Darreg definition of "microtonality"

When I first joined this list a couple of years ago (gee, I guess
it's *three* in November) one of the topics being discussed was the
definition of the term "microtonality."

Don't go there. I mean I don't fully want to go there again.

However, I was intrigued by Xenharmonicon 7 where in Ivor Darreg's
article he definitely believes that the term "microtone" should be
reserved for an interval *smaller than a quartertone.*

Hence, his invention of the term "xenharmonics" for everything else.

Maybe everybody else here knows this, but *I* didn't.

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@y..., "jpehrson2" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> When I first joined this list a couple of years ago (gee, I guess
> it's *three* in November) one of the topics being discussed was the
> definition of the term "microtonality."
>
> Don't go there. I mean I don't fully want to go there again.
>
> However, I was intrigued by Xenharmonicon 7 where in Ivor Darreg's
> article he definitely believes that the term "microtone" should be
> reserved for an interval *smaller than a quartertone.*

As I recall, he saw varying definitions in different reference works,
some including quartones in the "microtonal" category, and at least
one (I believe it was Grove's) making a distinction
between "quartertones" and "microtones," probably following a
convention established by some of the subdivisionist (i.e., multiple-
of-12) composers. Ivor thought that the distinction had some merit.
Personally, I think it's arbitrary, misleading, and not particularly
useful.

> Hence, his invention of the term "xenharmonics" for everything else.

The term "xenharmonic" includes tunings such as 5-ET, 7-ET, and 9-ET,
which definitely sound different from 12-ET, but since they contain
no intervals smaller than a semitone, could not be called microtonal.

--George

> The term "xenharmonic" includes tunings such as 5-ET, 7-ET, and > 9-ET,
> which definitely sound different from 12-ET, but since they contain
> no intervals smaller than a semitone, could not be called microtonal.
>
> --George

Another nice term for otherly tuned is "allotonal" coined by Ken Waushope
http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/~wauchope/audio/tuning/

From Ken's web page "Allotonality: alternative tunings (allos = other). A more generalized and inclusive term for those who might object to xenharmonic's suggestion of oddness (xenos = alien, strange)
and microtonality's implication of little bitty intervals"

Ken has some nice tuning examples too.

John Starrett