quarter tone
- noun
- /ˈkwɔrtər toʊn/
- Specialized
:
cuarto de tono
- Their varied intervals include quarter tones, which make for tunings quite removed from those of Western art and popular music, so that to outsiders the pitches seem to fall between the cracks of the piano keys.
Examples
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You know we have a quarter tone which doesn't exist in Western music.
Blog text (25) -
In traditional Arabic music, musicians often use quarter tones to express emotion.
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In Therese's singing, one can clearly make out the quarter tones of the Orient.
Fiction book (1993) -
Begin. "Tamborel spun a faleyn in rising quarter tones, a purely mechanical exercise supposedly.
Fiction book (1993) -
Some modern composers incorporate quarter tones to create unique musical textures.
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Learning to play quarter tones can be challenging for Western musicians familiar only with semitones.
Synonyms
A small musical interval half a semitone used in some music
A musical pitch smaller than the usual step between notes used to make unusual sounds
How Small
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'quarter' means one fourth and 'tone' refers to a musical pitch or interval, so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a one‑fourth portion of a tone (i.e. a very small musical interval). Although the exact relation to a semitone is technical, the basic meaning is transparently derived from the constituents.
Etymology
Quarter tone comes from the idea of dividing a normal musical step, a tone, into four small parts. A quarter is one of those tiny parts, so the phrase means 'a very small musical interval' smaller than the usual step and used to make unusual sounds.