[FAQ] Why Quarter Tones Are Not So Interesting

Oh goodness all of you! I want to go crazy seeing so many
people get all sensitive and take offense at things the
wrong way. I've stayed out of this so far so I feel I
can make the somewhat objective statement of an outside
observer.

I think I understood what the original poster meant when
he suggested this as a FAQ topic and let me clarify for
him:

1. Why Quarter Tones Are Not So Interesting

Some people coming to microtonality equate the term
microtonality with the quartertone tuning (also known as
24tET, or 50.000cET). Perhaps some teacher in the past who
knew little about alternate tunings gave them this
impression, or maybe they read a misleading article or
album liner notes. You may find yourself saying to someone
"I write microtonal music." and they respond quite
naturally, "Oh I don't care for that quarter tone music!"

Yes, the quarter tone scale is indeed a microtonal scale,
but there are also an infinite number of other great
microtonal scales. Some great music has been written in
the quarter tone scale and maybe you will write some. But
don't stop there! The Quarter tone scale is not
particularly special or _so_ interesting that it demands
any place of prominence.

[Perhaps insert comments about how the added resources in
quarter tones don't have that many particularly
interesting properties.]

2. Why The Quarter Tone Scale is the only ONE TRUE
MICROTONAL SCALE

From a _practical_ standpoint, a quarter tone scale might
be the way to go if you are used to performing and writing
for acoustic instruments -- particularly the piano. You
can tune two pianos up a quarter tone apart and have your
compositions performed with four hands. And you still have
a piano that you can play in 'normal' 12tET. A lot of
other microtonal scales can not be performed on a standard
acoustic piano because it would put the piano frame under
too much tension. Also, your quarter tone piece can be
performed accompanied by standard unaltered conventional
instruments. These are some of the reasons why quarter
tone music was somewhat popular early in this century and
why for many people it was their only experience with
microtonality, hence the confusion.

[insert examples of some prominent quarter tone composers]

3. Why Quarter Tones May Not Be.

In 12tET terminology, a whole tone is 200 cents, a
semitone 100 cents and a quarter tone 50 cents. But you
will find frequent references to quarter tones that do not
at all mean 50 cents. Perhaps because of the above
discussed confusion, the term "quarter tone" often is used
to mean "any interval smaller than 100 cents" or even "any
interval that is not a multiple of 100 cents". Don't add
to the confusion, just be aware of it! If you mean 50
cents, you might want to say it. And if you compose in
'the' quarter tone scale, you might avoid some confusion
by noting that you mean 24tET. You will certainly run into
references like "Arabic Music Uses Quarter Tones". This
doesn't necessarily mean that the scale meing discussed is
made up of intervals of 50 cents, or is a subset of 24tET,
though in some cases for certain people it might be!
Sometimes ethnomusicologists have been known to write down
the scales they heard by notating any 'in-between' notes
as quarter tones. It doesn't mean though that the note
they really heard was an actual quarter tone.

[insert two versions of one example of an Arabic scale -
the 50cET by ear approximation & an accurate empirically
measured version of the same scale]

[END]

- Jeff