microtone ===
{{Image frame
|content=<score>{ \new Staff \with{ \magnifyStaff #2 \omit Score.TimeSignature } \fixed c' { beh bes \tweak Accidental.stencil #ly:text-interface::print \tweak Accidental.text \markup { \musicglyph #"accidentals.flatflat.slash" } beseh beseh! bih bis bisih } }</score>
|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
}}

''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>