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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

xenharmonic en · ADJ

Etymology

Coined by Ivor Darreg, from xen- + harmonic

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Not conforming to the common 12-tone equal temperament.
    • Microtonal music is sometimes referred to as xenharmonic music, the term deriving from the Greek xenia (hospitable) and xenos (foreign or strange) (Chalmers 1974; Darreg 1977; Wilson 2014). 2015, Curtis Roads, Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic, page 219:
    • The back cover lists "Materials and Services", including Xenharmonikon (cooperation prevails in the xenharmonic world), and persons cooperating in a tape exchange--meaning that if you send a tape of your music, to someone on the list, you get back a tape of their music. 1978 September 14, Ivor Darreg, “A Xenharmonist's Message to the Computer Musicians”, in Computer Music Journal, volume 2, number 2, The MIT Press:
    • Dissonance scores can also be applied in situations where no musical score exists, and two examples are given: a xenharmonic piece by Carlos, and a Balinese gamelan performance. 2013, William A. Sethares, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale, page 189:

Synonyms

microtonal