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 less frequently used to refer to any music whose tunings are not based on semitones, such as gamelan music and Indian classical music.

Some composers of modern avant-garde music have embraced the use of microtonal scales, dividing an octave into 19, 31, 43 and other numbers of pitcheses, rather than the more common 12. The intervals between pitches can be equal, creating an equal temperament, Large and small as in meantone systems, or unequal, such as in just intonation.

Pioneers of modern Western microtonal music include:

• Lou Harrison
• Béla Bartók
• Charles Ives
• Alvin Lucier
• James Tenney
• Easley Blackwood
• Giacinto Scelsi
• Sofia Gubaidulina

See also:

• Just intonation
• Harmony

External links:

• BETWEEN U S: A HyperHistory of American Microtonalists
• Modes and Scales in Indian music
• John Starrett's Microtonal Music Page
• The American Festival of Microtonal Music
• Huygens-Fokker Foundation Centre for Microtonal Music
• LucyTuning
• The Centre for Microtonal Music, London
• Microtonal music on CD
• Directory category: Microtonal tuning systems
• Interval, Journal of Music Research and Development