Microtonal music
Microtonal music is a term for music which uses microtones -- intervals of less than a semitone, or as Charles Ives put it, the "notes between the cracks" of the piano. The term is also used to refer to any music whose tuning is not based on semitones, such as gamelan music and Indian classical music. An alternative term explicitly covering such possibilities is xenharmonic music.Some Western composers have embraced the use of microtonal scales, dividing an octave into 19, 31, 43, 72 and other numbers of pitcheses, rather than the more common 12. The intervals between pitches can be equal, creating an equal temperament, or unequal, such as in just intonation or linear temperament.
Pioneers of modern Western microtonal music include:
- Charles Ives (1874-1954)
- JuliÃÂán Carrillo (1875-1965)
- BÃÂéla BartÃÂók (1881-1945)
- Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979)
- Harry Partch (1901-1974)
- Giacinto Scelsi (1915-1982)
- Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
- Sofia Gubaidulina (1931- ...)
- Alvin Lucier (1931- ...)
- Easley Blackwood (1933- ...)
- James Tenney (1934- ...)
- Just intonation
- Just tuning table of frequencies by key
- Harmony
- Lucy tuning
- Joe Monzo's Encyclopedia of Tuning
- Huygens-Fokker Foundation Centre for Microtonal Music
- John Starrett's Microtonal Music Page
- The American Festival of Microtonal Music
- The Centre for Microtonal Music
- Modes and Scales in Indian music
- Xentonic -- Xenharmonikon, Interval, etc.