quarter tone

music

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July 13, 2026

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A quarter tone is a musical interval that is half the size of a semitone. In Western music, the standard scale is based on semitones, which are the smallest intervals on a piano. Quarter tones divide the octave into smaller intervals than the typical semitone.12

The use of microtonal music, including quarter tones, has been explored by composers seeking to expand musical possibilities beyond traditional scales. Czech composer Alois H\u00e1ba was a notable pioneer in this area, experimenting with quarter-tone and sixth-tone scales and even establishing a department for microtonal music at the Prague Conservatory. While quarter tones are a departure from standard Western tuning, many musical traditions worldwide naturally incorporate intervals of various sizes.32

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Alois Hába
Quarter tones had been used as early as 1849 by the French composer Fromental Halévy, but Hába drew his inspiration from Moravian folk tunes and rhythms, music abounding in microtones. In 1919 he wrote a quarter-tone String Quartet, but his earliest mature work using microtones…
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Quarter tones had been used as early as 1849 by the French composer Fromental Halévy, but Hába drew his inspiration from Moravian folk tunes and rhythms, music abounding in microtones. In 1919 he wrote a quarter-tone String Quartet, but his earliest mature work using microtones…
Read More