Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An interval equal to a half tone in the standard diatonic scale.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In music, an interval approximately equal to half of a tone; a minor second; a half-step.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) Half a tone; -- the name commonly applied to the smaller intervals of the diatonic scale.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) The musical
interval equal (exactly or approximately) to half atone or one-twelfth of anoctave - noun music (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) Any of the pitches of the
chromatic scale
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the musical interval between adjacent keys on a keyboard instrument
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Because the music has been made "bitonal" by moving the accompanying piano part up two semitones (a semitone is the difference between a "natural" note and a sharp or flat).
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Because the music has been made "bitonal" by moving the accompanying piano part up two semitones (a semitone is the difference between a "natural" note and a sharp or flat).
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Because the music has been made "bitonal" by moving the accompanying piano part up two semitones (a semitone is the difference between a "natural" note and a sharp or flat).
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Because the music has been made "bitonal" by moving the accompanying piano part up two semitones (a semitone is the difference between a "natural" note and a sharp or flat).
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This possibility, whether or not avoiding a sense of tonic in either scale, is facilitated by the fact that all of the omitted tones in WT collection 1 are (naturally) 1 semitone from 2 tones in WT 2 (one above and one below), thus providing the possibility of the feeling or motivation of the half-step "pull".
Mod squad Matthew Guerrieri 2009
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The revolutionary sound is based on a system comprised of smaller divisions than a semitone.
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The revolutionary sound is based on a system comprised of smaller divisions than a semitone.
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The revolutionary sound is based on a system comprised of smaller divisions than a semitone.
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Not that there's any lack of huge, cavernous sound, and sound-effect; endless very slow, melody-free crescendos and diminuendos, uncanny thuds and knocks in the music's far distance, drones and whines and very-long-held notes that go up a semitone, stay there for a long time, and then slide back down again.
Archive 2010-02-01 Adam Roberts 2010
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Not that there's any lack of huge, cavernous sound, and sound-effect; endless very slow, melody-free crescendos and diminuendos, uncanny thuds and knocks in the music's far distance, drones and whines and very-long-held notes that go up a semitone, stay there for a long time, and then slide back down again.
Lustmord, The Place Where The Black Stars Hang (1994); Stalker (1995) Adam Roberts 2010
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