Quarter Tone

Information about Quarter Tone

A quarter tone is an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which is half a whole tone.

In equal temperament the quarter tone is 50 cents, or a frequency ratio of 2^1/24 or 1.0293. In 24 tone equal temperament, or the quarter tone scale, it is the smallest step. Two equal temperament quarter tones equal a semitone, and three make a three-quarter tone. A three-quarter tone may also be considered half of a minor third. In just intonation the quarter tone is often 36:35 or 33:32, approximately half the semitone of 16:15 or 25:24.

Trumpet with 3 normal valves and a quartering on the extension valve (right).

Many composers are known for having written music including quarter tones or the quarter tone scale, first proposed by 19th-century music theorist Mikha'il Mishaqah (Touma 1996, p.16), including: Alberto Ginastera, Alois Hába, Charles Ives, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tui St. George Tucker, Ivan Alexandrovich Vïshnegradsky, Mildred Couper (see List of quarter tone pieces).

Playing quarter tones on musical instruments

A quarter tone clarinet by Fritz Schüller.

Because many musical instruments manufactured today are designed for the 12-tone scale, not all are usable for playing quarter tones. Sometimes special playing techniques must be used.

Conventional musical instruments which can play quarter tones include:

Synthesizers (if design permits)
Fretless string instruments (on fretted string instruments it is possible with bending)
Slide brass instruments (trombone)
Woodwind instruments, using special fingering or bending.
Harmonica

Experimental instruments have been built to play in quarter tones, for example a quarter tone clarinet by Fritz Schüller (1883-1977) of Markneukirchen.

Other instruments can be used to play quarter tones when using audio signal processing effects such as pitch shifting.

Pairs of conventional instruments tuned a quarter tone apart can be used to play some quarter tone music. Indeed, "quarter tone pianos" have been built which consist essentially of two pianos stacked one above the other in a single case, one tuned a quarter tone higher than the other.

Music of the Middle East

See also: Arabic music and Arab tone system

While the use of quarter tones in Western music is a more recent and experimental phenomenon, these and other microtonal intervals have been an important part of the music of the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, Assyria, Kurdistan and neighboring lands and areas for many centuries.

Many Arabic maqamat contain intervals of three-quarter tone size; a short list of these follows.^[1] (Note: Due to the lack of widespread support for Unicode quarter tone characters, a regular flat symbol is used with a strikethrough. The proper form has a short diagonal stroke through the stem, not a straight stroke through the bowl.)

1 - Bayati (بياتي): D E♭ F G A B♭ C D
2 - Hussayni
3 - Siga (سيكاه): E♭ F G A B♭ C D E♭
4 - Rast (راست): C D E♭ F G A B♭ C (with a B♭ replacing the B♭ in the descending scale)
6 - ‘Ajam
Sabba (صبا): D E♭ F G♭ A B♭ C D

The medieval philosopher and scientist Al-Farabi described a number of intervals in his work in music, including a number of quarter tones.

Assyrian/Syriac Church scale:

1 - Qadmoyo (Bayati)
2 - Trayono (Hussayni)
3 - Tlithoyo (Segah)
4 - Rbi‘oyo (Rast)
5 - Hmishoyo
6 - Shtithoyo (‘Ajam)
7 - Shbi‘oyo
8 - Tminoyo

Greek tetrachords

The enharmonic genus of the tetrachord described by the Greek Archytas consists of two quarter tones and a major third.

Notes

1. ^ Spector, Johanna (May 1970). "Classical 'Ud Music in Egypt with Special Reference to Maqamat" (GIF). Ethnomusicology 14 (2): 243–257. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.

References

Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.

Tunings

[ edit ]

Pythagorean · Just intonation · Harry Partch's 43-tone scale

Regular temperaments

Equal temperaments :	12-tone · 19-tone · 22-tone · 24-tone · 31-tone · 34-tone · 53-tone · 72-tone · 88-tone
Non-equal temperaments :	Meantone (Quarter-comma; Lucy tuning; Septimal) · Schismatic · Miracle

Irregular temperaments

Well temperament

In music theory, the term interval describes the difference in pitch between two notes. Although frequently used in connection with intervals, the term "distance" does not adequately describe the physics and subjective effects of two interacting frequencies.
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semitone
Inverse major seventh; diminished octave
Name
Other names minor second
or diatonic semitone;
augmented unison
or chromatic semitone
Abbreviation m2; aug1
Size
Semitones 1
Interval class 1

