quartertones

David Doty's point on quartertones is a good one. Probably the reason that
quartertones are usually assumed to be fixed as a quarter of a tone (not
always 50 c, therefore) and that semitones aren't so fixed is that
semitones have a historical tonal/modal function and quartertones don't.
Of course chromatic and diatonic semitones get into it, and so on,
suggesting that semitone is a function more than a measurement.

All this goes to show that onyone, including me, who thinks that musical
nomenclature is or can be consistent is probably being ahistorical,
fanciful, or both.

Paul Rapoport



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