Quarter tone
A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (orally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, and have 24 different pitches.
Quarter tones have their roots in the music of the Middle East and more specifically in Persian traditional music.[1] However, the first evidenced proposal of the equally-tempered quarter tone scale, or 24 equal temperament, was made by 19th-century music theorists Heinrich Richter in 1823[2] and Mikhail Mishaqa about 1840.[3] Composers who have written music using this scale include: Pierre Boulez, Julián Carrillo, Mildred Couper, George Enescu, Alberto Ginastera, Gérard Grisey, Alois Hába, Ljubica Marić, Charles Ives, Tristan Murail, Krzysztof Penderecki, Giacinto Scelsi, Ammar El Sherei, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tui St. George Tucker, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Iannis Xenakis, and Seppe Gebruers (See List of quarter tone pieces.)
Types
Equal-tempered tuning systems
The term quarter tone can refer to a number of different intervals, all very close in size. For example, some 17th- and 18th-century theorists used the term to describe the distance between a sharp and enharmonically distinct flat in mean-tone temperaments (e.g., D♯–E♭).
Quarter tones and intervals close to them also occur in a number of other equally tempered tuning systems.
Just intonation tuning systems
In just intonation the quarter tone can be represented by the septimal quarter tone, 36:35 (48.77 cents), or by the undecimal quarter tone (i.e. the thirty-third harmonic), 33:32 (53.27 cents), approximately half the semitone of 16:15 or 25:24. The ratio of 36:35 is only 1.23 cents narrower than a 24-TET quarter tone. This just ratio is also the difference between a minor third (6:5) and septimal minor third (7:6).
Composer
for a quarter tone (36:35 or 48.77 cents) up and down.Playing quarter tones
Any tunable musical instrument can be used to perform quarter tones, if two players and two identical instruments, with one tuned a quarter tone higher, are used. As this requires neither a special instrument nor special techniques, much quarter toned music is written for pairs of pianos, violins, harps, etc. The retuning of the instrument, and then returning it to its former pitch, is easy for violins, harder for harps, and slow and relatively expensive for pianos.
The following deals with the ability of single instruments to produce quarter tones. In Western instruments, this means "in addition to the usual 12-tone system". Because many musical instruments manufactured today (2018) 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 that cannot play quarter tones (except by using special techniques—see below) include:
- Most standard or unmodified non-electronic keyboard instruments, such as organs, and accordions
- pitch-bending, with special tunings, or with customized necks)
- Pitched percussion instruments, if standard techniques are used, and if the instruments are not tunable
- Western wind instrumentsthat use keys or valves
- Woodwind instruments, such as clarinets, saxophones, flutes, and oboes (though with many of these, it is still possible using non-standard techniques such as special fingerings or by the player manipulating their embouchure, to play at least some quarter tones, if not a whole scale)
- Valved brass instruments (trumpet, tuba) (though, as with woodwinds, embouchure manipulation, as well as harmonic tones that fall closer to quarter-tones than half-tones, make quarter-tone scales possible; the horn technique of adjusting pitch with the right hand in the bell makes this instrument an exception)
- Harmonica (although note bending is a common technique)
Conventional musical instruments that can play quarter tones include
- Electronic instruments:
- Synthesizers, using either special keyboard controllers or continuous-pitch controllers such as fingerboard controllers, or when controlled by a sequencer capable of outputting quarter-tone control signals.
- Theremins and other continuously pitched instruments
- Fretless string instruments, such as the violin family, fretless guitars, fretless electric basses, ouds, and members of the huqin family of instruments.
- String instruments with movable frets (such as the sitar)
- Specially fretted string instruments (such as the Turkish bağlama).
- Fretted string instruments specially tuned to quarter tones
- Pedal steel guitar
- Wind instruments whose main means of tone-control is a slide, such as trombones, the tromboon invented by P. D. Q. Bach, the slide trumpet and the slide whistle
- Specially keyed woodwind instruments. A quarter tone clarinet was built by Fritz Schüller (1883–1977) of Markneukirchen, and a quarter tone mechanism for flutes by Eva Kingma.[7]
- Valved brass instruments with extra, quarter-tone valves, and natural brass instruments that play through the 11th and 13th partials of the harmonic series
- Voice
- Kazoo
- Pitched percussion instruments, when tuning permits (e.g., timpani), or using special techniques
Other instruments can be used to play quarter tones when using
Quarter-tone pianos have been built, which consist essentially of two pianos with two keyboards stacked one above the other in a single case, one tuned a quarter tone higher than the other.[citation needed]
Music of the Middle East
Many Persian
- Bayati (بیاتی): D E F G A B♭ C D
- Rast (راست):
- Saba (صبا): D E F G♭ A B♭ C D
- Sigah (سه گاه): E F G A B C D E
- ‘Ajam (عجم)
- Hoseyni
The Islamic philosopher and scientist Al-Farabi described a number of intervals in his work in music, including a number of quarter tones.
