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Glite Dictionary
microtone

microtone

9.1
A musical pitch smaller than the usual step between notes used to make unusual sounds
  • noun
  • /ˈmaɪkroʊtoʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : microtono
  • - Nice microtones...

Examples

  • Its eerily beautiful minor keys and microtones reverberated off the bathroom tile and laced through the house.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Also, some of my key signatures use a "+" for a microtone higher than indicated.

    Academic text (1998)

  • For these figures, I use a "+" sign to indicate a microtone (an interval less than a half step) higher than the notated pitch.

    Academic text (1998)

  • He squeezed strings with the best of them, bending single notes into affecting microtones and running them down into jazzy, pianistic chords.

    Academic text (2002)

  • In the performance, the musician used microtones to create a haunting and ethereal sound.

  • The composer wrote a piece that incorporated microtones to give it a unique character.

  • To achieve the desired effect, she expertly manipulated the microtones between the notes.

Synonyms

quarter tone
vsmicrotone
  • Specialized
8.7

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

is any interval smaller than a semitone, not only exactly half its size

How Small

quarter tone
  • Specialized
8.7
microtone
  • Specialized
9.1
semitone
  • Specialized
1 7.0

Surface Forms

microtone singular
microtones plural

Morphology

microtone = tone (semi-transparent) = micro + tone

The word is transparently built from 'micro-' plus 'tone', but the specialized musical sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

The word microtone joins micro- meaning 'small', the same micro- you see in microphone, and tone meaning 'pitch' or 'sound'. So a microtone is a very small musical step, smaller than a semitone, used to create unusual effects in music.