Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
quarter-tone

quarter-tone

9.3
A small musical interval half a semitone used in some music
  • noun
  • /ˈkwɔrtərˌtoʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cuarto de tono
  • The musician skillfully incorporated quarter tones into her performance, creating a uniquely haunting sound.

Examples

  • In traditional Middle Eastern music, quarter tones are often used to enhance the emotional depth of compositions.

  • They play, in their distinctive quarter tones, not songs of romance, surely, but songs of Suleyman's magnificence, of Muhammed's journey into the Seven Heavens; songs of spiritual starvation is what they sound like.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Learning to play quarter tones can be challenging for Western musicians, as they are less common in Western music theory.

Synonyms

quarter tone
vsquarter-tone
  • Specialized
8.7

A musical interval half the size of a semitone used in some modern and non-Western music

is the uncapitalized or alternative spelling for the same interval
microtone
vsquarter-tone
  • Specialized
9.1

A musical pitch smaller than the usual step between notes used to make unusual sounds

is the specific half semitone case within that broader category

Surface Forms

quarter-tone singular
quarter-tones plural

Morphology

quarter-tone = quarter + tone (transparent) = quarter + tone

The compound is a straightforward combination of 'quarter' and 'tone' meaning a fraction of a tone; the meaning follows directly from its components.

Etymology

Quarter-tone joins quarter, meaning 'one of four', and tone, meaning 'a musical note or sound'. So a quarter-tone is a very small musical step, one quarter of a whole tone, used in some types of music, for example in Middle Eastern music or modern pieces, to create notes between the usual ones.