Assyrian/Syriac Church Music Scale:[9]
- Qadmoyo (Bayati)
- Trayono (Hussayni)
- Tlithoyo (Segah)
- Rbiʿoyo (Rast)
- Hmishoyo
- Shtithoyo (ʿAjam)
- Shbiʿoyo
- Tminoyo
Quarter-tone scale
Known as gadwal in Arabic,[8] the quarter-tone scale was developed in the Middle East in the eighteenth century and many of the first detailed writings in the nineteenth century Syria describe the scale as being of 24 equal tones.[10] The invention of the scale is attributed to Mishaqa who wrote a book devoted to the topic[11] but made clear that his teacher, Sheikh Muhammad al-Attar (1764–1828), was one among many already familiar with the concept.[12]
The quarter tone scale may be primarily a theoretical construct in Arabic music. The quarter tone gives musicians a "conceptual map" they can use to discuss and compare intervals by number of quarter tones, and this may be one of the reasons it accompanies a renewed interest in theory, with instruction in music theory a mainstream requirement since that period.[10]
Previously, pitches of a mode were chosen from a scale consisting of seventeen tones, developed by Safi al-Din al-Urmawi in the thirteenth century.[12]
Composer Charles Ives chose the chord C–D–F–G–B♭ as good possibility for a "secondary" chord in the quarter-tone scale, akin to the minor chord of traditional tonality. He considered that it may be built upon any degree of the quarter tone scale[4] Here is the secondary "minor" and its "first inversion":
In popular Western music
The bass descent of Nancy Sinatra's version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " includes quarter tone descents.[13] Several quarter-tone albums have been recorded by Jute Gyte, a one-man avantgarde black metal band from Missouri, USA.[14][15] Another quartertone metal album was issued by the Swedish band Massive Audio Nerve.[16] Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's albums Flying Microtonal Banana, K.G., and L.W. heavily emphasize quarter-tones and used a custom-built guitar in 24 TET tuning.[17] Jazz violinist / violist Mat Maneri, in conjunction with his father Joe Maneri, made a crossover fusion album, Pentagon (2005),[18] that featured experiments in hip hop with quarter tone pianos, as well as electric organ and mellotron textures, along with distorted trombone, in a post-Bitches Brew type of mixed jazz / rock.[19]
Ancient Greek tetrachords
The
Interval size in equal temperament
Here are the sizes of some common intervals in a 24-note equally tempered scale, with the interval names proposed by Alois Hába (neutral third, etc.) and Ivan Wyschnegradsky (major fourth, etc.):
Interval name Size
(steps)Size
(cents)MIDI Just ratio Just
(cents)MIDI Error
(cents)octave 24 1200 2:1 1200.00 0.00 semidiminished octave23 1150 35:18 1151.23 − 1.23supermajor seventh23 1150 27:14 1137.04 +12.96 major seventh 22 1100 15:8 1088.27 +11.73 major tone21 1050 11:6 1049.36 + 0.64minor tone21 1050 20:11 1035.00 +15.00 large just minor seventh 20 1000 9:5 1017.60 −17.60 small just minor seventh 20 1000 16:9 996.09 + 3.91subminor seventh19 950 7:4 968.83 −18.83 major sixth 18 900 5:3 884.36 +15.64 neutral sixth 17 850 18:11 852.59 − 2.59minor sixth 16 800 8:5 813.69 −13.69 subminor sixth15 750 14:9 764.92 −14.92 perfect fifth 14 700 3:2 701.96 − 1.96minor fifth13 650 16:11 648.68 + 1.32lesser septimal tritone 12 600 7:5 582.51 +17.49 major fourth11 550 11:8 551.32 − 1.32perfect fourth 10 500 4:3 498.04 + 1.96tridecimal major third 9 450 13:10 454.21 − 4.21septimal major third 9 450 9:7 435.08 +14.92 major third 8 400 5:4 386.31 +13.69 undecimal neutral third 7 350 11:9 347.41 + 2.59minor third 6 300 6:5 315.64 −15.64 septimal minor third 5 250 7:6 266.87 −16.87 tridecimal five-quarter tone 5 250 15:13 247.74 + 2.26septimal whole tone 5 250 8:7 231.17 +18.83 major tone4 200 9:8 203.91 − 3.91minor tone4 200 10:9 182.40 +17.60 neutral second, greater undecimal3 150 11:10 165.00 −15.00 neutral second, lesser undecimal3 150 12:11 150.64 − 0.6415:14 semitone 2 100 15:14 119.44 −19.44 diatonic semitone, just2 100 16:15 111.73 −11.73 21:20 semitone 2 100 21:20 84.47 +15.53 28:27 semitone 1 50 28:27 62.96 −12.96 33:32 semitone 1 50 33:32 53.27 −3.27 unison 0 0 1:1 0.00 0.00
Moving from
See also
References
- ISBN 0-521-54206-5
- ^ a b Julian Rushton, "Quarter-Tone", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001).
