Microtonality
[26] In German the term Mikrotonalität came into use at least by 1958,[27][28] though "Mikrointervall" is still common today in contexts where very small intervals of early European tradition (diesis, comma, etc.)
[citation needed] The term "microinterval" is used alongside "microtone" by American musicologist Margo Schulter in her articles on medieval music.
[48] Some authors in Russia[49][50][51][52][53][54] and some musicology dissertations[55][56][57][58][59][60] disseminate the term микрохроматика (microchromatics), coined in the 1970s by Yuri Kholopov,[61] to describe a kind of 'intervallic genus' (интервальный род) for all possible microtonal structures, both ancient (as enharmonic genus—γένος ἐναρμόνιον—of Greeks) and modern (as quarter tone scales of Alois Haba); this generalization term allowed also to avoid derivatives such as микротональность (microtonality, which could be understood in Russian as a sub-tonality, which is subordinate to the dominating tonality, especially in the context of European music of the 19th century) and микротоника (microtonic, "a barely perceptible tonic"; see a clarification in Kholopov [2000][62]).
Louis Andriessen's De Staat (1972–1976) contains a number of "augmented" modes that are based on Greek scales but are asymmetrical to the octave.
[79] Theoretics usually described several diatonic and chromatic genera (some as chroai, "coloration" of one specific intervallic type), but the enarmonic genus was always the only one (argumented as one with the smallest intervals possible).
[80] The Italian Renaissance composer and theorist Nicola Vicentino (1511–1576) worked with microtonal intervals and built a keyboard with 36 keys to the octave known as the archicembalo.
While theoretically an interpretation of ancient Greek tetrachordal theory, in effect Vicentino presented a circulating system of quarter-comma meantone, maintaining major thirds tuned in just intonation in all keys.
Shortly afterward, in a letter published in the Mercure de France in September 1764, the celebrated flautist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin mentioned this piece and expressed an interest in quarter tones for the flute.
[82][83] Jacques Fromental Halévy composed a cantata "Prométhée enchaîné" for a solo voice, choir and orchestra (premiered in 1849), where in one movement (Choeur des Océanides) he used quarter tones, to imitate the enharmonic genus of Greeks.
In the 1910s and 1920s, quarter tones received attention from such composers as Charles Ives, Julián Carrillo, Alois Hába, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, and Mildred Couper.
[84] Ellis also studied the tunings of non-Western cultures and, in a report to the Royal Society, stated that they used neither equal divisions of the octave nor just intonation intervals.
[88] Still others have argued that Debussy's works like L'isle joyeuse, La cathédrale engloutie, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, La mer, Pagodes, Danseuses de Delphes, and Cloches à travers les feuilles are marked by a more basic interest in the microtonal intervals found between the higher members of the overtone series, under the influence of Helmholtz's writings.
[89] Emil Berliner's introduction of the phonograph in the 1890s allowed much non-Western music to be recorded and heard by Western composers, further spurring the use of non-12 EDO tunings.
[94][full citation needed] In 1986, Wendy Carlos experimented with many microtonal systems including just intonation, using alternate tuning scales she invented for the album Beauty In the Beast.
[95] In 2016, electronic music composed with arbitrary microtonal scales was explored on the album Radionics Radio: An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies by British composer Daniel Wilson, who derived his compositions' tunings from frequency-runs submitted by users of a custom-built web application replicating radionics-based electronic soundmaking equipment used by Oxford's De La Warr Laboratories in the late 1940s, thereby supposedly embodying thoughts and concepts within the tunings.
[101] Joe Monzo has made a microtonal analysis of the song "Drunken Hearted Man",[102] written and recorded by the delta blues musician Robert Johnson.
[104] English rock band Radiohead has used microtonal string arrangements in their music, such as on "How to Disappear Completely" from the album Kid A.
[108] American band The Mercury Tree began incorporating microtonality in their 2014 album Countenance, using quarter tones on the song "Vestigial".
In their 2016 album Permutations, they continued exploring quarter tones, and the track "Ether / Ore" was composed using the Carlos Alpha tuning.
[110] Ventifacts, a prog-rock and folk songwriting duo between Ben Spees (of The Mercury Tree) and Damon Waitkus (of Jack O' the Clock) have made music which is exclusively microtonal.
[citation needed] Australian alternative musician Jack Tickner uses a just intonation guitar in releases like his 2018 EP Reassuring Weight.