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major second
Inverse minor seventh
Name
Other names whole tone
Abbreviation M2
Size
Semitones 2
Interval class 2
Just interval 9:8 or 10:9
Cents
Equal temperament 200
Just intonation
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An equal temperament is a musical temperament. It is a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. Equal temperaments are often intended to approximate some form of just intonation.
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The cent is a logarithmic unit of measure used for musical intervals. Typically cents are used to measure extremely small intervals, or to compare the sizes of comparable intervals in different tuning systems, and in fact the interval of one cent is much too small to be heard
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In music, a step is a linear or successive interval between two pitches which are consecutive scale degrees. Any larger interval is called a skip. In the diatonic scale, a step is either a minor second or major second, with all intervals of a minor third or larger being
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Minor Third
Inverse Major Sixth
Name
Other names -
Abbreviation m3
Size
Semitones 3
Interval class 3
Just interval 6:5
Cents
Equal temperament 300
Just intonation 316

A minor third
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In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval; in other words, the two notes are members of the same harmonic series.
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Back to Composer article.

Composers are generally people who write music. In certain musical genres, such as popular and folk music, the term "songwriter" means someone who authors both music and lyrics, but such a person may also be properly called a
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Mikha'il Mishaqah (1800-1889) of Lebanon was the first theorist to propose a division of the octave into roughly twenty-four equal intervals (24-tone equal temperament, quarter tone scale), this being the current basis of the Arab tone system. (Touma 1996, p.
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Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (Buenos Aires, April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983 Geneva) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.
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Alois Hába (June 21, 1893, Vizovice – November 18, 1973, Prague) was a Czech composer primarily known for his microtonal compositions, especially using the quarter tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones and twelfth-tones.
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Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American composer of modernist classical music. He is widely regarded as one of the first American classical composers of international significance.
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Krzysztof Penderecki (IPA: [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf pɛndɛrˈɛ͡tski], born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor of classical music.
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Tui St. George Tucker (b. Fullerton, California, November 25, 1924; d. Boone, North Carolina, April 21, 2004) was an American composer and recorder player.

She was born in Fullerton, Orange County, California and attended Eagle Rock High School in northeast Los Angeles,
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Ivan Alexandrovich Vïshnegradsky (1893-1979), also transliterated as Wyschnegradsky, Wyshnegradsky, Wischnegradsky, Vishnegradsky, or Wishnegradsky
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Mildred Couper (1887–1974), prominent American composer and pianist, was one of the first musicians to experiment with quarter-tone music. She was based in Santa Barbara, California, but her music and influence were felt around the world.
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Jan Bach

:Concert Variations for solo euphonium; the euphoniumist frequently creates quarter tones by using alternate "out of tune" valve combinations and subtle embouchure adjustments.

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Synthesizer is generally any kind of electronic musical instrument, or electronic device capable of producing or manipulating audio tones, such as musical notes, through audio signal processing.
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A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones.
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Finger vibrato is vibrato produced on a string instrument by cyclic hand movements. Despite the name, normally the entire hand moves, and sometimes the entire upper arm.

Violin

There are three types of violin vibrato: finger, wrist, and full-arm.
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brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" (Baines, 1993).
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The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone; sound is produced when the player’s buzzing lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate.
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A woodwind instrument is an instrument in which sound is produced by blowing against an edge or by a vibrating with air a thin piece of wood known as a reed. Most of these instruments were originally made of wood, but some such as the saxophone and some flutes are now made of other
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A harmonica is a free reed wind instrument. It has multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds which are secured at one end over an airway slot in which they can freely vibrate. The vibrating reeds repeatedly interrupt the airstream to produce sound.
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quarter tone clarinet is an experimental clarinet designed to play music using quarter tone intervals. Using special fingerings, quarter tones may be produced by a skilled player on a conventional clarinet.
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Markneukirchen is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 24 km southeast of Plauen, and 14 km northeast of Aš.
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Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the processing of a representation of auditory signals, or sound. The representation can be digital or analog.
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For the band, see Pitchshifter (band).

A pitch shifter is an audio processor that changes the pitch of an audio signal. Originally marketed by Eventide as the Harmonizer effects processor, advances in digital signal processors soon made
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Arabic music (Arabic,الموسيقى العربية) includes several genres and styles of music ranging from Arab classical to Arabic pop music and from secular to sacred music.
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