- ISBN 0-931340-88-8.
- ^ a b Boatwright, Howard (1965). "Ives' Quarter-Tone Impressions", Perspectives of New Music 3, no. 2 (Spring–Summer): pp. 22–31; citations on pp. 27–28; reprinted in Perspectives on American Composers, edited by Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone, pp. 3–12, New York: W. W. Norton, 1971, citation on pp. 8–9. "These two chords outlined above might be termed major and minor."
- ^ Douglas Keislar; Easley Blackwood; John Eaton; Lou Harrison; Ben Johnston; Joel Mandelbaum; William Schottstaedt. p.193. "Six American Composers on Nonstandard Tunnings", Perspectives of New Music, vol. 29, no. 1. (Winter 1991), pp. 176–211.
- ^ a b Fonville, John (Summer, 1991). "Ben Johnston's Extended Just Intonation: A Guide for Interpreters", p. 114, Perspectives of New Music, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 106–137.
- ^ Kingma System
- ^ JSTOR 849799.
- ^ Asaad, Gabriel (1990). Syria's Music Throughout History
- ^ a b
Marcus, Scott (Spring–Summer 1993). "The interface between theory and practice: Intonation in Arab music". JSTOR 834466.
- ^ Mishaqa, Mikhiiʾil (c. 1840). al-Risāla al-shihābiyya fi 'l-ṣināʿa al-mūsīqiyya [Essay on the Art of Music for the Emir Shihāb] (in Arabic).
- ^ a b
Maalouf, Shireen (October–December 2003). "Mikhiiʾil Mishiiqa: Virtual founder of the twenty-four equal quartertone scale". JSTOR 3589971.
- ^
ISBN 9780195310238.
- ^ Tremblay, Dæv (3 September 2014). "Jute Gyte – Ressentiment". canthisbecalledmusic.com (album review).
- ^ Gyte, Jute. Discontinuities. jutegyte.bandcamp.com (music album). (commerical site).
- ^ "Massive Audio Nerve's album Cancer Vulgaris in July". blabbermouth.net.
- ^ Huguenor, Mike (21 August 2017). "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard talk new album Flying Microtonal Banana". Guitar World (guitarworld.com) (interview). Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ Maneri, M.; Maneri, J. (2005). Pentagon (music album).
- ^ Maneri, Mat (1 December 2005). "Pentagon by Will Layman". PopMatters (album review).
- ^
Chalmers, John H., Jr. (1993). Divisions of the Tetrachord. Hanover, NH: Frog Peak Music. Chapter 5, page 49. ISBN 0-945996-04-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^
ISBN 0-19-814975-1.
Further reading
- Bartolozzi, Bruno (1967). New Sounds for Woodwind. London, UK / New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Bousted, Donald (Fall 2002). "Microtonality, the recorder and the quarter-tone recorder manual". The Recorder Magazine. Vol. 22, no. 3. pp. 99–102.
- Bousted, Donald (Fall 2005). "Next step quarter-tone resources: Melody". The Recorder Magazine. Vol. 25, no. 3. pp. 88–91.
- Caravan, Ronald R. (1979). Preliminary Exercises and Etudes in Contemporary Techniques for Clarinet: Introductory material for the study of multiphonics, quarter tones, and timbre variation. Oswego, NY: Ethos Publications.
- Ellis, Don (1975). Quarter Tones: A text with musical examples, exercises, and etudes. Plainview, NY: Harold Branch.
- MacDonald, John (1822). A Treatise on the Harmonic System Arising from the Vibrations of the Aliquot Divisions of Strings. London, UK: T. Preston.
- Möllendorff, Willi; Monzo, Joe (2001). Music with Quarter-Tones: Experiences at the bichromatic harmonium. U.S.: J. Monzo.
- Rees, Carla (2007). "Eva Kingma and the quarter-tone flute". Pan: The Flute Magazine. 26 (4): 23–29.
- Rewoldt, Todd (2000). "Altissimo quarter-tones for the alto saxophone". Saxophone Symposium. 25: 56–69.
External links
- "quarter-tone / 24-edo", TonalSoft.com