Microtonal music

Music which uses microtones--intervals of less than a semitone--is called microtonal music. 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 pitches, rather than the more common 12. The intervals between pitches can be equal, creating an equal temperament, or unequal, such as in just intonation. Microtones include quarter tones[?] and twelfth tones[?] (octave divided into 24 and 72 equal parts).

Pioneers of modern Western microtonal music include:

• Harry Partch
• Lou Harrison
• Béla Bartók
• Ben Johnston
• Charles Ives

See also:

• Harmony

External links:

• Modes and Scales in Indian music (http://chandrakantha.com/articles/scales.html)
• John Starrett's Microtonal Music Page (http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/microtone.html)
• The American Festival of Microtonal Music (http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/AFMM/)
• Huygens-Fokker Foundation Centre for Microtonal Music (http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/)
• The Centre for Microtonal Music, London (http://website.lineone.net/~matthew.brailsford/cmm/cmm.htm)
• Microtonal music on CD (http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/discs.html)
• Google Directory category: Microtonal tuning systems (http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Theory/Tuning_Systems/Microtonal/)